David Ancell / Thursday June 19, 2014
A couple of weeks ago, my family and I were on vacation visiting family. As we always like to do when we visit this city, we took a walk through the attractive/upscale shopping and dining area. It’s just a beautiful place to take a walk. This time, I noticed something I didn’t remember seeing before.
Down one street I found the Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist. Across the street from there was a Unity Temple. The Christian Scientists were a sect founded by a woman named Mary Baker Eddy based on some supposed insight on healing. They are the ones who don’t believe in the use of medicine. The Unity Temple is some kind of church that seeks a “unity” and “peace and harmony” that doesn’t appear to be based on anything but just letting people believe whatever they believe. Their web site, which I won’t link to here, has as a principle that we create our life experience through our own thoughts.
From that location, I decided to search for the nearest Catholic Church. This would be a place that could really use a place to encounter our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. To my dismay, I found that the nearest Catholic Church was the Cathedral four miles away. It’s not too far, but it’s not too close either. So, I had to ask, where are we?
Why aren’t we there? It just reminded me more that we need to be where the people are, trying in whatever way we can to bring people to an encounter with Our Lord. If someone doesn’t help feed the hungry, they will seek whatever food they can find. Sadly, that food will never satisfy like the fullness of truth. Just imagine if there were a church or chapel there where people could stop and pray in the presence of the Eucharist. Maybe they could go to Confession and be reconciled with God. We could even leave some materials where interested people could discover the Catholic faith.
One place where evangelization is badly needed is simply among where ordinary activity of people takes place. We should be there, not to try to shove something down their throats, but to engage them, inform them, and ultimately challenge them to explore the truth. If other groups are there, why aren’t we?
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