I was a lapsed Catholic once. I went through my late teens and early twenties chasing fulfilment in fleeting things. I was always surprised when my efforts came up short, and I thought that the secret must be in a meaningful, committed romantic relationship. I was hungry for love.
I spent time in clubs and bars looking for the “one” girl. When a friend invited me to a Catholic youth event, I went because he promised I would meet girls (he knew how to reel me in…). I didn’t realize I would find what I was longing for in an encounter with the love of God and that the whole focus of my life would be shifted.
Where would my life be without that invitation? I hesitate to even wonder. I would have never taken the initiative to step back into my faith. I needed someone to help bring me in.
For a while, Catholic circles were about creating a "culture of welcome” in our Catholic parishes. Unfortunately, welcome is not always enough.
Welcome presumes that people are taking the initiative to walk into a church themselves but most people aren’t willing or ready to step in by themselves.
I had experienced church before but I didn’t see what it had to offer me. I would have never walked through those doors unless someone reached out to me and brought me in.
It’s the same for so many young people today. Long gone are the days when people would seek out the nearest Catholic Church and make it their home. In fact, 59% of people who grow up Chrisitan make a decision to leave it behind for an extended period or permanently after the age of 15. For younger generations, the ties that bind them to the faith of their upbringing are more tenuous than ever before.
We need to go beyond a “culture of welcome”; we need to create a radically invitational culture. We need to personally invite people.
In this time of radical change in religious practice there lay an opportunity. People may not perceive the relevance of Catholic Christianity to their lives, but they can perceive that there is something missing in their lives.
What was missing in my life back then? If you had asked me then, I would have said, relationship. I thought that happiness meant finding “the one” but I didn’t know “the one” my heart was longing for was actually Jesus. I was looking in the wrong places to find Him.
I believe that everyone out there is on some level aware that something is missing in their life. They need to be invited to consider whether the thing their missing is a relationship with their creator. And if invited (and maybe more than once), they might say yes!
Imagine expecting to fill a wedding with people by making the wedding “welcoming,” instead of sending out invitations. How would the guests know it was welcoming, let alone happening, without being invited?
Rather, Jesus uses the same analogy of a master preparing a great banquet (i.e. welcome), commanding widespread invitation.
`Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.' (Luke 14:21)
The master shows a desperation to receive people to his banquet. He is desperate for us.
The question is, will we help him fill his banquet by inviting the guests he is desperate to receive?
If you want to hear all of Josh’s story, you can find it here.
