A Reflection for the Thursday of the Third Week of Advent (Optional Memorial of Saint Peter Canisius, priest and doctor of the Church)
Find today’s readings here.
“Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father” (Mt 5:16).
I heard the burst of laughter and cheering before I saw the neon shirts. I was walking sulkily around the three-mile perimeter of Prospect Park in Brooklyn in February, walking (not running) because I was sick, and outside (not in my bed) because I’m not very good at resting. I sped up my pace so I could read the bold, purple text on the bright yellow shirts: “Achilles International.”
Curious about this group of runners who were certainly having more fun than me, I took to Google and learned Achilles is a group that pairs running guides with adults and children with intellectual and physical disabilities. I’ve been running with the kids in the park most Thursday evenings since. No matter how I feel at the start of the run, I always end the loop grateful and in lighter spirits.
Achilles guides wear neon yellow for a practical reason: Sometimes we are running after dark. It also happens to be a great advertisement. The laughter, though, is what really hooked me.
Today, where is the church so joyful and easy to spot? Plenty of places, I’m sure. But too often, what we advertise are the places of decline and division. We Catholics are well-trained in discussing what is wrong with our church: long, boring homilies, bureaucratic hurdles to the sacraments, bitter debates on social media, empty pews. No wonder they’re empty if that’s what people think we have on offer!
Sometimes this may come from genuine humility. But today’s readings remind us that there is a difference between bragging and letting your good deeds or bright spots in the life of the church “shine before others.”
Just this week, my colleague Joe Hoover, S.J., told me about a lively family Mass he’s been attending in Lower Manhattan. Each Sunday, the priest calls the kids up for a special blessing. “I counted,” Joe said, “95 kids last week!” How wonderful is that?
I’m not saying we need more neon in our Catholic churches (though this is a thing in Vietnam, and it looks pretty awesome), but if more people heard laughter bursting forth from our open doors, they might just be curious enough to step inside.
