Don't overly stress and protect 'your territory'

Op bezoek bij de Living Stones

Woens­dag 22 mei bezocht ik de "Living Stones" in Am­ster­dam. Deze groep jon­ge­ren uit ver­schil­lende lan­den or­ga­ni­seert trai­ning in ker­ke­lijke kunst en ont­vangt toe­risten in de Krijt­berg (Fran­cis­cus Xaverius) met het aanbod van een ver­die­pende rond­lei­ding en gesprek.

De mooie en­thou­siaste groep had ik al eer­der bezocht, maar de meeste jon­ge­ren waren nu weer nieuw voor me. Het zijn meestal stu­den­ten die dit mooie apos­to­laat als een tussenfase in hun leven doen. Ze wonen in een huis naast de Krijt­berg, dat hun door de Jezuïeten ter beschik­king is gesteld en ze vormen een mooie bezielende aanwe­zig­heid in de kerk. Dat mocht ik zelf ook nog even ervaren: één van hen speelde mooie en gepaste klassieke muziek, dat schiep een sfeer waardoor mensen in de kerk gingen zitten, tot over­we­ging en gebed kwamen, terwijl bij de ingang van de kerk "Living Stones" aanwe­zig waren om bezoekers op te vangen en indien gewenst te be­ge­lei­den. Een mooi ini­tia­tief en ze zou­den hun idealen graag met andere jon­ge­ren willen delen.

Na gebed in de kerk, vier­den we de Eucha­ris­tie, ze lieten me het huis zien en we hebben samen gegeten.

Gospel

Het evan­ge­lie van de Mis was Marcus 9, 38-40: John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man cas­ting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not follo­wing us." But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us.

Homily

Don't be too protective

A temptation

There is always the temptation to want to protect our own territory in the church: this is my job, my work, no one else should touch it. One lady was taking care of the flowers, but she did not allow anyone to touch what she consi­dered as her field. Of course, sometimes there can be good reasons for something like this, but more often there is no good reason: people want to be lords of their own homes, masters of their own territory and they don’t want to share.

The apostles

Even the apostles sometimes suffered from this temptation as we hear in this day's gospel: although of course cas­ting out the evil spirit, evil power, demons, is something good and highly praiseworthy, the apostles still want to forbid someone to do that who does not belong to their group, instead of welco­ming, invi­ting and accompanying.

Don't forget what it is about

So, this attitude is found within the church as well (and in fact, wherever you go...). In parishes, I sometimes come across volun­teers wan­ting to protect their own territory: nobody else is allowed to participate, it belongs to them! In doing so, they have actually somewhat forgotten that it was a service they were provi­ding, a service to the community, a service to God.

Rejection of "others"

We also see this attitude, for example, when people turn against certain cha­risms within the church: that one is Neo­ca­te­chu­me­nal and I don’t like that, that one is from Opus Dei and I don’t like that, that one is cha­rismatic and I don’t like that, etcetera, and I don't want have anything to do with that, I don’t allow them.

Respect the holy Spirit

But our attitude should be: as long as the good happens, let us respect the wor­king of the Holy Spirit, let us respect every vocation, let us be welco­ming even if it is different from our vocation as long as it is a cha­rism ac­cep­ted by the Church. And in the field of human relations: let us help people to take steps, invite them, not rebu­king them.

Share

What is important is that we find an openness in people to share, to spiritual growth and unity in faith and that there is a sense of communio, a connection which can bring people to experience the communion of the body of Christ. But beyond that, let us respectfully approach everything and everyone and help them to share and to experience the spiritual richness of the church and the love of God.

Living Stones

This positive and welco­ming attitude is of course a characte­ristic of you as Living Stones. You are welco­ming people whoever they are, telling them about the beauty of our churches, the beauty of art and of our faith. May your apostolate through this welco­ming attitude and the beauty of our churches help many people to discover and love Jesus Christ and His Church !