April 10, 2009
Oyaya
Are you among the invisible? It’s time to be seen
BY STEVE DABROWSKI (Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry)
I am invisible.
H.G. Wells did not create me, and neither Kevin Bacon nor Claude Rains have ever portrayed my life in film, and yet I am invisible all the same. And I am not alone.
I am a single, never-married Catholic, and I have no children. Quick, name something your parish does to minister to someone like me. Okay, that’s not fair: I’ll check Facebook and give you another minute.
I’m back. Think of anything yet? Yeah, I didn’t think so. By the way, all the invisible people who sit around you at Mass on Sunday are chuckling right now. Worse yet, there are even more who have just given up on Mass altogether. You may just have realized what we young, single Catholics know as a painful reality: We are invisible.
Not long ago, I had a conversation with twenty-something, non-married and forty-something, married with young-children friends of mine. Both were complaining about how they felt that their only real connection to their parish was Sunday Mass. Neither had any sense of belonging; neither were able to name a way that their parish reached out to their peers. Both are faith-filled, and both work for the Church in different capacities, but neither experienced being part of a community.
We celebrate this weekend the greatest love story ever told, and it, too, began with invisibility. Those in power expected the Messiah to be a great military leader who would deliver Israel from bondage, but that was not God’s plan. Instead, Jesus’ whole life was spent as being largely invisible to those who were awaiting His arrival. His passion, death and resurrection served as a wake-up call, and locked in the Upper Room, the Apostles finally recognized Him for who He was. The One who was in their presence all along was finally seen in his glory, and that changed the world and began the Church.
This weekend, as you gather for Mass, you will be surrounded by people you do not recognize. Some will be the “C & E” Catholics there for their bi-annual trip to Mass. Others will be the young adults of your parish who have been invisible to you. The holidays are often quite difficult for the invisible among us, so try hard to see them.
A few parishes, Holy Rosary for example, have recently begun Young Adult groups, and others are in the fact-finding stages of how best to do this. Are you among the invisible? If so, I need you to write me. Yes, I know, there is a great risk that you’ll no longer be invisible once you do, but I ask you to have courage. Send me an e-mail, or give me a call at the Catholic Center; let me know your ideas to help single Catholics without children and/or with non-school-age children get involved in their parishes and the larger Church. I plan on conducting meetings at local restaurants in coming weeks, and I am open to all suggestions. The time for being invisible is over: We need the gifts that you bring to the Church.
Let me add here an apology: I am sorry that you have been made invisible; I lament that so many talented people have slipped through the cracks — some out of the Church altogether. I am sorry, and I promise to bring you and your life back into view. You are the Church, and you are important.
H.G. Wells did not create us, and neither Kevin Bacon nor Claude Rains have ever portrayed our lives in film: It’s time for invisibility to become . . . invisible.