A Place at the Table

September 28, 2013

Today I want you to picture yourself at the door of the Church and imagine yourself unable to enter because the doors are locked. You think to yourself today is Sunday the doors must be open… you see lights on but you cannot get in… how would you feel? You hear the singing and rejoicing but you cannot enter. Would you feel unwelcome? What if the doors were open and you came in and felt like an outsider? You want to participate in parish life and worship but are not able to?
The Vatican II Council calls for Catholics to actively participate in worship and parish life. In the last fifty years or so we have made great strides at making Churches accessible to those in wheelchairs, walkers and canes. We have invited persons with disabilities into the Church but have not made it easy for persons with impairments to actively participate in the life of the Church. We ALL suffer from impairments or disabilities whether temporary or permanent. How would you feel if everyone but you were invited to a parish party but you knew your wheelchair or bad knees would not make it down a few steps to where the celebration was going on?

I have been blessed to have had many conversations with those parishioners who are impaired. I have been impressed by their spirit and desire to participate in ministry. Each of us has gifts and by virtue of our Baptism we are called upon to use these gifts in the ministry of the Lord. I would like us as a collaborative to begin praying for ways we can journey in faith with our brothers and sisters who are deaf, blind, impaired, in wheelchairs, use canes or crutches and those who are homebound but still desire to share a place at the Table of the Lord with us at Sunday Eucharist and parish ministry. I look forward to seeing the fruits of our prayer as all of us come together to forge this new journey in faith. —God Bless, Holly Clark