Christmas Eve started out as many others in recent
years. Long gone are the days when our
family was all together. Two of our
three children never make it home for Christmas anymore. Our youngest lives nearby, but has no
children, so our house is now quiet at Christmas time. My wife plays the organ at the Christmas Eve
vigil Mass and then we go to my sister’s house for dinner with a few friends
and relatives. Afterwards, we go home,
exchange gifts and get ready to go back to church for Midnight Mass.
My wife and daughter begin asking me what I want for
Christmas around Thanksgiving, and the answer is something money can’t buy. This year, I got a can popcorn, crescent
wrench, a few books, some shirts and a pair of jeans with a button fly that my
wife ordered by mistake. After all the
gifts were opened, I cleaned up the wrapping paper and had few minutes to kill
before heading off to Mass. The best
gift was a surprise yet to come.
As most of us do these days, I grabbed the laptop to look at
the many Christmas greetings from friends on social media. There was also an email directed to a parish
address that I monitor from a name I did not recognize. The message was from a woman who said she and
her husband were members of a nearby non-denominational church. They had become concerned about how so many
non-Catholic churches had “bent to the ways of the world” as she put it. Her husband has been researching Catholicism
and wanted to know the process should one decide to become Catholic.
What a wonderful message to receive right before Midnight
Mass on Christmas Eve. I replied
immediately with those words, along with contact information so we could get
together. We have been in frequent
contact ever since. I have given them
some books and audio CDs. Questions have
been coming in steadily, and I have provided answers and tracts. Soon, we will begin weekly meetings.
Curiously, other non-Catholics have recently connected to us
on social media. With the recent
announcement that the United Methodist church was splitting over disagreement
on same-sex marriage, might there be a connection? While a split may be the
best option for the UM leadership, I wonder how that will play out on the
local level when the United Methodist Church is no longer united. Perhaps we will have more faithful Christians
seeking firmer ground. As Catholics, we
need to keep our doors open. We have the
room.
