News

Parish, family are partners in faith

By Tony Staley
Compass Correspondent

ALLOUEZ -- Helping people to deepen their communion and intimacy with Christ is the core work of the church. It must be done both at home and in the parish because it can't happen in church if it's not done at home.

That was the message Bill Huebsch, a nationally known speaker, author and parish planning consultant, shared in a Generations of Disciples presentation for adults March 12 at Resurrection Parish.

Such deeper communion with Jesus comes from conversion, a turning of the heart, to accept him as our savior, Huebsch said.

"Deeper communion with Christ, sustained in the parish will lead you to turn, not toward each other, but to fix the world, to heal the world, based on a daily life of prayer, then to invite others to the same experience," said Huebsch, who has a bachelor's degree in religious studies and a master's in theological studies from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.

Such conversion re-engages people with their faith and makes it a deeper faith, a lived faith that works to establish the reign of God here on earth, said Huebsch, a former administrator in the Diocese of New Ulm, Minn.

Huebsch said Gallup has found that engaged parishioners are:

• 13 times more likely to invite someone else into the faith;
  
  
• give three times as much money;
  
  
• are three times more satisfied with life.

Families are crucial, added Huebsch. "Your children will not have faith if you don't. I don't care how many times you drop them at the door and send them into religious ed, if you don't have faith, they won't have faith. This also goes for your neighbors. If you don't have faith, they won't have faith. And if nobody gets faith, I'm going to tell you, the world is a mess."

Huebsch recommended doing two things at home:

• Spend time together, daily if possible, but at least after a big family event or Mass - away from TV and other distractions - discussing what happened and the faith experiences in them. "Ask each other: Who did we see? What did we hear? What happened? The more you do this, the more you look at the events of your life, the more you are going to see they are laced with the experience of Christ," Huebsch said.
  
  
• Have supper together without TV (for those who live alone, invite someone in) at least once a week.

"When Christ chose to leave behind a memorial of himself, what did he leave behind?" Huebsch asked. "It wasn't a church building. It wasn't a textbook. It wasn't even a Bible. It was a meal. It was supper, a simple supper. If you want to encounter the risen Lord, you've got to make supper.

"It's the most important thing. It's more important than being on committees here at the parish. If you've got too many commitments in your life, take some of them off your calendar," he added. "I am not kidding because you can not live your faith if you're not sharing meals. Supper is immediate preparation for the Eucharist."