THE GOSPEL IN THE NEW AREOPAGUS

It’s a scary kind of thing for me, to see myself on our parish’s website engaged in the daily Mass Liturgy of the Word, or in Bible study sessions, or our Lenten Stations of the Cross. But that is exactly what I can do, now that these things are being posted. We haven’t yet brought up a full Sunday Eucharist, but that’s also coming.



What’s the prime motivation for this? From the point of view of the person most responsible for this A/V project, it is to give our home-bound folks who have a computer some access to their own parish—so that they can feel a little bit more a part of the life of Our Savior even when they cannot get to church.


There is a secondary motivation, as well: by placing these moments from daily Mass also on YouTube, we hope that a word will get out to a broader audience than the 40-50 people who can make it to 8:30 am Mass here. People these days depend more and more on things like YouTube or Facebook or blogs or Twitter; if this is where they are, then the Gospel needs to be preached there, as well as in church. This is the message of Pope Benedict in his encouragement to use all the means of social communication available to bring Jesus Christ to the world.


Should I (or any priest) feel self-conscious or embarrassed about putting myself “out there” in this way? Well, it is scary, as I said above. But if I am not willing, perhaps I should not be willing to stand at the ambo to preach to a congregation of a few hundred on Sunday, either. If we priests do one, we should be willing to do the other.


So for now this is definitely a fledgling affair. Will it grow? Will it take off? In God’s time, with God’s grace, perhaps—but at least it’s out there. Who knows who just might stumble upon it while doing a search for something else, see it, like it, and perhaps find their way back to Christ? If a cup of cold water given will not fail to receive its reward (Mark 9:41), perhaps a YouTube clip might be the same…