Be Welcoming and Notice Others

Very Rev Fr Emery Longanga, Ph.D., VF
Holy Cross Catholic Church
Diocese of St. Petersburg

Acts 15:1 - 6
John 15: 1 - 8

Imagine you have been attending a particular church faithfully for a very long time.  Then, finally, you decide you want to be part of one of the ministries of that church.  So you go to the church's leadership to volunteer, and the first thing they ask you is: Do you attend church here?

You are going to be shocked and offended, and hurt.  You will probably change your mind about serving in that church.  Even if they catch themselves and ask how you might want to serve, you may not ever go back to that church.  It's crushing.

But, sometimes, the reaction might be very positive and welcoming, and you are welcomed into service.

Fr Longanga: "Which one is more frequent in our lives?  The first one.  Do you belong here?  That's the question.  And, that is what we heard from the first reading."

The Jewish Christians insisted that the Gentle Christians MUST be made to follow Mosaic Law.

We have the same problems in the church today when people come to us and want to join us in ministry.  We have a list of qualifications designed to keep people out.

It is one reason people stay away from the church because most people already know we are not really welcoming despite all the marketing our denominations put out.  So we subject them to our own mini inquisition.

When we come to Jesus, he says those who are well, do not need a doctor.  We come to the church because we need Jesus to show us compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.

The church is being emptied from the inside because of how we treat strangers.

(Pastor Auggie sermon's on 15 May was about hospitality.)

Jesus Christ invites us to abide by these words; to remain in Him is to always be the eyes, heart, hands, feet, the face of Jesus to others.  So that instead of judging them first, we might show them, love.  By our demonstration of the true love of Christ, their hearts will open to a relationship with Christ.

Then Jesus can begin to transform them from the inside out.

Why this blog? Why this title?

Spiritual Entanglement takes its name from Quantum Entanglement; In quantum physics, entangled particles remain connected so that actions performed on one affect the other, even when separated by great distances. This represents my belief that we are all connected on a spiritual level.

The primary purpose of this blog is to help me express the questions and in-progress answers to my own spiritual life.

I'm not going to get into my history in this top post. Instead, I will simply state that I am a devout follower of Jesus Christ, but that is only after a long love/hate relationship with the religion of Christianity, which I walked away from a couple times.