Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Why Pews Are Packed on Easter Sunday, by Timothy Cardinal Dolan (Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York):
There’s no denying it. Many Americans no longer consider themselves members of any particular religion. They may believe in God and the power of prayer, and many say they seek “spirituality,” but more and more check “none” when asked their creed. Some of the survey findings are as dreary as that first Good Friday afternoon on a hill outside Jerusalem.
True, on Easter Sunday the pews will be jammed. Christians of wavering commitment frequently “come home” for Easter and Christmas, much as many Jews return to synagogue for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. While some of my fellow pastors might wonder out loud where these people are the other 50 Sundays of the year, or refer with mild irritation to the “birth-and-resurrection club,” I am always heartened to see them.
I do worry, though, as I note people drifting from the family of the church. Faith is deeply personal, but it isn’t private. By its nature, faith is communal. A congregation is a spiritual family. Many use that word “family” loosely to mean any group of like-minded friends, from which any member can part ways for any reason. A biological family doesn’t work like that—it’s unchosen, it’s permanent, and loyalty to it doesn’t wane with preference or mood. Members of a spiritual family likewise bear an obligation to remain a part of it.
That isn’t my opinion alone. In the Scriptures it’s clear God prefers to form a people, a community, and not simply a collection of atomized individuals. Faith must always be internalized, but it is always expressed, strengthened and lived out with others. In the ancient Near East the Lord called “a people,” the descendants of Abraham. In the first century, Jesus—in Christian teaching, that same Lord—formed the church, a people, no longer bound by race but united by his blood. …
[P]eople … tell us they want to believe but not belong; that they want faith but not religion; that they prefer spirituality, whatever that might mean, to communal worship. They seem to want God as a Father but to remain an only child; Jesus as the Good Shepherd if they’re the only lamb in the flock. They want a God by themselves, Christ without his church.
Sorry, but that isn’t how God works. …
To practice religion means very little if its practitioners are secluded from each other. Remaining true to one’s religious convictions is always a challenge. To do it all alone is nigh impossible. To do it with others is a boost.
[W]hen Christians worship at their best, their wandering brothers and sisters tend to come home.
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