Don’t Bury Your Head in the Sand

It is a common response to stress. We avoid stressful situations. We hide from conflict in relationships. We even deny a problem when things aren’t heading in the right direction. We do this thinking things will change if only we can wait it out. We’re wrong.

The Lord said to the Jews who had come to him, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

Matthew 23.29-39

The Jews ignored the will of God for centuries. When God came in the flesh to save them from their own sins, they insisted He was a fraud. Prophet after prophet, wise sage after sage, they continued to choose ignorance to the will of God. So, God took the Church from them.

We aren’t really very different. Sure, we call ourselves Christians, but we do not live as if Christ is our Lord and King. We are no better than the Jews of old when we continue to bury our head in the sand and pretend that our lives are according to the will of God. What do we expect?

Today the Church commemorates the Prophet Zacharias, who Tradition teaches was the father of John the Baptist. He is the prophet mentioned in today’s reading, who was killed by the people of God. Should we expect anything else when we revolt against the Church?

Until we decide to take our head out of the sand, and start living according to the will of God, the same will happen to the Church. We will persecute, and even kill, our own leaders. Eventually, if we don’t change, God will take the Church from us like He took it from the Jews.

Our parishes are great at being community centers with busy activity schedules. Do the activities in our parishes encourage attendance at Church services? Many activities even take place during Church services. If you think that doesn’t hurt your priest, you’re wrong.

We can learn from today’s Gospel lesson and take our head out of the sand. We can make our parishes Churches again with just a few changes. Instead of fighting against the liturgical life of the Church with conflicting activities, gather for worship before the activity.

Being a Church doesn’t mean being in ‘the’ Church 24 hours a day. It means everything the Church does encourages liturgical life, and not just on Sundays. The Church has always had a robust worship schedule. It only changed because people stopped attending. That can change.

If there are too many activities to ‘fit’ the services in the schedule, we must reduce the activities instead of the services. Activities make us a community center. Services make us a Church. If we don’t want the Church to be taken from us by God, we must take our heads out of the sand.