Catholics in rural, urban, and suburban areas—domestic and international

I have enjoyed the robust exchange amongst MOJ participants regarding the Church and parish life in rural, urban, and suburban areas. I may be one of the few MOJ participants who has had the opportunity to serve as a priest the Church in these diverse communities in the United States, e.g., Manhattan, Long Island, Dighton MA, Bethesda MD, Washington DC, Spokane, Los Gatos CA. In response to a question which Elizabeth raised, I have also had some modest experience abroad in Rome, Jordan (where I served as a Jesuit scholastic prior to my ordination), and England where I have also served the local church. I would not want to suggest that any of these diverse communities is more authentically Catholic than some others, nor would I want to propose that Catholicism is more vibrant in any one of these places than it is in another. In all of them, I have met disciples of Christ—sons and daughters of the Church who are generous, thoughtful, and caring Christians. The challenges to practicing their faith are as diverse as their locales, but first and last they are Christians, they are Catholics who labor hard at implementing what God asks of us all. Two of this week’s Gospels (Sunday and today, Tuesday) have reminded us, through Saints Luke and Matthew, that the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few—nonetheless, the master of the harvest has sent out laborers for the harvest in all these sundry places.     RJA sj