Why should I belong to a parish?

"So you know these clowns or what?" asked the owner of the pizza place. My wife and I had walked up to La Villa's to pick up a pizza last night, and we ran into a group of boys from the neighborhood. They were working there, delivering orders. My wife had taught them at our parish school and our daughters knew them growing up. We had a few laughs while waiting for our order, and the owner of the restaurant chimed in with his question.

"Sure, they're great guys, Tom," answered my wife.

"So if I got a problem with them I can call on you?" he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"You won't have any problems, but sure thing, we'll stand by 'em," I said. We all laughed, and as we left, Michael Marino, sliding into his car with a load of hot pizzas to deliver, called out, "That's what I love about St. Viator's Parish. Everybody knows everybody."

One benefit of belonging to a parish is the sense of community you can gain. Our highly mobile society limits people's sense of belonging, and many people feel cut off from their neighbors. Community is one of God's most precious gifts to us. Jesus came so that "all may be one," and though parishes have their share of dissension and discord, they also have their moments where we get a foretaste of that unity Jesus came to proclaim. A parish can be the place where at least a lot of people know your name.

There are other good reasons to belong to a parish. But since truly belonging, as opposed to dropping in anonymously now and then, takes energy and time (two commodities in short supply among families), you need to make a conscious decision to belong. Here are just a few additional reasons I think it's worth your effort.

YOU'RE MORE LIKELY TO BE TRUE TO YOUR SELF. Religious educator James DeBoy warns, "If you don't live what you believe, you soon come to believe what you live." We may say we believe in the way of Jesus, but if all our time is spent without any connection to his followers or to the sacraments, that belief will weaken over time.

BELONGING WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER YOU. "We all live up to the groups we belong to," reports moral theologian Timothy O'Connell. "If the group says, 'We don't lie,' it's likely I will tell the truth. If the group says, 'We care about the poor,' odds are I will care about the poor."

MAKE SENSE OF YOUR WHOLE LIFE -- AND BEYOND. The church has wisdom to share about living, from cradle to grave and into eternal life. Flying solo might be fine when everything's going your way, but what do you do when you hit life's inevitable bumps? Why not tap into that wisdom all along the way? And, especially, why not provide that for your children now, so it accompanies them all the days of their lives?