Creating Access and Inclusion in Worship

HOMILY HELPS FOR INCLUSION AWARENESS DAY
By Reverend Larry Gillick, S.J.

STORY STARTER:

When I was eight years old, I was given the gift of blindness. In those early years it did not really feel like any kind of gift. I had to learn my neighborhood's holes, bumps and sidewalks. I had to learn my way around the house as well. Repetition of steps made things familiar.

In those days I could walk to Sunday Mass by myself, but getting around the church was very hard. I would get there early so as to find an empty pew. During Mass I would not always know whether people were standing kneeling or sitting. Going to the communion rail was difficult because I didn't know whether the people ahead of me had left after receiving. Then the really hard part was to try to find my way back to the right pew. Those were the early years before I learned cane travel. Blindness made me feel like there was something wrong with me and I felt everybody in church felt the same way about me. Being different was not a blessing for me nor for the Church.

How time does change things! Twenty-four years later I was ordained a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest and had my first Mass back in the St. Rose church of my youth. There were physical changes around the altar by then, but the pews, which once tortured my emotions, were filled with family and friends, all of whom had been such helps to get me to that altar on that June day. I had clear memories of a less welcoming church community and of the obstacles of pillars, steps and pew corners which were so frightening then. They were still there and I wondered how many people with physical challenges had faced those barriers and had turned away from the Church as a result.

REFLECTION ON THE SCRIPTURES:

In today's Gospel we hear of two contrary responses from the sons of a farming father. The little parable is about God's being the 'Constant Inviter' and our 'yes-again' 'no-again' responses to His invitations.

Jesus was quite a different presentation of God's relationship with Israel. Most people could not respond to Him and His ways because they were uncomfortable with anyone unusual, as we are in our own times.

When we say 'Amen' to our reception of the Eucharist, that word flows easily from our lips. As with the son who said 'yes', but did not go, we are tempted to say 'yes' but take no action. We need to personally invite parishioners with disabilities to participate and to provide the accommodations needed to make their participation possible.

Parishioners with disabilities may be tempted themselves to say ?no? to God?s invitation to participate. They may feel too limited, too much of a bother, not good enough for taking their place in the Church. They need encouragement from the community to turn their 'no' into 'ability', their 'disability' into 'nobility'. We who have physical or emotional challenges can be barriers to our own selves. We have to say 'yes' to the truth of our limitations; that?s our prayer-work. The Church and the local communities have their work to do as well. They must remove physical barriers and overcome personal barriers of attitude and accept into our communities parishioners who, like Jesus, are different and yet a presence of Grace.

We all are invited to say 'yes' and live 'yes' to the invitation to come forward and receive the Eucharist. Our 'yes' includes receiving the entire Body of Christ.

Father Larry Gillick, S.J. is the Director of the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Creighton University. In addition he offers spiritual direction to students, faculty and alumni of Creighton University and directs retreats and days of reflection around the country.