My neighborhood parish is sponsoring a house or two for Rebuilding Together, an organization that works to address health and safety issues in the houses of low-income homeowners. The parish group has been together for several years now. They used to operate under the organization of Christmas in October with the Kansas City branch of Rebuilding Together. But over the last few years, they’ve decided that they were large enough and stable enough that with the cooperation of some other large Christmas in October groups, they could start a new chapter of the organization in Shawnee, Kansas and the larger Johnson County area. My folks have been on the Christmas in October team for several years now, and usually help run 2 or 3 houses at the same time.

Usually they do a fundraiser selling sodas and water at the Old Shawnee Days concerts, but Old Shawnee Days has new leadership this year and the word came through the grapevine that the Christmas in October/Rebuilding Together group would lose the longstanding fundraiser and were on their own to find another source of funds. This year, they decided to do a taco dinner on Cinco de Mayo at the parish. Unfortunately, they didn’t reserve the church basement in time to get the weekend before May Fifth, so this year, they’re throwing a Diez de Mayo taco dinner instead.

I have a broad history in the hospitality industry, having worked for a NUMBER of bars, restaurants and hotels in my working days. So they asked my lovely wife and I if we could join the committee and help with planning the dinner. We agreed—the Lord’s work needs time and talent, not just treasure, right?

Well gentle reader, I’ve decided that I don’t do very well in committees. I’m just not very good at it. The problem is that I’m realizing that I’m a headstrong person with definite ideas on how to do stuff; and I don’t tolerate input very well on subjects that I think I’ve got all figured out. No one does, I know. That’s not the point. I guess my point is this: why ask people to be on a committee if you don’t want to listen to their input? If you just need bodies to cut tomatoes and brown the ground beef, then you don’t need a big planning committee. You just need volunteers on the day of the event.

In a way, I think this self-realization came just in time.

The parish bulletin has been running an announcement that the parish will elect three members to the Pastoral Council, the advisory committee to the church for “liturgy, social concerns, social activities, and church properties”. While I could have some good input for all of these topics, lately I’ve been mostly interested in the liturgy of the parish. The biggest problem is that liturgy isn’t the kind of thing that is decided by a committee—at least not in the strictest understanding of Catholic liturgy. Of course, in the real world it is a function of committee. But the Church puts a lot of ink in a lot of books to specifically deal with the liturgy of the Holy Mass. Very little of that ink suggests that Catholicism should be handled by parliamentary procedure.

Which makes me want, all the more, to be on the Pastoral Council—because someone ought to get in there and set ‘em straight, right?

I don’t think I’d get along well on the Pastoral Council. I don’t work well in committees, especially ones where I already have my mind made up. Furthermore, I’d bet that most people make it onto Pastoral Councils because they already have their minds made up. I wonder how much consultation goes on in their advisory role, anyway. And when it comes to things like suggesting a different Music hymnal or digging the cœnopæum tabernacle veil out of storage or gauging interest in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, I’d probably not get a lot of support from the Council—even if I could get elected to the Council in the first place. These aren’t usually things that people are interested in discussing in committees. Truthfully, I don’t think I’m interested in a committee’s opinion on the subject, either.

There’s a lot to be liked about my round spaceship parish. A lot indeed! They have a good, well-balanced congregation, they’re active at doing the works of Christ, and they regularly place among the top of the large parishes in their support to the Archdiocese and her ministries. Please don’t get me wrong. I like it there, I even registered outside of my parish boundaries to join them. But, like so many things and people we love, I love the parish in spite of the areas where it falls short.

But for the time being, I think I’m going to stay out of the committees. No, I think I’d rather make salsa, swing hammers and print t-shirts for the parish than get on any more committees. Volunteer, yes; committees, no. Sometimes I think they’re a particularly cruel form of penance. And I’ve had enough.

Have Mercy!