Someone asked me recently if I am worried about the fact that some people do not want St. George parish to build on the land that we are wanting to purchase. I told him first, that Catholics have had people against them since the day of Pentecost when the Church came into being; nothing new, been there, done that. Then, second, I told him that in the long run it does not matter what people think about us as long as we are faithful. And finally, I told him that we are not called by God to build a church; we are called by God to obey Him.
It certainly seems like, in order to be faithful, that we must build something larger than we have right now. This is because we are really getting squished in our little building. We want to be able to minister to everyone that God sends to St. George, and we must have space to be able to do that. I think, however, about what the early Church did. They did not have big buildings for centuries; they met and had Mass in wealthy parishioners' homes (but those homes still were not the size of our massive churches that we build today), and God took care of them through it all.
How much can we endure at St. George? We can endure everything God gives to us, because He also gives us the means to endure. Does that mean we might have to squeeze a bit more tightly in the pews for a while longer? Yes, that is likely, but I would rather have to squeeze and pull out a few more chairs in the back than not to have a building at all (and some day our children will look back on these days and appreciate our faithfulness). It is our goal to serve God, and to glorify Him with whatever building we have; large or small. As St. Theresa of Calcutta was reported to have said: "God never commanded me to succeed at what I do. He commanded me to be faithful in what I do." Yes, and Amen.