Much has been written recently regarding the Diocese of Buffalo’s plan for “re-sizing” and restructuring the families of parishes within the Diocese.

Some of these articles were well reasoned and thought-provoking; others were disjointed and emotionally based. All have a place in the conversation and should be respectfully considered as this difficult time needs both reason and passion.

For some, the Catholic Church has always been in turmoil. Perhaps we in the Diocese of Buffalo are just now feeling the discomfort, or “storms,” others have faced for years. It is in times like these that we must rely on our Faith and focus on what we believe. Sunday’s Gospel of June 23rd (Mark 4:35-41) should have brought that home to us. In that boat on stormy seas, Jesus has everything under control; He’s sleeping, while His disciples are fearing for their lives. Are we not in a similar boat today? The storm is pounding us on all sides- closing parishes, a lack of money, losing parishioners, fewer baptisms and marriages. It goes on and on. Yet, do you think Jesus is concerned, you of little faith?

Sister Joan Chittister is a Benedictine Nun who lives in Erie, Pa. An author and lecturer, Sr. Joan is kind of a free spirit, a rebel, if you will, who always seems to provide a worthwhile perspective on life. Her newsletter (visionviewpoint@benetvision.org) this week, combined with Mark’s Gospel, seems to clarify the current dilemma in our diocese. These are quotes from her book Called To Question: A Spiritual Memoir (Sheed & Ward) in which she urges us grow “out of spiritual infancy into spiritual adulthood. Out of adoration of the church, into worship of the God whom this tradition had made accessible to me. To understand the value of the church, ironically, I had to understand its limitations. To worship God I had to stop worshiping the things of God.”

Fr. David Tourville, Pastor of the Chautauqua Family of Catholic Churches, urges us to concentrate on the building (noun, not verb) of our heart, not physical structures to which we may be attached. Again, to quote Sr. Joan: “We are steeped in God, but it takes so long to realize that the God we make in our own image is too small a God on which to base our lives. God is the energy of the universe, the light in every soul, the eternal kaleidoscope of possibility that surrounds us in nature. The face of God is imprinted on the face of everyone we see. God is no one of them, and God is more than all of them, but without them, we miss all the tiny glimpses of God we’re given along the way.”

The storm may continue to rage around us, but if we can see God’s mercy, feel God’s love and hear God’s voice it is always in people, not buildings, in others, not places.

We need to become the church we were meant to be, functioning in the present, not a religion that mirrors the past. After all, Jesus is sleeping in our boat, too.

James A. Crolle is a Westfield resident.