There is always a temptation to try to be better, to compete with others. Unfortunately, we can notice this slight competition even among our Catholic parishes. Sometimes when I talk with a parishioner, they might say that another parish in our neighborhood has a better and larger religious program, and we should do something to increase our program and enrollment. Or, in that another parish they had a very well attended Lenten mission, so we must do even better with that. Or, that we should be proud of our music and liturgy because is much better than in other churches. Well, nothing wrong with comparing our parishes to others. But not to compete, and not to try to see which is better, but to learn from each other. We should always be happy and proud whenever another parish is growing, succeeding and bringing more people to Jesus. This our global mission. I think the disciples of Jesus had a similar problem when they approached Him and said: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” But Jesus stopped them from doing that - “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my namewho can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”
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