“How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:23)! Jesus asked hard things of his followers (and keeps asking), but the consistent message is: spend yourself to feed the poor.

Sometimes we wonder what on earth that has to do with music ministry. My goodness, aren’t we doing enough already? Who else spends hours every week rehearsing? Who else spends extra time preparing to be a cantor for the weekend? Who else goes to more than one Mass on Christmas Eve and maybe shows up on Christmas morning, too? Who else does more for the glory of God?

Folks, that’s not the point. What we do for our communities does take real commitment, enhancing the liturgy as little else can.

But how are we feeding the poor?

Does the music ministry show up to sing for funerals, even if they’re likely to outnumber the mourners? Do the members volunteer at the soup kitchen, where the hungry stand in line? If the parish houses the homeless during harsh winter, do we volunteer to help? Can we work up a repertoire of older hymns and singalong songs for a nursing home visit?

Or are we only serving our (relatively) affluent community? As challenging and rewarding as that is, it’s not enough. Jesus said so. So it’s probably a good idea to look very carefully at our priorities and make sure that we’re not neglecting those whom Jesus loved most.