Why does nobody at my church seem to care about me?

Being in the church is what you give, not what you receive. See, we by nature, as people in our fallen life and our ethos, we very much want to take. It's our inherent kind of selfishness. And we love me, me. So many people go, you know, Father, I just want to feel loved. I want to feel like somebody loves me. The first question is always what? Who do you love? If you love a hundred people, I guarantee you you'll get at least eighty percent love back. Probably not going to get a hundred. But the more that you give out is always how you get back. You don't get by taking. You get by giving. Christ says, I came to serve, not to be served. And I've heard it from people who said, you know, I just didn't feel like people at the church reached out to me or were friendly enough. I'm like, Lord have mercy, this is like the friendliest church I've ever been to, but I'll take it. But then my next thought is, I'm like, how many people did you welcome? How many people did you introduce yourself to? How much effort did you put into it? How much did you give? Because I can guarantee you, as a priest, I've seen it in my own life: the more that I give to the church, the more I get back. You know, it's like when people say, Father, why do you tithe to the church, or do you tithe? I always answer and say, yes. Why? Because I'm a member of the church also. It's also my responsibility. My family goes here. My children go here. This is our church family. I may fulfill the role of the priest in the community, but I still have to give to the community. It's not about taking. So often people want to get something from church. They want to come. They want to show up. They want everything to be beautiful. The choir, the chanting, this, that, everything to be put in place, all the vestments. But they never show up and participate in any of those things. Never. I can tell you, if you're coming to the church to get something, you have to give something, if you really want. And it's the funniest thing that I've seen over all the years. A lot of times in a lot of parishes it's the elderly people who are still in the faith and still in the church. But then when you talk to them and you see what they do, you'll have some lady in her seventies who will have more output than three guys in their twenties. She'll give more to the church. She'll bake. She'll cook. She'll clean, with no fanfare, nobody even knowing about it, never boasting or bragging or telling anybody or expecting anything in return. To just be a humble servant to the church is to be a humble servant of Jesus Christ.