Category: Deep Church Thoughts

[As always, you can see the whole Mass here, or just the homily here. ]

Good Shepherd Sunday, 2021,

     The Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday” since the readings in each cycle have Jesus describing himself as the Good Shepherd. It is also a time when we focus on the special ministry of pastors in the Church. In fact, the word for shepherd in Latin is “pastor.” 

Of course, you know the description of the perfect pastor? Here is a chain letter/email that’s been going around for some time:

===============

The Perfect Pastor

     The Perfect Pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes. He condemns sin roundly, but never hurts anyone’s feelings. He works from 8 a.m. until midnight, and is also the church janitor.

     The Perfect Pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church. He is 29 years old and has 40 years’ worth of experience. Above all, he is handsome.

     The Perfect Pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of his time with the senior citizens. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church. He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed.

     The Perfect Pastor always has time for parish meetings and all of its committees, never missing the meeting of any church organization. And he is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.

     The Perfect Pastor is always in the neighboring parish!

     If your pastor does not measure up, simply send this notice to six other churches that are tired of their pastor too. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of your list. If everyone cooperates, in one week you will receive 1,643 pastors. One of them should be perfect.

     Have faith in this letter. One church broke the chain and got its’ old pastor back in less than three months.

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Christ is the Good Shepherd, but how does this ministry of Shepherd play out in the life of the Church? While the Archbishop is the chief shepherd of the Archdiocese, each parish within the Archdiocese is entrusted to a priest as its proper pastor. (Can. 515 §1). He exercises the pastoral care of the community entrusted to him…so that for the community he may carry out the offices of teaching, sanctifying and ruling (administration) with the cooperation of other priests or deacons and with the assistance of the lay members of Christ’s faithful…” (See Can. 519.)

Okay, great.  But what does a pastor actually do? 

As the staff and the various committees in the parish will tell you, every staff position, every ministry gets a job description. In the biz, we call it the “Position Description and Expected Results Statement.” 

So where is the pastor’s job description?  It’s quite Canons 528-530.

Can. 528 §1 The parish priest has the obligation of ensuring that the word of God is proclaimed in its entirety to those living in the parish. He is therefore to see to it that the lay members of Christ‘s faithful are instructed in the truths of faith, especially by means of the homily on Sundays and holydays of obligation and by catechetical formation. He is to foster works which promote the spirit of the Gospel, including its relevance to social justice. He is to have a special care for the Catholic education of children and young people. With the collaboration of the faithful, he is to make every effort to bring the gospel message to those also who have given up religious practice or who do not profess the true faith.

§2 The parish priest is to take care that the blessed Eucharist is the center of the parish assembly of the faithful. He is to strive to ensure that the faithful are nourished by the devout celebration of the sacraments, and in particular that they frequently approach the sacraments of the blessed Eucharist and penance. He is to strive to lead them to prayer, including prayer in their families, and to take a live and active part in the sacred liturgy. Under the authority of the diocesan Bishop, the parish priest must direct this liturgy in his own parish, and he is bound to be on guard against abuses.

Can. 529 §1 So that he may fulfil his office of pastor diligently, the parish priest is to strive to know the faithful entrusted to his care. He is therefore to visit their families, sharing in their cares and anxieties and, in a special way, their sorrows, comforting them in the Lord. If in certain matters they are found wanting, he is prudently to correct them. He is to help the sick and especially the dying in great charity, solicitiously restoring them with the sacraments and commending their souls to God. He is to be especially diligent in seeking out the poor, the suffering, the lonely, those who are exiled from their homeland, and those burdened with special difficulties. He is to strive also to ensure that spouses and parents are sustained in the fulfilment of their proper duties, and to foster the growth of christian life in the family.

§2 The parish priest is to recognise and promote the specific role which the lay members of Christ‘s faithful have in the mission of the Church, fostering their associations which have religious purposes. He is to cooperate with his proper Bishop and with the presbyterium of the diocese. Moreover, he is to endeavour to ensure that the faithful are concerned for the community of the parish, that they feel themselves to be members both of the diocese and of the universal Church, and that they take part in and sustain works which promote this community.

Can. 530 The functions especially entrusted to the parish priest are as follows:

1° the administration of baptism;

2° the administration of the sacrament of confirmation to those in danger of death, in accordance with can. 883, n. 3;

3° the administration of Viaticum and of the anointing of the sick, without prejudice to can. 1003 §§2 and 3, and the imparting of the apostolic blessing;

4° the assistance at marriages and the nuptial blessing;

5° the conducting of funerals;

6° the blessing of the baptismal font at paschal time, the conduct of processions outside the church, and the giving of solemn blessings outside the church;

7° the more solemn celebration of the Eucharist on Sundays and holydays of obligation.

       Does this sound like the description of the Perfect Pastor I read to you at the beginning of the homily?  More to the point, is it even possible for one man to do everything described in Canons 528-530?  The answer of course, is no.  He is not expected to do all this himself.  But he does have the sacred responsibility of seeing that all these things are being done by those members of the faithful who have been invited, trained, supported and thanked as they engage in their respective liturgical, catechetical and evangelical ministries in the parish.  

       Having been a pastor for many many years, I find the ministry of pastor is best exercised in a manner similar to that of the conductor of a great symphony orchestra. Everyone has their part to play, but there is need for one to guide the life of the parish so that everything happens harmoniously and in the way intended by Christ, the Good Shepherd. It’s the difference between being in charge and being responsible. There are many people who are in charge of the various ministries in the parish, but in the end, it is the pastor who is responsible to make sure that it all happens in the best possible way. This can’t be someone without any skin in the game.  He has to lay down his life for the flock. The stakes are no less than the salvation of every soul in 99504.

     Being a pastor is what we often call a “vocation within a vocation.”  Not all priests are pastors, but all pastors are priests. One of the reasons has a lot to do with our understanding of Christ, the Good Shepherd. While Christ is ultimately THE Good Shepherd, he has entrusted the proclamation of the Gospel to us, the Church.  The ministry of shepherd finds its tangible expression at the parish level in the ministry of the pastor, who by virtue of his ordination acts in the very person of Christ, literally as alter Christus, “another Christ.” As you can see from the job description, it is no small thing to be a pastor. He has a lot he has to keep track of in the community entrusted to his care.

       But in the end, it is not so much what we DO as a parish, as who we ARE as the People of God, the parish family of St. Patrick’s. We are a community of disciples, a family of faith.

       There is a reason they call us “Father” and not just ‘pastor’. This is a vocation, not a job. It is a calling, not a task.  Configured to Christ at the level of his very being, like Christ, the Pastor shows the parish family what is possible for them and leads them there,

       sometimes exhorting them from the front and sometimes encouraging and prodding them from behind.  Always walking with them on the journey of faith, sharing their joys, their sorrows, their tragedies and their triumphs. 

       There is no greater challenge.  There is no higher calling. There is no greater way of imitating Christ, the Good Shepherd.

       So, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, let us take a moment to thank God for those pastors we have had throughout our lives, the good ones and the ones who struggled, who with whatever resources God gave them for their ministry, faithfully served the people entrusted to their care and helped us find our way to Christ.

Greetings, Church fans! The gist of the homily is below. If you want to see the whole Mass, go the St. Pat’s Facebook Page here. If you just want to see the homily, go to our YouTube page here. Blessings!

    The cleansing of the Temple is a very good example of Jesus the Prophet. Like Isaiah and his two smoking firebrands (Is 7:4) or Ezekiel digging a hole through the city wall, (Ez 8:8) Jesus is doing exactly the kind of dramatic act that prophets had always done. Since Twitter and Instagram were not around yet, it was how they got the peoples’ attention. 

       Pastors do the same thing sometimes. At present, I am cleansings the office cupboards. I’m not sure why we need 46 (Count em! Yes, 46!) different boxes and Ziploc bags of tea, 8 jars of coffee, and 23 coffee mugs, not to mention several pounds of condiments and spices. I also found a large variety appliances of dubious purpose.        Clutter creeps up on us and we sometimes don’t realize it until we are staring at a mountain of extraneous encrustations.     

       Jesus saw this happening in the Temple of Jerusalem and took action. So too for us, Lent is a good time to identify the clutter in our lives, how it blocks our path to Christ, and then to get rid of it in no less dramatic fashion. One way of doing so, is to think in terms of “Three Temples.” 

       The first temple mentioned in today’s gospel passage is the Temple of Jerusalem. For the people of Jesus day, this was the dwelling place of God and proof of his abiding presence with his people. It was where true worship was offered to God, and a sign of God’s protection over his chosen people. It was also big business. Endless streams of pilgrims would come, especially in the holy seasons. Obviously, they would need to obtain the necessary animals for sacrifice. This used to happen in the surrounding neighborhood, but as we see, it found its way onto the Temple grounds and even in parts of the Temple itself. Since one could not use Roman coins within the Temple precincts to make the purchase, one needed to change Roman coins for Temple script. Of course, the money changers would charge a nice little commission for their service. This also was big business. This is what really ticked Jesus off.  By driving them all out, he makes the point in no uncertain terms that they have profaned the Temple and all it stands for.  Jesus is very much the prophet calling the people to true worship in the manner of the expected Messiah.

       But then we learn of another Temple, the temple of his own body. This makes a lot of sense once we understand that all previous sacrifices ever offered under the Law of Moses, whether they were to establish covenants, to forgive sins, to remember or to give thanks, were fulfilled and perfected in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross.  In a very real sense, once he offered himself on the Cross, all previous sacrifices became superfluous.  Our eucharistic sacrifice here today is a propitiary sacrifice by which we participate in the one, perfect sacrifice of Christ.

       Finally, there is a third temple we need to be aware of. Namely, every one of us who is part of the Mystical Body of Christ. As St. Paul reminds us, “Do you not know that your body is a temple* of the holy Spirit within you…) 1 Cor 6:19)         We would do well to play the prophet with ourselves this Lent.  What are those worldly things that crept into our lives that get between us and our relationship with God and others? Lent is a great time to take stock, to make changes and to cleanse the temples of our lives. 

Greetings, Church fans! Below is the text of the homily. As always, you can pick up the whole Mass on the livestream on our Facebook page or just the homily on our YouTube Channel.

I was struck by something the Holy Father said recently:

“Lent is not a time for useless sermons, but for recognizing that our lowly ashes are loved by God.  It is a time of grace; a time for letting God gaze upon us with love and in this way change our lives.” 

Actually, it was the great social commentator, George Burns, who said,

“The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.”

He may have had Jesus’ first sermon in mind when he said this. It’s a pretty short message in three parts:

       1. “This is the time of fulfillment.

       2. The kingdom of God is at hand.

       3. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

       This three part structure has pretty much been the norm for homiletics ever since. You may recall that the Holy Father always tries to leave us with “three words” in any of his addresses or sermons. So let’s look at each of these briefly.

       1.  It is a heady thing to realize that we are, in fact, living in the time of fulfillment. There are two aspects to what Jesus was talking about. First, Christ proclaims and the Church affirms that all Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Second, all previous sacrifices, whether to establish covenants, to forgive sins, to remember or to give thanks, were fulfilled in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. This truly is the time of fulfillment.

       2. Precisely because this is the time of fulfillment, the Kingdom is at hand, both temporally and practically. Too often we look for God in the exotic and mysterious. But to be Catholic is to believe that through the sacraments, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, there is no part of our life, even our worst parts, to which God is not present.

       3. The gospel or “Good News” is that because of his sacrifice on the Cross and because that is so immediately accessible to us in the sacraments, the price for our sins has been paid. The only possible (and necessary) response is gratitude. Belief in the forgiveness of sins leads us to turn away from those very sins and live in the fullness of grace with Christ and each other. 

       This Lent, may we live as people of fulfillment who embrace the Kingdom and return to grace.  

Let us recognize that our lowly ashes are loved by God.  Let us allow God gaze upon us with love and in this way change our lives. 

       1. “This is the time of fulfillment.

       2. The kingdom of God is at hand.

       3. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

       Try this little spiritual exercise. Sometime this week stand at the step of City Hall

       And for an hour, shout at the top of your lungs:

       “Forty-days more and this city will be destroyed!!!”

Then, come back next week and tell me how it went…

       The conversion of the city if Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah goes to show you that the only reason he was effective as that he was literally on a mission from God.

But with Jonah and with Paul and even with our Lord, we can see a certain urgency with which they go about their tasks. 

       “Forty days more…”

       “I tell you, brothers and sisters, that time is running out…”

       ““This is the time of fulfillment.

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

       You can feel the urgency in their message.

       When I was younger, I was captivated by Peter, James, John and Andrew, who left everything, seemingly on the spur of the moment, to follow Jesus simply because he asked them.

“What faith!” I thought. “What fervor!” 

       Then, as I grew older and started adulting, I thought to myself, “Self!  Hold on a minute. Normal people don’t this that.  They don’t just up leave everything because some stranger says, ‘Follow me.’” In fact, we see several other places where Jesus give the same invitation and they don’t follow him, such as the rich, young man in Mark 10:17-31.

       There has to be more to the story.

       Fortunately, we get our insight in last week’s gospel from the call of Andrew and Peter in the Gospel of John 

(Jn 1:35-42). As you recall, once Andrew spent the rest of the day with Jesus he sought out his brother Simon and exclaimed, “We have found the Messiah!” If we keep reading, we see that the next day the scene is repeated with Philip and Nathaniel. In this case, Philip says, ““We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” (Jn 1:45) 

       What becomes abundantly clear in a reading of John is that, like everyone else at the time, those who would become the first disciples were primed and ready for his appearance. They were on the lookout, and when they found themselves in his presence, they recognized in him the long-expected Messiah.

       They didn’t know what following him would entail, of course, but really they didn’t have to. He was there. He asked them to be his disciples. That was enough for the moment. The rest would take care of itself.

       It’s a good lesson for all of us who choose to follow Jesus. Do we recognize in Jesus the fulfillment of all our hopes and deepest longings? Do we choose to follow him daily? If we do, then every other decision from then on will flow from that choice. The rest is just details.

       The problem is, human beings are naturally averse to the unknown. We like a bit of certainty before we take a leap of faith. 

       We like the road map, not just trail markers.

       In the morning I like to listen the local news radio. It seems that every news and talk radio station has at least one featured show on planning your financial future and setting a road map to success.

       And yes, we should plan prudently in this regard.

       But in the end, it is all an illusion.

              “The world in its present form is passing away.”

You never see a hearse with a U-Haul behind it. 

       In her essay, the Open Door, Helen Keller once said something that I greatly admire:

          “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

                                           – Helen Keller, The Open Door

Still, we like a bit of certainty before we take a leap of faith. 

       If not in what we are getting ourselves into,

       then at least in the ONE who is asking us to do it. 

       This trust in the other is called faith.

This is not something esoteric or complicated.

       Anyone who has watched a child leap into the swimming pool at his father’s beckoning knows what I am talking about.  

       The water is deeper than the child’s head.

       The child knows this.

       The child also knows that it is only about chest deep on his father.

       And he knows that since his father is there, he will be safe.

       And so…he leaps.

Is it any different for you and me as we stand on the edge as Christ beckons us out of the kiddy pool and into the deep end of discipleship?

       It is Jesus who is calling us.    

       What could we possibly be afraid of? 

              What could possibly hold us back?

       He has gone all the way to the Cross for us.  

His arms are still outstretched to embrace us. 

       What could possibly make us hesitate any longer?  

       Yet, still.  Some of us do.

In 1958, Thomas Merton, prolific author and monk of Gethsemane Abbey in Louisville, KY, wrote a book called “Thoughts in Solitude.”  In this book is a short prayer about this very moment in the life of every Christian. 

       It is now called “The Merton Prayer.”

              It is often quoted, even today.

       So I will conclude with it in hopes that you will find it helpful:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end,
         nor do I really know myself,
         and the fact that I think I am following your will
         does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you
         does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
         and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. 

Amen.

Howdy, Church fans! Hope your team wins this weekend! . Below is the column. As always, you can catch the livestream at our FB page:

“So how did you decide to be a priest?”  It’s a question I get a lot. The short answer is, I was invited by another person. It’s as simple as that.

Vocations are not rocket science, but it is important to realize that every person in the parish has an essential role to play in calling forth, from our own parish family, men and women to serve the Archdiocese as priests, deacons, and religious. Vocations are everybody’s responsibility. Think about it. What could be better than helping someone answer the calling that Jesus has wanted for that person since he or she was created?  How cool is that?!

I’m also painfully aware that as we approach our 50th anniversary as a parish, I can think of no one whom the parish has called to the holy priesthood for the Archdiocese. I think we are about due, don’t you?

So how does it work? How do you invite someone to follow Christ into the priesthood?  We can get an idea from call of Peter through Andrew in today’s Gospel. The encounter shows us six easy steps.

Step 1. Look for Jesus yourself. 

Step 2. Follow Jesus yourself.

Step 3. Spend time with Jesus. 

Step 4. Seek out the other.

Step 5. Invite the other to follow Jesus. 

Step 6. Keep praying and trust Jesus to do the rest.

Step 1. We see that Andrew (and presumably John) were already looking for the Messiah, that’s probably why they were disciples of John. 

Step 2. Once John points him out, off they go!

Step 3. They came. They saw and spent the rest of the day in the Lord’s presence. That’s essentially what prayer is. Spending time with the Lord. We spend time with Jesus in private prayer, in small group prayer, and most profoundly in the liturgical prayer of the Sacred Assembly at Holy Mass.

Step 4. Having come to know Jesus, Andrew seeks out his brother, who apparently was also looking for Jesus.

Step 5. Once he finds him, he says, “Simon! You gotta come with me! We found him! This is the guy! Come and see!”  Then he brought him to Jesus.

Step 6. Jesus receives Simon…and Simon’s name, and his life, are forever changed. And, we should note, so is Andrew’s.

Remember. No Andrew, no St. Peter.  So be Andrew! Follow steps 1-3 and when the time is right go up to that young man and say: “You know, I see the qualities in you that would make a good priest. Would you please consider it?  I’m going to be praying for you.”  Then keep praying and let Jesus do the rest.     

  It was fun to live in Rome for the better part of nine years off and on. The historic center of the city has been described by some as a “city of surprises.”  This was certainly true in my experience.  It’s a fun city to get lost in. After winding your way through twisting, narrow streets, hardly wider than an alleyway, suddenly you emerge into the open where something beautiful is waiting for you. 

       There are lots of little surprises as well. Once I was taking a shortcut through a back alley that I had taken many times before. Since the cobblestones were uneven there, I always tended to look down where I was going, but this morning I happened to look up and notice and inscription above one of the doors. Carved into the marble in three inch Roman script it simply said, “TU SOLUS DOMINUS.” In English it can be rendered “You alone are the Lord,” as it is in the Gloria that is sung at the beginning of Mass.

But as you Latin scholars out there know, it can also be rendered in a more personal way to read: “You alone, Lord.” or “Lord, only you.”

The fun thing is that ANY of these interpretations work as we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King this weekend. We can see this feast in its cosmic sense, where Jesus is indeed Lord of all Creation. He is the one who has dominion over all creation.  His is a sovereignty above all others. All nations, kingdoms, principalities, churches, parishes, corporations, co-ops, pinochle clubs, etc. will answer to him. There is nothing in the created order that will not be accountable to Christ, the King of the Universe.

In the more personal sense, the Christians acknowledge that Christ has dominion over every aspect our lives as well. There is no part of our life that is separated from God’s presence and God’s love as shown to us in Christ Jesus. If I acknowledge Jesus as Savior and Lord, that changes everything. Primarily, it will determine how I will organize my life; how I spend my time and resources and with whom.

As we celebrate the sovereignty of Christ over creation and over our lives, it’s a good time to reflect on whether or not he really is the center of our lives.  Here is a simple test to see if that is the case. Look at your calendar and your wallet. Do you organize your time and the time of the household around prayer and worship of Christ? Is it the priority to which everything else must defer? If so, great.  If not, then perhaps you need to make adjustments. Similarly, on what are you spending your money and other resources? Is Christ and his Church your first priority to which all other financial decisions defer?  If so, great! If not, then perhaps you need to make adjustments. 

It’s not rocket science. Christ is either Lord of the Universe and Lord of our lives or he is not. If we live our lives with him at the center, then everything else will be rightly ordered and no part of our lives will be separated from God.