5th Sunday in Ordianry Time – Feb 4, 2018 - Homily - 1
I remember a talk given to us when I was in seminary about the importance of the parish, and it was one that inspired me, but also struck fear in me at the same time. It was one of those talks that for whatever reason resonated with me, and is something I often think about. And the speaker who was a wise old parish priest asked us to reflect on this question:
“If your parish church burned down tomorrow – God forbid that ever happen – but if for some reason the this beautiful church ceased to exist tomorrow, would it be missed by the community?” Now, of course we would all have some initial shock, but what about a month from now? A year from now?
Now, to be clear, the answer in my mind would be absolutely it would be missed. We average about 900-1,000 people through our doors every weekend over the course of our 4 Masses - all of us here coming to be spiritually nourished each week so that we can be personally renewed in the Holy Spirit and so that we can also then take Christ back out to the world. We also have so many wonderful groups and ministries here which serve God, each other, our local community, and even internationally through the dedicated work of many of you, our hard-working volunteers.
The church building after all is just bricks and mortar – it is you and I who are the Church – we are all important components in the Body of Christ, each of us having our unique roles to play through our prayer, volunteer service, financial support, and maybe most importantly, our Christian witness to those we encounter in our day-to-day lives to bring the joy of the Gospel to our own corners of the world. As St. Paul says in the 2nd reading today, ‘we do it all for the sake of the gospel!’
And that is what inspires me about the otherwise negative statement – as horrible as it would be to not have this church building, we could meet for Mass in a school gym or lecture hall or wherever, and still be St. Michael’s parish. There is life here – there is something special in our parish family.
But as I mentioned, the statement also scares me, because I often wonder what we might be leaving on the table – what are we not doing to build up the Body of Christ – are we doing enough to assure that yes, St. Michael’s is an indispensible part of the fabric of Waterloo that would be truly missed if it didn’t exist? Are we doing all we can to first center our lives on Christ, and then to go out to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world around us?
And that is why I believe the Holy Spirit has laid upon my heart that it’s time for a clear vision for our parish. With your help and your input, I think it’s time to define our priorities as a parish, and create a Parish Pastoral Plan which will give us a road map to carry out God’s will in our corner of Waterloo. If together we can prayerfully discern a plan for our parish, we can be confident that God’s will for us as a parish is being carried out at St. Michael’s, to improve on what we already do well, and to begin new initiatives to make us even stronger.
On our website you will find a parish survey – you can find the link on the main page, or the link is published in the bulletin this week. If you don’t use the internet, there are also some paper copies in the back of the church for you to fill out and bring back next week, or just simply write me a letter or email expressing your vision for our parish, or we could simply sit down for a chat. It’s from this input that we can identify our strengths and challenges, and to help us put a plan together with a Parish Leadership Team which I also hope to soon form.
Now – keep in mind we don’t have any authority to change Church teachings or the prayers of the Mass or the Canon Law of the Church – that’s the pope’s job – but your comments will be appreciated on what we can do locally here in our parish.
And in the mean time, next weekend we will also have our ‘Volunteer Fair Sunday’ – downstairs you can grab a coffee and a treat, and chat with representatives from our various groups and ministries here at St. Michael’s to see if there may be an opportunity for you to give of your time and talents to help build up our parish. There is a sheet in your pews this weekend describing various volunteer opportunities for you to take home and prayerfully consider – I know it’s a busy world, but hopefully there is something there for you – and if you are truly too busy to get involved, you can still join us in something of primary importance – to prayer for the parish, and for each other.
When we look to the gospel today, we see that there is never any shortage of work to be done to build up God’s kingdom. Jesus is running around, preaching, healing the sick, and casting out demons, and there is never any shortage of demand for his time and his presence – but fortunately he is very generous to those seeking him out.
But also notice what the gospel says about his prayer time – he ‘went away by himself very early in the morning to prayer.’ Jesus, in his humanity, needed that time first with God. His prayer time was so important that he would get up before everyone else to be spiritually strengthened so that he could go out to heal and preach the Gospel to all.
Like Jesus, our starting point is always right here, in our Sunday worship to be nourished by the Word of God and fed at the Eucharistic table – to be filled up with our Lord so that we can go forth to do his will. Like Jesus, we should also ‘check in’ everyday with some daily prayer time so that we are always aware of his presence, and to give thanks for all the blessings that he has bestowed upon us.
We then read that while he was in prayer, the disciples came to interrupt him – to say ‘Jesus, everybody’s looking for you! Let’s go!’. Jesus calmly gets up without complaining and says to his disciples, ‘Okay then - let’s get to work!’
I ask you this week to take some time to prayerfully discern a vision you have for a parish and fill out our survey, and to prayerfully discern if there is anywhere that you think you can use your unique skills and talents to help build up the parish. And when you’ve done that, it’s time to echo the sentiment of Jesus, to get up and say ‘Okay then – let’s get to work!’