Second Sunday of Advent
Installation of Fr. Paul Sparklin
St. Michael, Mt. Airy
December 4, 2022
Introduction
The season of Advent is a season of joyful expectation for the coming of Christ. And while you await the coming of the Lord, you rejoice that your new pastor has already arrived – long since – and is very engaged in the mission and ministry of St. Michael Parish. Indeed, this is his first Advent in your midst, and while Advent is but a single season in the Church’s liturgical year, it might serve as a kind of metaphor for the spirit of hope and joy which Father Paul will lead and serve this parish community in the years ahead.
Like Isaiah, John the Baptist, and St. Paul – whom we met in the Scriptures – the overarching goal of his ministry as pastor will be to help this parish grow in its readiness, in its joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Continually, he will point out who it is we are waiting for, where he may be found, and how we should await the Lord’s coming into our midst – who, where, and how. And, he will lead not only you, but also walk with you on this journey of hope.
For Whom Are We Waiting?
Who, then, are we waiting for in Advent and throughout our lives? Are we waiting for a stranger? Or for a long-lost relative or friend? Or are we continually preparing for a visit by “Someone Very Great”? Someone whose radiance lights up the darkness in our lives. Someone who will walk with us through life’s sorrows, doubts, and dilemmas. Someone who will suffer with us and touch the spiritual depth of our wounds. Someone who will awaken in us a distant memory, buried deep in our hearts, of what could have been, of what human life was really meant to be. Someone Very Great who loves us like no other.
No matter what situation we may find ourselves in, we are waiting for Jesus. So too were Isaiah, John the Baptist, and St. Paul … so too is your Pastor, Fr. Paul. All of them point to the one for whom we are watching and waiting. And how will we recognize him? We will recognize him because he assumed our humanity, and in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, poured into our humanity the same gifts of the Spirit that graced his humanity. We will recognize him because he came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire – and it is only in the Holy Spirit that we can say, “Jesus is Lord”, only in the Holy Spirit that we seek and find the One who judged wisely, loved the poor, and obeyed the heavenly Father to the point of dying to save us from our sins and rising to restore our life… Your Pastor stands is himself a sacramental sign of Someone Very Great, the Lord who visits us in ways that are seen and unseen.
As Pastor, Father Paul must grow in his love of the One for whom we wait. Like John the Baptist, he is to bear witness to the Lord’s presence in our midst and call us to open our hearts, our homes, our parish to his redeeming presence. Indeed, he must keep the parish family on high alert for the coming of the Lord – even as he reaches out to those who have never really met the Lord, those who may be estranged from the Lord and from his Church, and even to those who deeply love the Lord … for we must always seek and find the Lord anew.
Where Do We Find Him?
But where do we find the One we seek? Are we destined to engage on a long, lonely, and frustrating search for an elusive God? We hear voices all around us telling us that God is nowhere to be found, and that if he would be found, he is not a God we can trust or love. That is why, in his wisdom and love, Christ gathered us as a community of faith, as a people called out of darkness into the Lord’s own splendid light. Leading with the heart of a servant, Fr. Paul and his co-workers will continually form St. Michael Parish as a vibrant community of faith, worship, and service a community of seekers who have taken to heart the Lord’s words: “Where two or three are gathered in my Name, there am I in their midst.”
Where, then, do we as a community of faith, look for the Lord? Our search begins not with seeing but listening, listening for his voice in Scripture – in the Word proclaimed, the Word preached, the Word borne witness to. Among the most important ministries of a Pastor is proclamation and preaching, a ministry of Word and witness, a ministry not unlike that of John the Baptist. Each of us and all of us together must listen for the Lord’s voice echoing in our depths, and like the first disciples whose hears burned as Jesus opened the Scriptures for them, we will then recognize him in the Bread that is blessed, broken, and given – and at the heart of your pastor’s ministry is indeed the celebration of the Eucharist. For, in the Eucharist, the Lord comes to us, not as a mere idea, but he comes in Person. Every good priest like Fr. Paul lives to be the instrument of that Eucharistic encounter between Christ and his People, that encounter which builds us the Church and strengthens us to live as disciples, while awaiting the consummation of our hope. Our Eucharistic encounters with the Lord leads us to seek and find Jesus also in the poor and the vulnerable in our midst – and to serve the Lord in the homeless, the addicted, the lonely, the frail, the newly arrived, the unborn. So too, you pastor will teach you and model for you how to find Christ in yourselves. Like St. John the Baptist, your pastor will withdraw into the desert, the wilderness, to pray, to contemplate Scripture, to allow the Lord to speak to his heart – and he will encourage you to do the same. By making good use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in his own life, and by his generosity as a confessor, he will encourage you to find the Lord in this sacrament of mercy. “For with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.”
How Do We Look for Jesus?
Finally, how do we look for Jesus? In what spirit do we await his coming? John the Baptist, in condemning the fake and showy repentance of the Pharisees, tells us that we must wait for the Lord in complete sincerity of heart – and thus Fr. Paul and his coworkers must lead the way in the purifying of hearts – ‘for only the pure of heart shall see God’. Paul, for his part, urges us to unite as a Church in waiting for the Lord with hearts full of hope, an enduring hope that includes the patience that it takes to bear with one another in the life of the Church. Paul writes, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another – welcoming one another as he first welcomed us. Fr. Paul must lead the way in building a diverse community that thinks and acts with one heart and mind – the heart and mind of Christ.
There you have it – who, where, and how – the three by-words for the season of Advent, three by-words for Father Paul’s ministry in your midst. May the Spirit of God be upon you as you continue your Advent journey.