3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Installation of Fr. John Rapisarda
St. Mary’s Parish, Pikesville
January 21, 2024
Sunday of the Word of God
I’m delighted to return to St. Mary’s to install Father John Rapisarda as your pastor. It can hardly be said that we have rushed into this! Father Rapisarda has been with you now for quite a while and you have found him to be a good priest and a gentle shepherd who leads your parish and serves your pastoral needs with dedication and love.
Today’s installation reminds us that the mission of your parish and your pastor participates in and extends Christ’s saving mission. The Scripture readings for this Sunday focuses our attention on how the Lord’s mission continues in the daily life of the Church, especially in the Pastor’s first responsibility, namely, to preach the Gospel. This is an appropriate focus on this Sunday designated by Pope Francis as “The Sunday of the Word of God.”
The Essential “Content” of Jesus’ Preaching
In today’s Gospel, Jesus had just been baptized in the Jordan River and had returned to Galilee where he began to preach the Good News. He makes four statements that are foundational to all Christian preaching:
1) “This the time of fulfillment.”
2) The Kingdom of God is at hand.”
3) “Repent and…
4) Believe in the Gospel.”
On these four statements all preaching worthy of the name hinges. This is the heart of what we, your priests, are charged to convey to you when we preach, celebrate the Mass and Sacraments, and bear witness to Christ by how we conduct ourselves in our ministry and personal lives. Let us look at these four statements one by one.
(1st) “This is the time of fulfillment.”
Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, the One the prophets proclaimed and holy men and women longed to see. John the Baptist was the last of the prophets and the immediate forerunner of Christ. Simeon and Anna exemplify the holy men and women who waited for the Savior with great faith and hope and rejoiced to see the Christ when he was presented in the Temple.
For us too, this is the time of fulfillment. Many are our expectations, hopes, and dreams in this life. Many too are our disappointments and tribulations. In preaching the name and person of Christ, your pastor lifts the horizon of our hope so that we can see in Christ the only One who fulfills our hopes and dreams, the One who gives meaning to suffering, the One who offers us a joy like no other. Indeed, this is the time of fulfillment for us!
(2nd) “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”
The kingdom of God is no earthly form of politics, not a system, not an ideology. The Kingdom of God is in fact the Person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. It is he who embodies in our flesh, all that God wants us to become, all that we were meant to be, and the kind of world we should be working to create. At the heart of Jesus’ Kingdom and at the heart of all authentic Christian preaching is the Beatitudes – the way to authentic happiness – by being and becoming poor in spirit, meek and humble, pure of heart, thirsting for holiness, peacemakers… Because the Beatitudes are like Jesus’ self-portrait, they are also key to a life hope and joy that cannot be found in anyone or anything else. The Kingdom of God is at hand because Christ is with us, especially in the Eucharist, and God’s kingdom arrives in our hearts and in our homes when we are like Christ, the Son of God who humbly gave himself to us in love, emptying himself to the point of death so that we might live forever.
(3rd) “Repent” …
… which is not a dreary word reserved only for Ash Wednesday! Repentance is at the heart of Jesus preaching. In the first reading, we saw how Jonah’s preaching caused the city of Ninevah, from the king on down, to repent from their evil ways and thus to be spared. When, in the name and person of Christ, your pastor proclaims repentance, he’s not being unpleasant or judgmental or holier-than-thou. No, he’s bearing witness to Jesus Christ whose light has dawned upon us, not only rescuing us from sin but opening up for us a heavenly way of living on earth. Oh, it’s not that we’re morally perfect – for we shall always struggle with sin – but because this is the time of fulfillment and the kingdom of God is at hand, we can begin to live on earth the life of love we hope to live fully in heaven. We, your priests experience in our own lives the peace the world cannot give as we repent and frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is that same peace and joy we are humbled to impart as we preach repentance and serve as confessors in the Sacrament of Penance … serving as the Lord’s instruments in bringing about the spiritual healing and renewal flowing from Christ’s Death and Resurrection in the power of the Holy Spirit.
(4th) “Believe in the Gospel”
And what could that mean but believing in Christ and centering our lives around him, as individuals, as married couples, moms and dads, grandparents, as priests and deacons, and indeed as a parish community called to be a community of disciples? Believing is more than assenting to an abstract truth on a page. It is an encounter with a Person, the Person of Jesus Christ, and in this encounter we break through the culture of unbelief and experience the meaning of the world and the meaning of our lives. Believing means discovering again and again the truth and beauty of the Christ and adhering to him personally and in communion with the whole Church, guided by all that the Church believes, teaches, celebrates, and acts upon. Believing in the Gospel means accepting Jesus’ invitation “Come after me….”
Jesus’ Calling of the Disciples
When Simon and Andrew, James and John heard Jesus’ invitation, they followed him. As we encounter Christ whose kingdom is close at hand, he says, “Come follow me…” “Come follow me, not when conditions are ideal, or when you got your act together… come follow me now, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, whatever the burdens you bear, whatever struggles you face. Believing in the Gospel means believing in the love God has for us and accepting his calling to be his followers and to be a community of disciples, here and now and always, for the glory of God and for the salvation of our souls. May this parish and each you flourish in the faith of Jesus Christ under the leadership of your pastor, now and for years to come. God bless you and keep you always in his love!