Introductory Remarks
Pastoral Staff Day
Church of the Nativity
October 25, 2023
No Ordinary Time
It is a pleasure to be with all of you this morning here at the Church of the Nativity for our annual Pastoral Staff Day. May it be a day rich in the graces of the Holy Spirit as we seek to support one another in mission and ministry.
In 1943, in the midst of World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt said of the home front, “This is no ordinary time”. Even though we are deep into “ordinary time” in the Church’s liturgical calendar, we are all deeply aware that this is no ordinary time in the life of the Archdiocese. And I am aware that you, my co-workers in the vineyard, are on the front lines. We will not devote our pastoral staff day to topics like the AG Report or Chapter 11, but to help you navigate the choppy waters of these days, the Archdiocese will soon be hosting webinars for clergy, parish staff, corporators, parish and finance council members. During these webinars, information will be presented on the Chapter 11 process, on how it affects parishes and schools, and you’ll be able to ask questions. For now, I would like to offer a pastoral reflection on mission in this challenging time.
Mission as Gift and Mystery
First, let us remember that the mission entrusted to us is a gift and a mystery. It is a gift because all ministry flows from the Lord Jesus Christ who came “not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” It is a mystery because we find ourselves as participants but also cooperators in God’s mysterious plan to bring about the salvation of the world. As he hung upon the Cross and blood and water flowed from his side, the Church, his beloved Bride, came into being, brimming with the new life which Christ won for us by his death and resurrection, a life which overflows, so to speak, into the Church’s sacramental life. Even on the dreariest day, we should never forget that we are participating in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sake of his Body, which is the Church. We should never forget that we are privileged to aid and abet not our own plans and agendas but the mysterious plan of the Father for the creation and salvation of all the world.
If our ministry flows from Christ, so too our empowerment for ministry flows from the Spirit of Christ. When we engage in ministry, as you know so well, it takes all the love we can give. We can never go home at night and say, “Well, that’s that! I got the job done!” It’s never ending. Every parish is a vortex of need. Ministry truly engaged pushes us, pulls us, stretches us, well beyond our comfort zone. And because of the strenuous efforts we expend in ministry, we can be tempted to think of ministry as something we do of ourselves, solely or mostly with our own talents and resources and according to our own plans, without the all-embracing grace of God and the support we owe to one another. We become, in a word, Pelagian … not forgetting that Pelagius, broadly speaking, was a heretic because he purportedly thought that we can follow Christ’s example by the strength of our moral grit, by our own unaided efforts. Whether or not Pelagius had such an unsophisticated view, I leave to theologians. What I do know from experience is how easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking of my ministry as “my project” rather than the Lord’s project, a project he entrusted, not to me alone, but to teammates and co-workers.
Forgetting this in the rough and tumble of ministry causes us a lot of trouble. First, our personal resources of patience, good will, and wisdom are simply not sufficient to meet the needs we encounter and to overcome the obstacles we may face. Rightly do we say, “Your love and your truth – that’s enough for me!” Ministry works only when we allow the Lord to work in us and through us. Second, when we go it alone – apart from the Lord and mutual support – we can so easily project our own anxieties and issues onto our ministries and by extension, on the people whom we serve and with whom we serve. Thus, the need to build healthy, thriving, pastoral teams rooted in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, sharing a common vision, trusting one another and working together “to change the paradigm”. Third, when ministry is seen as one’s personal project rather than the Lord’s work, it may appear to be fruitful short term but in the long run will not bear fruit that will last. Without the Lord we can do nothing.
But we always knew that, didn’t we? Yet, in a moment like this, with negative press, perplexed parishioners, and even the mention of the dreaded word “bankruptcy” – we realize more than ever how dependent we are upon the Lord. Sometimes, the Lord allows our props to be kicked out from under us, so that we will cling to him in reality just as we claim to do in our prayers. I don’t mind telling you that, in the past year or so, I have come to realize as never before my own dependence on the Lord. And when I pray the Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours, even though I have been doing so for more than half a century, they speak to my heart of hearts as never before. For instance, “Cast your cares upon the Lord and he will support you.” Words I’ve prayed for years but now with a new depth of meaning. Times like these call for a greater depth of spirituality and prayer, not less.
The Great Temptation
The ugly specter of abuse should break our hearts. Our hearts should be broken for victim-survivors, for the damage that was inflicted on them and on the Church’s credibility. And yes, we encounter the perplexed and the angry. Even if unspoken, it’s often just below the surface and all this has created an unfavorable climate for mission … on top of all the other challenges that we are facing as we struggle to emerge from COVID and minister in an increasingly secular culture.
In a pivotal moment such as this, however, we can face a serious temptation. We can say to ourselves, “The time isn’t right for mission. The headwinds are too strong; the anger is too hot.” Or, we may say to ourselves: “People’s attention span is short. They’ll soon move on to something else. Then we can evangelize. Then we can make disciples and reach out to the unchurched. And when people have really forgotten, then we can ask them for support.”
Tempting as that is, it is Pelagianism at its worst. The unspoken assumption here is that that ministry is our work and that it can only succeed when conditions are optimal. The danger in delaying is that there will always be some reason not to evangelize, not to reach out beyond those already coming to Church, and not “to change the paradigm” … but to lumber along till the storm blows over. Whereas, the witness of the martyrs and holy pastors tell us something different. In yesterday’s Office of Readings, St. Anthony Claret spoke of how he learned to laugh at adversity and even false accusations. Nothing deterred the saints from opening their hearts to Christ and bearing witness to him in season and out of season, as St. Paul would say. And why? Because it was Christ who worked in them and through them. Like them we must seek to be disciples of Christ so that we can bear witness to him.
Which brings me to “The Saintly Six” – Venerable Mother Mary Lange, the Venerable Henriette DeLille, the Venerable Augustus Tolton, the Venerable Pierre Toussant, the Servant of God, Julia Greeley, the Servant of God, Thea Bowman. When we think we face headwinds in ministry, we have only to think of what these holy African American women and men faced, from the surrounding culture and yes, from some quarters in the Church. Yet they persisted, hoping and against hope, like Abraham, and conquering evil with God, like Christ himself. Let us invoke these holy men and women often and pray that they will soon be numbered upon the Church’s canonized saints – “soon and very soon” as the old spiritual would have it.
Before us also this morning is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe who appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, nearly 500 years ago. The Virgin Mary entrusted the message of evangelization to an unlikely messenger, a man poor in the eyes of the world but rich in God’s graces. And from that encounter on Tepeyac Hill, the continent of America – North, South, and Central America – rapidly evangelized. Let us entrust our evangelizing ministries to the Virgin of Guadelupe and St. Juan Diego!
A Word of Thanks
Let me conclude with a word of sincere gratitude for all that you do day in and day out. Often you work goes unseen and unheralded and while the rewards may be heavenly, the earthly sacrifice you make is very real. I hope you will experience this day as refreshing, life-giving, encouraging, and most of all, mutually enriching … for we are indeed journeying together with Christ and towards Christ.
May the Spirit of God be upon us and may God bless you and keep you always in his love!