8th Sunday
Installation of Fr. W. David Nestler, O.F.M.,Cap.
St. Ambrose Parish, Park Heights
March 2, 2025
Gratitude
Let me begin with words of gratitude to the Capuchin Friars for providing priests to lead and serve St. Ambrose Parish, and for the many other ways they serve in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. I especially wish to thank Fr. Bob Marva, Provincial Minister of the Province of St Augustine, for sending us Fr. David to succeed Fr. Paul here at St. Ambrose. And I take this occasion to offer my warmest congratulations as the Province of St. Augustine observes its 150th Anniversary.
Since his arrival in Baltimore, dear friends, you have become acquainted with Father David. You have experienced the loving leadership of a gentle shepherd, a shepherd whose gentleness is not weakness but strength, a shepherd whose pastoral style reflects the spirit of St. Francis. Thank you, Fr. David, for embracing this parish, its people, its neighborhoods, and its ministries. This is what we celebrate today as we listen again to God’s Word and welcome the light it sheds on your ministry as Pastor of St. Ambrose.
Where to Begin?
Perhaps, Fr. David, as you walked into St. Ambrose for the first time, you asked the question we all ask when we begin something new. It’s this: Where do I begin? The answer is found in your own Capuchin charism – prayer and simplicity, leading to an embrace of Christ crucified. This is foundational, not only for what you do, but the spirit with which you do it. We find the same answer in today’s reading from 1st Corinthians where Paul writes about the power of the Cross: “Death [he says] is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” By dying and rising, Jesus overcame death and the sting of death which is sin.
Is this not why we, the community of St. Ambrose, gather to worship? Surely we gather for companionship and support. Surely we gather to have our spirits lifted. Surely we gather to be encouraged amid the challenges of life. But the fundamental, essential reason why we gather is to celebrate and thus to share in the victory of Christ over sin and death. This is the essential message of the Gospel your pastor preaches. This is the very mystery that is reenacted at the altar. This is the victory you taste when you receive receive Holy Communion, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ – crucified and risen. From this mystery of faith flows everything else the parish does. And to this mystery of faith everything flows back again to become part of the victory that Christ won for us.
Enlightened Guide
It is in light of Jesus’ victory that we read and understand today’s Gospel. Here Jesus tells us that a blind person cannot lead another blind person, lest both of them lose their way and fall into a pit. What Jesus is speaking about in this parable is the relationship between teachers and the disciples. The teacher must be enlightened by the Holy Spirit in order to form and guide disciples to follow Christ.
Forming disciples is central to a pastor’s ministry. Surely this means that the pastor himself strives to be a disciple so that he will not only teach the faith, but indeed bear witness to Christ, to the Christ whose face he contemplate and in whose footsteps he walks. By Word, Sacrament, pastoral care, and example, the pastor and his co-workers strive to form disciples who will also walk in the footsteps of Christ. In today’s Gospel, Jesus sets before us two ways of living: one is good and the other is evil. We can choose to be rotten trees who produce rotten fruit, or we can choose to be healthy, good trees that produce good fruit. Fundamental to discipleship is choosing the supreme good, the way of Christ that leads to life, and shunning the way of evil that leads to death. Invested in this very drama in his own life, a pastor strives in God’s grace to do all he can to help the people whom he knows, loves, and serves to choose the way of Christ.
Bearing the Good Fruit
Yet neither the pastor nor his parish family chooses the way of Christ simply and solely for their own good, for their own welfare. Once we set out to walk with Christ, we will fall deeply in love with him. His truth, his justice, his goodness will be the center of our lives. We will love and adore him with every fiber of our being, so much so, that we find it impossible to keep the Good News to ourselves. Rather, we will want to share our faith in the Risen Lord with others, including those who live right here in the Park Heights neighborhood.
And so, a further dimension of pastoring is to equip the Lord’s disciples to share their faith with others, to bear witness to the Lord in their own homes, their places of work, among their friends, living in such a way that others will be attracted to the Lord and his Church.
As all of you know, we are in the midst of implementing Seek the City. It has been and will continue to be a long journey, but it is not simply about downsizing or rightsizing, but energizing: energizing the mission of every parish in Baltimore and its environs in fulfilling the mission entrusted to us by the Lord Jesus: Go! Teach! Be my witnesses! Gather my people! I am grateful, Fr. David, for your leadership in this moment of the Church’s life and I am grateful to you, the members of this parish family, for continually being renewed in a three fold mission of proclaiming the faith, worshipping in spirit and truth, and engaging in a charity that evangelizes.
Through the intercession of St. Ambrose, St. Francis of Assisi, and with the prayers of the saintly six behind us, may God bless us and keep us always in his love!