Would I get the message after three times?!
I felt like Peter, after Jesus inquired of him three times: “Peter, do you love me?”
It was early in a particularly eventful week in my parishes. It so happened to be in the wake of having to make the painful announcement that one of my parish communities would be consolidating with my other parish as a part of the Seek the City merger process. I was overwhelmed and feeling anxious. After the weekend of desolation, I set out into the week ahead, trying to find the way forward and pleading for an outpouring of God’s Spirit. Speeding from Mass to meetings to errands, I was doing my best to stay focused and upbeat. Sometime on Tuesday, I was out and decided to grab a quick bite. I placed my order, waited for the food, and sat in my favorite corner of the restaurant. A few moments later, whilst I was absorbed in my cellphone, one of the servers inched over and asked: “Are you a priest?” I responded in the affirmative. The gentleman proceeded to ask for prayers, telling me a little of his days in Catholic school and his hesitancy to go back to church. It was a short encounter but a moment from God.
The very next day, I was out again for lunch (different place but same big appetite). Strolling through the order line and about to pay, I caught sight of the lady next to me signaling me. Making eye contact, she asked if I was from a church. Stammering, I responded that I’m the local pastor of two Catholic churches. She asked me, curiously, if the words at church had recently changed. Trying to get a little more context, I gently asked why she was wondering. She shared about her recent experience of going back to her local parish and recognizing that there seemed to be some new prayers. Taking a different tack, I asked her how she felt about going back to Mass. She smiled and shared that it really was time for her to go back and she looks forward to sticking with it. Fast forward to later that day, I received an email from a family member whose loved one I recently buried. Lo and behold, it was a beautiful message expressing her gratitude as well as indicating that she is contemplating coming back to the parish community, even amid the merger change.
Three times that the Lord placed in my path persons, brothers and sisters in Christ, who were not so much in the “church sphere” but out in the world still seeking Christ’s presence, the presence of the Church, the communion that God desires for his people. It took me until the third experience to stitch it all together. God wanted to show me, again, the importance of spiritually remembering those who have drifted away and being actively, joyfully eager to encounter them. How often Pope Francis has taught us to go to the peripheries, to care for those outside the visible confines of the Church, to be missionary disciples. I don’t purport to do it well or have “all the answers.” In fact, I didn’t gain sainthood by these three little chance encounters. What I did learn, once more, was that we are all called to seek and love the lost, to receive them no matter where we are, and to serve Christ in his mission to gather (back) all peoples to himself.
Fr. John Streifel currently serves as the Pastor of the parishes of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Clare in Essex, MD. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in June 2018.
Featured photo by Kevin J. Parks/Catholic Review Media. Used with permission.