July 31, 2011
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Eighteenth Sunday, Year A, July 31st, 2011
For my final homily in this parish, I have decided to do something that I don’t think I’ve ever really done over the past years, though I have talked about it . . . I have actually shortened my homily! Yes! All those who may have been praying for this intention for 7 years . . . it has happened! Actually, I have so much I would like to share with you, but I shortened my homily by writing you a letter, which you can pick up if you like, at either entrance.
I am glad that the readings this Sunday direct us to the source and summit of our faith, the Eucharist. Let us consider two simple points. The Eucharist will satisfy our souls
1) if we first worship
2) if we share what Jesus has given us, especially the gift of our faith.
The Eucharist can only satisfy us if we first worship God. In the first reading, we heard, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?” (Is 55:2) The world does not satisfy our deep desire for love, for happiness. But then the Lord says, “Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (Is 55:2). This promise of God is fulfilled in the Eucharist, where Jesus delights us with rich food and satisfies our souls with His Body and Blood.
The Gospel miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes also foreshadows the Eucharist. We heard in today’s Gospel that Jesus “looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples” (Mt 14:19). Jesus used the exact same actions at the Last Supper: He took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to his disciples. The same language points to the connection between the miracle of the loaves and the Eucharist.
Next we hear, “all ate and we filled/satisfied” (Mt 14:20). We should be able to say the same after every Mass: all ate and were satisfied. Yes, with faith we are deeply satisfied by God’s love for us in the gift of Himself in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.
But is it not true that many Catholics receive Holy Communion each week and still are not deeply satisfied in their souls? Why not? I’m convinced that only if we truly worship will the “bread” satisfy us.
Only if we are consciously thinking of God and trying our best to bow down and worship the Maker of the universe, who created us out of nothing, only then can the Bread of Life satisfy our souls. Without worship there is no real Communion or spiritual satisfaction. Worship and adoration are the enzyme that helps us digest the Eucharist.
That’s my first point of my last homily and this is the second: we can only be satisfied if we share what Jesus gives us. Can you imagine, while Jesus was turning 5 loaves into enough bread for 5000 men, the disciples had decided that all this bread was just for them? Imagine, if after receiving a large portion of bread, Andrew went off by himself in a corner to stuff his face (sounds of eating). And Peter reproaches him saying, “What are you doing? That bread is for the crowd!” “I’m hungry!” (sounds of eating) “This is my bread!”
Scripture reports, “all ate and were satisfied.” This includes the disciples. But they were satisfied only with the crowd, only after sharing with them. It’s the same with us in sharing our faith. The Eucharist will only satisfy us if we share it with others.
Pause for a moment and imagine that you are present at this miracle. Who are you? What are you doing?” (PAUSE). For decades, if not generations, Catholics have imagined themselves as just part of the crowd being fed by Jesus and the disciples. Catholics have in many ways been passive in their faith, waiting for handouts (put hand out) as if saying to the priest, “Father, you pray for us. You talk to God for us. You feed us. You entertain us. We’ll just sit here.”
That’s not Catholicism; that’s consumerism! We need a total revolution in our thinking. Let me pause for an aside and say that I love you all and I will miss you. Thank you for your love, prayers and support during my 7 years here. Since I want you to continue to grow in your knowledge and love of God and in your mission of evangelization, I must remind you, on my last day in the parish, that you my brothers and sisters in Christ sitting there in the pew, you are not the crowd; you are the disciples! You are the co-workers and collaborators of Jesus Christ. This is my second point that I pray you will never forget.
The crowd is the world outside the Church, all those Catholics in Russell who are not at Mass this weekend, all your family and friends who are unbelievers. They are the crowd. You are the disciples helping Jesus to feed the crowd.
Jesus needs you to share your faith with others, to help Him feed them with the Word of God, with the message of truth of the meaning of this life, so that hearing this Word, the crowd out there can come inside the Church, where Jesus will satisfy them with the Bread of Life, His Body and Blood.
God is giving you a special mandate from this day forward: to be disciples, not the crowd. In Fr. Paul Nwaeze, who will be with you next Sunday, you are receiving a very fine priest, who has come to Canada for love of God and His people. He will feed you with the Eucharist. He will be to you a loving father, brother and friend. But you must be his collaborators in your joint mission of evangelizing the world, of giving every single person outside the Church an opportunity to know, love and worship Jesus Christ.
I will miss you all but I will never forget you. I will pray for you from this day forward at every Mass. Before Mass, in one of the prayers of preparation, we list our intentions; I will add, “and for the parishioners of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.” Please continue to pray for me and the former pastors of this parish. To the younger people here whom I have baptized or to whom I have given their first communion, consider visiting me when I am old and frail.
And please warmly welcome Fr. Paul next week as you once welcomed me the first weekend of July 2004. I am not being transferred to India or China, so if you are ever in the neighborhood of Paddy’s Pub and the Mayfair theater, of Old Ottawa South, stop by and say hello.
Through the Eucharist we are now celebrating, we will always be united. Through Jesus Christ risen from the dead, we will always be united as brothers and sisters in one Body, the Church, here one earth, and forever in heaven.
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July 29, 2011
Posted in pastor
at 5:31 pm
In a brief farewell letter, let me begin by thanking you for your love, support and prayers over the past 7 years.
I came here a very “green” priest as a new pastor. I praise God for all the ways He has helped me mature as a human being and as a priest, and for our growth together as a pilgrim people on our journey to heaven. And I ask forgiveness again for any sins committed or mistakes made in my human frailty and my inexperience. I recall many tests and trials, especially in my first 5 years. Perhaps I might not have persevered, certainly not without the grace of God, and probably not without your patience and prayers.
Russell is unique, and I believe only once in a lifetime will a priest experience such a community. This town enjoys both the beauty of the countryside AND the vibrancy of the suburbs, filled with families and children. People get to know each other. Children say “hi” to the priest while he walks, jogs or bikes by! I will miss all of this, all of you!
In many ways, you are sending me forth from this parish on my mission for the diocese, working as vocations director and chaplain at Carleton. The community at Antioch prayed and fasted, then sent off Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:2-3). Why not see my departure in the same light?
Allow me to leave you with a challenge. Russell is unique. The parish is alive. What is there left to do? Is there anything missing? Certainly, the work of evangelization is never done, and the universal Church is urging us all to discover new ways to rekindle and communicate our faith. But one of the greatest fruits of a parish is to produce a priest. Please never cease praying for vocations and encouraging boys and young men to consider the call.
And please continue to pray for me and the challenges facing me in my new apostolic labours, even as you welcome Fr. Paul and pray for the fruit of his ministry among you.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all!
In Christ, Fr Tim
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July 24, 2011
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Seventeenth Sunday, Year A, July 24th, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
Back in 2004, when Archbishop Gervais told me that he was appointing me pastor of Russell, (Russell? Where’s that? Near Kemptville or Cornwall?)
I had mixed feelings to say the least, some fear and trepidation. I had spent the last 19 years of my life living in the city Ottawa and I felt comfortable there. All my family and friends were in Ottawa. I knew only one person in Russell. One. It was as if Jesus were inviting me to “sell everything,” to leave everything and follow Him, as the Lord once said to Abraham: leave your homeland and go to a land, a town that I will show you.
About six years ago, Jesus invited a priest from the state of Imo in Nigeria to “sell everything” to leave everything to be a missionary priest, to leave behind his family and friends and to become a stranger in a strange land, far, far away – Canada. Fr. Paul Nwaeze said yes to the call.
It is not easy to leave everything for Jesus, but it is worth it, because we obtain the kingdom of heaven and a hundredfold blessings even in this world.
The man who found the treasure in the field sold everything to buy that field (Mt 13:44). The merchant in search of fine pearls sold everything to buy that one pearl (Mt 13:46).
Based on my life over the past 7 years, and Fr. Paul’s example as a missionary priest, I invite all of you, right now, to decide to leave something behind so that you can possess more of the treasure of the kingdom, of Jesus Himself. “How?” you might ask. Each in your own vocation. Marriage, single life, consecrated life, priesthood.
Some are called to follow Jesus more radically and work more directly for the Church. I applaud those who respond to this call even for a specific time period, such as Yves Chartrand who is spending this summer with CCO’s Impact Canada, and Jani Chartrand who will be a missionary this coming year with NET Ireland. Ashley Kupferschmidt is in the process of leaving everything for Jesus in the consecrated life of Opus Dei.
And I know there are several boys and young men in our parish who have thought of the call to priesthood . . . I can think of about 5 right now, aged 8 to 22 (?). Please pray for them and support them, so that Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal can proudly celebrate the great joy of sending a parishioner to the Seminary to study for the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Ottawa. It is not easy to leave everything for Jesus, but it is worth it, and each of you is called to do so in your own vocation.
Blessed Cardinal Newman gave a homily in the 1830′s called “The Ventures of Faith” in which he asks, “what have we ventured for Christ?” (It makes me think of our English expression “nothing ventured, nothing gained”). He comments that the very meaning of the word “venture” includes something of “fear, risk, danger, anxiety, uncertainty” and “in this consists the excellence and nobleness of faith” – that despite fear and uncertainty, we have faith to venture something for Christ (47). He remarks that most people called Christians venture nothing and that their lives would be the same “if they believed Christianity to be a fable” (Cardinal Newman’s Best Plain Sermons, 51). Is that true of you? Is your life any different from your unbelieving friends and neighbours? How does the world know that you believe in Jesus Christ?
One way to look at “venturing” something for Christ, to possess the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, is to make an effort to stretch out to what lies ahead and above us – the divinity of Christ. As St. Paul writes to the Philipians: “forgetting what lies behind and straining/stretching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13-14).
In one of the prayers after Communion in our parish booklet, we ask God to help us “rise above our human weaknesses.” Yes, it is possible to venture something for Christ, to rise above our human weakness, to stretch out and touch the divinity. However, we live in a totally human-centered world with the cult of the body and the idolatry of technology. At times, it might seem almost impossible to us that we can stretch out and touch the divinity of God, but we can, through Jesus Christ, God and man, through the Church, the sacraments, prayer, fellowship.
But because of our doubts about touching the divinity of God, we often settle for the merely human. For example, someone is called to marriage and raising a family but is afraid of sacrifice, of being “stretched” beyond their comfort zone by the demands of marriage and family, so this person settles for less, for the merely human, for co-habitation, for living together without God’s blessing, without the sacrament, entrapped in a sterile life, lacking in joy.
Or someone else is called to the consecrated life or priesthood, to sacrifice everything and give their hearts totally and directly to Jesus Christ, but this person gives in to fear and settles for the merely human. They allow their hearts to become entangled, enmeshed in a self-centered relationship in which two people use each other to gratify their own selfish impulses.
It is possible that priests could be tempted in this way as well, to settle for the merely human. It is possible for temptations in this area to last for . . . (counting 1, 2, 3, 4) 5 years! I don’t have time to go into detail, but it should be obvious to everyone that we cannot obtain the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price by living an easy life, without battling temptation and without making sacrifices. Rather, holiness and happiness comes from the willingness to give our lives to receive the treasure that is Jesus Christ Himself.
This has been a challenging month for me, as it feels at times that I am losing and leaving everything for the sake of Jesus, but I have been receiving an unexpected gift and I’m not sure if I should say out loud in case I “jinx” it (but we’re Catholics and we don’t believe in superstition!). I think Jesus in his mercy, seeing my “sufferings,” has been giving me the gift of more faith. I am grateful. He will do the same for you. Do not be afraid to give your life in the vocation God has chosen for you.
Priests are poor, weak, sinful human beings. I am just like you. If I can do it, you can do it! Therefore, I beg you – do not settle for less! You can rise above your human weakness! You can stretch out and touch the divinity and experience God’s love for you! It is possible and it is worth it, to follow Christ, to leave behind our past, our selfishness, our doubts and fears, our limited way of thinking, our comforts and habits. It is possible to become a new person, a new creation, to find that joy that inspired the person in the parable to sell everything and buy the field containing the treasure.
Can you imagine if I had said “no” to the bishop when he appointed me to Russell in 2004? By leaving everything I had known in order to come here to a strange people in a strange land, I have received a hundredfold in return. As Jesus promised in another Gospel, “whoever leaves family etc for my sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” In all of you, I have gained hundreds of brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children, and I am grateful for how you have all made me enriched my life over the past 7 years.
When I first arrived in Russell, I was afraid that God might ask something really big of me, like my life . . . after 7 years, I have been discovering what a joy it can be to give it.
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July 17, 2011
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Sixteenth Sunday, Year A, July 17th, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
I have here a stalk of wheat (Versteeg’s farm) a symbol of the children of the kingdom (Mt 13:38). We are this good seed, sown by Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. This seed was sown in our baptism, when we became children of God. But this seed must grow daily and bear fruit, if we are to gain eternal life and “shine like the sun” in the kingdom of our Father (Mt 13:43).
(Children’s liturgy). What do we do with the grains of wheat from this stalk? (We grind it to make flour). And what do we usually make with flour? (Bread). And what do we do with bread at Mass? (Present it as a gift and it becomes the Body of Christ). And what happens when we eat the bread that has become the Body of Christ? (We become the Body of Christ, one with Christ).
Children, as you take this stalk of wheat home, please remember two lessons:
1) like wheat growing together with other wheat in the same field, we must not remain alone, or we will be choked by the weeds and fail to bear fruit.
2) only together can we become bread and the Body of Christ. Can you make bread with a single grain? No. Can we become the Body of Christ alone? No. For Christians to bear fruit, we must stick together like flour with water that sticks together to make dough for bread, we must stick together to become bread and the Body of Christ.
O.K. Now I will say a few more words to the adults: in the parable of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus is teaching us to be both merciful to sinners and to beware of the weeds.
The focus in this parable set in the context of this Sunday’s readings is the mercy of God. We heard in the book of Wisdom that God’s sovereignty over all causes Him to spare all, and that He judges with mildness (Wis 12:16, 18). For this reason, God does not immediately tear out the weeds of the field and punish the wicked. God is patient, hoping that all will come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). We also must be patient and merciful with family or friends who do not believe in Christ, and continue to love them, praying for their conversion.
At the same time, Jesus also teaches us to beware of the weeds. How were they planted, in our souls, our families and communities, our world? They were planted by the Evil One, yes, but when, how? When “everyone was asleep” (Mt 13:25), when we Christians were spiritually asleep.
We must wake up and be vigilant that the weeds now planted do not choke the wheat. Later in the parable, Jesus refers to the weeds that will be burned up as
“causes of sin and all evildoers” (Mt 13:41). The word for “cause of sin” is scandal or “stumbling block,” referring to the bad example of other people that can lead us or even “cause” us to sin.
I am sometimes appalled by the naivete of Christians. Scripture says that “the whole world is under the power of the Evil One” (1 John 5:19), but we act like everything in our culture is good for our soul and fit for consumption. Christians nowadays have almost no discernment about the weeds of the world: bad movies, bad books, bad friends – it’s all good!
What? This is spiritual insanity, to be an indiscriminate consumer of whatever the world puts on our plate. The world is full of weeds that will asphyxiate us if we are not careful, and if we remain alone. One of the best ways to guard against the weeds is for Christians to gather together, to form communities and support each other.
I would like to quote from one of the patron saints of World Youth Day, St. Theresa of Avila. Most of you know that the Pope will be meeting with about a million youth in Spain in August; I will be accompanying the diocese for the pilgrimage and Elizabeth and Catherine Tanguay will be participating from our parish. St. Theresa’s autobiography is one of my favorite books; in these passages,she has some good advice about Christians helping each other:
“I would advise those who practise prayer . . . to cultivate the friendship and company of others who are working in the same way” (58)
“Since people find comfort in the conversation and mutual sympathy of ordinary friendship, even when it is not of the best sort, and enjoy talking of their worldly pleasures, I do not know why those who are beginning truly to love and serve God should not be allowed to discuss their joys and trials with others” (59).
“People are so lukewarm in all that pertains to God that those who serve Him must back one another up if they are to progress” (59).
Christians must back each other up to make progress, to grow; we should discuss our joys and trials with others. This sounds like a call to Christian community (and this was back in 1565!)
I know I have spoken of this many times before, but I will repeat myself because it is so important. And when I arrive in my new parish and for the rest of my life as a priest, I will never tire of repeating this theme: we Christians need to stick together and help each other in the spirit of a family, of communion, of community, of some sort of small Christian communities, where people can gather each week to pray with the Word of God, to our joys and trials, to grow in faith, to learn how to evangelize their friends and neighbours.
When Fr. Paul arrives here, I hope he will share with you some of the fascinating stories he has told me of the vibrancy of the Church in Nigeria, their focus on family, communion, community. We don’t have that here in our culture of single grains, of isolated individuals. We must make a conscious effort to build communion and community or we will be choked by the weeds of the world and die.
In leaving Russell, most of all I will miss all of you, the good seed of wheat planted by Christ. But I will also miss the wheat fields and corn fields, and walking by the fields of Forced Road and Route 200, pausing to contemplate the cows enjoying their summer holidays, grazing peacefully in the fields, not a care in the world!
We too need our holidays too, especially in the warm summer months, time to sit by a lake, read a book, take a nap. Spiritually speaking, however, we need to wake up from our long sleep of sloth and apathy. In our culture, we are good at working hard to make money and buy more things, but we are extremely lazy when it comes to our immortal souls.
In some of my last words to you, I beg you not to remain alone in your faith, and inactive in your parish, a mere passive and even useless observer of other people’s sacrifices. Do not remain a single grain that becomes a withered stalk, choked by weeds that fails to bear fruit, that is eventually gathered up and burned in the unquenchable FIRE!
Share your faith and the Word of God, above all in your family, and if possible, in a small Christian community that actively evangelizes the world. Only together can we become bread and the Body of Christ. And together we can attain eternal life and shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father.
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July 3, 2011
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Fourteenth Sunday, Year A, July 3rd, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
When I was on retreat at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago two weeks ago, I took a walk around their lake (an hour walk), trying to pray instead of worrying about the tremendous challenges facing me in leaving Russell and taking on 2 new jobs, etc . . . I was feeling rather inadequate, anxious and weak before the majesty of God, the mystery of His will, His seemingly impossible demands . .. All of a sudden I saw a path turn off from the main road that circled the lake. Curious, I followed it. In five minutes, it led out into an open space and a building . . . it was a Church, or a shrine of some kind.
I went inside, there was a twenty-foot high altar with a tabernacle topped by a golden monstrance (perpetual adoration) and there in the deep blue of the dome above the sanctuary was a tremendous painting of a Miraculous Medal. Amazing, isn’t it? If you were in a foreign country and stumbled across a Marian shrine with a link to the Miraculous Medal, would you not take this as some sign from God? (I had actually been there once last year. It’s the shrine of Marytown, Illinois. But I had never walked there through the words . . . I was adding to the drama just a bit.)
You see how God answered my prayer in all my worries, anxieties and weaknesses? Where do we go in all our needs? To Jesus, yes, but to Jesus with Mary. Every time I face difficulties in life that surpass my strength, the Mother of God and our Mother is there to teach me, as we heard in today’s Gospel, to be like a child (Mt 11:25), to be gentle and humble in heart (Mt 11:29), to trust in God.
I remember back in 2007, I visited the location in Paris where the Miraculous Medal was revealed to St. Catherine Laboure. I heard this story of a parish priest in Paris at Notre-Dame de Victoire who was discouraged by the lack of results in his priestly ministry. Just when he had decided to quit the parish, he heard a voice during Mass repeat twice, “Consecrate your parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” He did so, and almost immediately his Church was filled to overflowing. Inspired by this story, I came back to Russell and we consecrated our parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the first Saturday of May, 2007. Since (today/yesterday) is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I would like to renew this consecration after Communion today.
After the first consecration, the change was not immediate, but change did come. I am convinced that the gifts of the Holy Spirit that our parish received this past year, through the life in the Spirit seminar and our small Christian communities, came through Mary’s intercession. To be consecrated to Mary means to imitate her life and virtues, to be a vessel for the Holy Spirit. Mary always prepares the way for us to receive the Holy Spirit, to be better conformed to the meek and humble heart of Jesus Christ.
Mary is one of the gifts I would like to leave you as I depart from this parish (though I know you are devoted to her already, I am hoping that some of you will go through with the personal consecration). She is one of the gifts that Jesus left us before He died when He said from the Cross, “Behold your Mother” (Jn 19:27). Leaving this parish is a sort of death for me, as I must say goodbye to a people and place I have known and loved these past 7 years. They say that when people are dying, they become prophets, that the Holy Spirit inspires their last words. Do you think that could happen here and now? (By the way, I also that you will start praying now for me and Fr. Paul during our times of transition).
In a beautiful and inspiring book on the Catherine Doherty’s devotion to Mary, Fr. Dennis Lemieux writes, “Our whole life of Christian effort and struggle . . . is for this alone – to allow Christ to cleanse us of our fear of pain so that we can abandon our efforts to limit our love, to manipulate and control our world” (156).
We might add our whole life of Christian effort should also lead us to have a heart like that of Jesus, a gentle and humble heart. On Friday, the Church celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and (today/ yesterday), the Immaculate Heart of Mary, two hearts that can never be separated. Any devotion to Mary always leads us more quickly, easily and deeply into the heart of Jesus.
She will help us so that we can be cleansed of our fear of pain so that we can abandon our efforts to limit our love, to manipulate and control our world.
I don’t know about you, but I encounter so many people who have surrounded themselves with massive brick walls (prop of a brick) to protect themselves from pain, which unfortunately cut themselves off from loving and being loved. There are even some of you listening to me now who seem to have built a brick wall around their hearts. Why? These are the people who don’t smile at Mass, who don’t pray much or sing, who come forward in the Communion line
to receive the gift of infinite love with bored faces, who don’t even bother to say “Amen.”
I ask these people, “Who hurt you? Or what are you afraid of, that you would be build a wall around your heart and be bored at Mass in the presence of infinite love?” You may feel that you have to protect yourself from some people who have hurt you, but why would you have to protect your heart from Jesus Christ, who assures us in today’s Gospel: “I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Why would you have to protect your heart from the gentle and humble heart of Jesus?
When we are hurt by other people or by life in general, if we are humble and trust in God, we turn to prayer, and/or a Christian friend, and we find the consolation we need. If we are proud, when someone hurts us we take out another brick (usually unconsciously) and build the wall higher. Jesus and Mary are deeply grieved when they see us build the wall that will put us to death. Yes, the wall that will kill us, because we are created by Love for Love, and without love we cannot live. Sometimes, with our wounded nature, and in our pride, we try to live without love and we destroy ourselves.
Take a moment to think of a person or a situation that has hurt you. Don’t be afraid to call it to mind. Imagine yourself taking out a brick(prop) and thinking, “I am not going to let this person (or any person) hurt me again.” But then imagine a Mother’s hand reaching out so delicately to touch your hand. You look up into the face of Mary, with tears in her eyes, saying, “My son, my daughter, you don’t have to do that. Let it go. Come to Jesus who is gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul.”
Mary always leads us closer to Jesus and helps us receive Him in Holy Communion with her own heart, with ever-growing faith, trust and love. After receiving Holy Communion today, we can say in silence, in the words ending the litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine.” And in the words we use in our weekly Holy Hour on Tuesday night, we can pray, “Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, burning with love for us, set our hearts on fire with love for you. Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, may your kingdom come through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
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July 2, 2011
Posted in pastor
at 8:06 pm
Before leaving the parish and the people I have known and loved these past 7 years, I have so much I would like to share with you, which I hope to do in the coming weeks in my homilies. My transfer reminds me that even diocesan priests are missionaries who go where we are sent. The whole Church is missionary by its very nature, as John Paul II reminds us in his encyclical on the Church’s missionary mandate.
He adds: ”the evangelizing activity of the Christian community . . . is the clearest sign of a mature faith. A radical conversion in thinking is required in order to become missionary . . .The Lord is always calling us to come out of ourselves and to share with others the goods we possess, starting with the most precious gift of all – our faith.
The effectiveness of the Church’s organizations, movements, parishes and apostolic works must be measured in the light of this missionary imperative. Only by becoming missionary will the Christian community be able to overcome its internal divisions and tensions, and rediscover its unity and its strength of faith” (The Mission of Christ the Redeemer, #49).
In Christ, Fr. Tim
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