What is the tallest building in the world?   According to Google, which never is wrong, it is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 2717 feet followed by the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai at 2073 feet.  What wonderful feats of architecture to build something this tall and it stays standing.   However , today’s first reading reminds us that before God, they are nothing.   Before the infinite majesty of God who created everything, these buildings are mere ants and are insignificant.   Those who had them built are filled with pride that because of these buildings, the world sees their affluence and their power.  Before the endless mercy of God, these people are like dust in the wind (to quote the band Kansas) and their life span is a blip in human history.

In the eyes of God, no one is short or insignificant.  We don’t even need to climb a tree for God to notice us.  In the eyes of God, each of us is the tallest thing and the most precious creation he made.  Think about it, God didn’t build the tallest building or create some extraordinary event to tell show how much we are loved.  God became human, taking on all our frailty and imperfections except sin, to embody for us the immense mystery of Love. Why?  In the eyes of God, no one is insignificant or not worth being loved.

I think the hardest part of faith is to accept this.   Some of people get the message that they are not good enough to be loved.  Others, because of sin or their actions, feel that they will never be forgiven or even worthy of forgiveness.  Still others, feel that God is not important or because a prayer was not answered, they are insignificant or worse, that God never loved them enough to give them what they wanted.  Like Zacchaeus, we think we can only hide in a tree and see Jesus, but, Jesus will never have anything to do with us.

How far from the truth that is.  God’s love is as immense as the universe and deep as a bottomless well.  God wants to dwell with us and invites us to open the doors of our lives to him.  God desires to dwell within the house of our hearts.  The reality Zacchaeus teaches us is that no matter where we hide, no matter what we have done in our life’s, God will find us and want to be in our lives, even we reject him or hide from him.

My brothers and sisters, the tallest buildings in the world will not last, the latest discovery or fad or technology is dust measured against the immensity of God.  Jesus wants to dwell in your life right now, will you let him in or hide in the tree of fear and doubt?

Fr Tom

St Paul, in today’s second reading, is reflecting on his life as he is brought to Rome to be tried as a Christian. He knows full well that he would be martyred for the sake of Jesus. He sums up his life in the following words:

I am already being poured out like a libation,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.

Our faith community is also on a journey heading towards the new Jerusalem. Like St Paul, this Sunday is an opportunity to take a step back and ask ourselves: How well are we doing? Jay and Lora, our trustees will be giving their bi annual report this morning.

Back in June, I put forward my goal for the parish: that we become Spirit filled disciples of Jesus. I think the Spirit of Jesus is truly active and alive in our parish and we are striving to be true to the mission of the Church: to spread the Gospel by word and action. However unlike St Paul, we are not at the end of the journey. Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that we need to be people of prayer. Only in prayer, can we accomplish the mission. Every program and every activity of the community needs to be measured in how it helps us be people of mission. I know that I have fallen into the trap of measuring things by how many people attend; not to see the growth that occurs in the people who attend an event. This is God’s church and He is the one who is leading us; this is the lesson I need to learn.

Some goals I would like to set for us are the following:
• To grow in our life of prayer through Scripture sharing and periodic small faith sharing groups
• To enter with you into a time of reflection on who we are: one tool we will be using will be a book called “Rebuilt” to help us see how another parish like ours was revitalized into a parish of faith and action.
• To listen to your needs and desires for this parish and to see what may be possible

With God’s grace and our humility, we can make this happen.

At this time I would like to invite Jay and Lora up for their reports to you as the trustees of this parish.

Lora

Good morning everyone. It is so nice to be with you this morning. Hope you all enjoyed the crisp but beautiful day yesterday. Not so much today! I have brought a new partner in crime with me to the ambo today. Jay O’Connor has stepped into the Trustee role vacated by Dave Hans (who I see is cheering us on from the pew today). Jay and I are grateful for the opportunity to share a little bit about the state of our parish with you.

The Church of St. Mary’s continues to be an active community. The halls are alive with the 375 students enrolled in Faith Formation. Thank you to our Catechists for these young ones, and our adult parishioners as well! Our Liturgical and Music ministries continue to give us wonderful opportunities for weekend worship. This year to date we have celebrated 25 baptisms, 5 marriages, 18 First Reconciliation and Eucharist, confirmed 32 young people and lovingly prayed for the eternal rest of 11 departed souls at their funerals.

Week after week we open our space to various organizations in the area. A wonderful opportunity to outreach to others in the community. Our ministry volunteers carry forth Christ’s mission and define who we are by the work they do for others. We are in the midst of Reverence of Life month with the showers of baby items. There are many opportunities to be spirit filled disciples and new people with new ideas are always welcome! One new activity underway is outreach to Veteran’s experiencing homeless. The food drive is one component of that. There are so many who need our help – please continue to do so!

More than 300 of us participated in the Finding Your Greatness event in September and learned about the four things that makes us a Dynamic Catholic: Prayer, Study, Generosity, Evangelization. Do you remember making a commitment to improve your practice of at least one of those things? What did you commit to? How are you doing? Don’t be discouraged, it’s never too late to start, or restart!

Our Parish Council is working on a couple of strategic activities to help us become even healthier parishes. First is a definition of one common mission statement to cover both the Church of St. Mary and St. John the Evangelist/St. Joseph’s. We are using the “3 big words” format as a way to focus and simplify our mission so it can be easily understood and repeated by all. What 3 big words would you use to describe who we are and what we do? We brainstormed about 30 words at our last meeting and will narrow it down to our favorite 10 or so. We will present those 10 to you all for your feedback, and voting for the final three. Stay tuned!

Another activity of the Parish Council is using a book club format. As Father Tom mentioned, we are reading Rebuilt – the story of a local community church brought back to life as a vibrant Catholic parish. We are hoping to learn from one parish’s successful journey and apply it to our own desire to make our parishes the best version of ourselves. We’ll keep you posted.

As a parish community, we are embarking on a transformational period. The unprecedented challenges our church is facing requires us to strengthen the bonds we have with each other and with our faith. This is not the time to give up. It is the time to fight for the Church we vision. Will you join us?

Jay

Thank you Lora and good morning everyone. It is truly an honor to be standing before you today as a Trustee.

I have been asked to present an update on some of the financial conditions of the parish. The good news is that for the fiscal year ending in June, the parish’s revenues were greater than expenses. In this day and age, that is an accomplishment that we should be proud of and acknowledge the hard work of the staff, parishioners and volunteers who work tirelessly to carry out our mission in the most efficient and often most cost-effective ways.

We cannot however, think that this will automatically continue given that the largest piece of our revenues, the regular collections, again dropped from the prior year while the largest piece of the parish’s expenses, salary and benefits, increased slightly. While we might wish that what happened with the fishes and loaves will happen with our money, we know that our situation is not unique. But with the steady hand of Fr. Tom, our Finance Committee and so many of you, we can and will keep moving forward.

The new year brings new projects and new ideas. The renovation of the men’s bathroom, a project that came out of our Reigniting the Faith campaign, is almost complete and then work will begin on the ladies’ room. Collection for the Bishop’s Appeal is just over 80% right now and letters have been sent to those families that we have not heard from. In addition, the annual golf outing in August raised almost $7,000 with 64 golfers and more than that for dinner. Clearly there continues to be wonderful support for the church. We will need to continue these efforts and look for any and all opportunities to create additional revenue sources, not just for the sake of raising money but hopefully as a result of activities that continue to foster the community that is St. Mary’s.

Speaking of which, we hope to soon hold a talking group about an event or events that might be held in the place of the gala. There has been interest expressed in doing something and we want to start to gather ideas. I have volunteered to lead that first discussion and would love to not be the only one in the room so please look for an announcement in the bulletin if you are interested in being part of that.
No doubt, we will potentially face financial challenges in the future. However, as has been demonstrated so many times in the past, the family that is St. Mary’s has always met those challenges and then some. We ask that you continue to support our parish, encourage others to do the same and pray for all that we need to continue our faith journey.

Thank you.

Imagine with me this scene. You are lost in the woods, disoriented because it all looks the same, you can’t find your trail map. What do you do? Most of us will begin to feel some level of panic, some will begin to run in different directions trying to find the way back, maybe the more experienced hiker will read the stars and moss on the tree. For most of us, our fear and panic will force us to sit down and wait, to hope that someone will know we are lost and call the rangers.
Our life of faith is the same. Like the lost sheep, we run from one thing to another trying to find peace, hope, joy and find that whatever it is will works for a little while and then stop, so we eventually run to something else. God will continue to search us out, even if we don’t want to be found. Eventually, we run out of options and sit down, and God is right there waiting to pick us up, heal us and bring us home. What greater happiness can there be!
Our God is a patient God. He will wait for us even though His heart is longing for us to be home with him. Like the father in the third parable, God waits for us to come home and will embrace us no matter what we may have done or the choices we have made. The younger son and the older son both treated the father with great disrespect. By demanding his inheritance, the younger son treated his father as if he was dead. The older son yells at him and treats him like he is a servant. Unfortunately, we treat God the same way. He looks for us, he loves us, he is always there for us, and we treat him as if he is dead, only turning to him when we need something. Like the older brother, we demand an answer to a prayer that we want  exactly the way we want it, then we get angry with him when we don’t get our way.  We stamp our feet like little children.  We walk away from him when he expects us to actually live the Gospel message. However,  the father of the parable, God sits and waits with a longing and loving heart. He searches for us like a shepherd looking for a lost sheep. He rejoices like the woman who has found the coin.
So, my brothers and sisters, we can try to find our own way and rely only on our selves or we can sit down and allow ourselves to be found. God is looking for you and me: will you let him find you? God is sitting looking down the road and awaiting your return: Isn’t it time to come home? We are all the lost sheep, we are all the coin that was lost, and we are both brothers. And yet, God loves us all.

Jesus echoes the same sentiment I hear from many people in the church world today and one I have. How do we get more people involved in the life of the parish? Where are many of our young families and families with teens? Books are being written about the new evangelization and “how to’s”. There is no book that will have the answers and no program will turn the tide.
Jesus tells us what will turn the tide: a living relationship with Him and not being afraid to publicly let people know who we are, even when it means giving up our comfortable Christianity. We need to be on fire with the same Holy Spirit that He sent into the world on the Day of Pentecost and continues to send the Spirit today. It is no mistake the Spirit is depicted by fire.
What we need to do from a practical perspective is this:
• A radical commitment to Jesus and to the Gospel, not just once, but every moment of every day. Will this be easy? Jesus reminds us that a radical commitment will set us apart and even our families will not understand. This radical commitment can only be sustained by a life of prayer and the celebration of the Sacraments. This is a non-negotiable.
• A willingness to change. The Saints teach us that we need to change to have this radical commitment. St Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa, St Oscar Romero of El Salvador. Kateri Tekawitha
• Finding ways to be put our faith into action. I don’t want anyone to think we are not doing anything. We are and we do it well! Our next step is to expand that and draw more people to Christ. What can we do as a community to go outside our doors and do for others? I have a few ideas; and so do you. Let’s make something happen!
• Finally, by using all the things we have at our hands to witness. If your call is to stand and preach on the street, go for it. For most of us, it will be the witness of our actions. We can use social media: send tweet or use Instagram, Facebook, whatever else is out there. On a Sunday morning message someone and: tell them that God loves them, invite them to Mass. During the week, send a short verse of Sacred Scripture, send a snippet of something you read about faith or Jesus, etc. We see how social media can be divisive, violent and negative. Let us set the world on fire with peace and the message of Christianity using the same tools.
My brothers and sisters, as a community let us pray.

Come Holy Spirit and ignite our hearts with fire of the seven-fold gifts. Recreate our hearts and your Church. Give us the grace to radically commit ourselves to the mission to help others know and love Jesus. Help us to do the same. Send us forth from this Holy Eucharist and set the world on fire with your Divine love. Amen

What’s really important?

After reading today’s Scriptures, I have been thinking about this most of the week.  I wish I could say it was always God, but let’s be honest, it isn’t.  Some days, it is my schedule, my need to get something done, some errand I need to run, my need to do something charitable, my time especially, when I think it is being wasted, and my list continues.

What I notice in that list is the prevalence of the word, “I”.  If I hear Jesus right, what is important is putting His Father first not me, no matter what.  The parable is a striking reminder that if all the focus is me, even in ministry, then the barn I think I am filling for a rainy day is really a waste of my time.  By putting Jesus first, then everything we are about reflects His life that was spent putting the mission of the Father before anything.  He went to His Cross not to gain glory for himself, but to free you and me from death and sin.  He embraced His suffering to show us how much we are loved.  Even at that most profound moment, he even gave himself away in the mystery of the Eucharist and 2000 years later, we still experience it here at the altar of the Lord.

Even in parish life, we can get narrow sighted.  We can focus on us and what we are about forgetting our call to do the mission of Jesus.  Everything we do as a parish community should be for the honor and glory of God and not us.  I think the challenge for all of us is to look beyond ourselves and to look to that Cross and remind ourselves that our life as a community of faith is because of the one who is there.  Even after receiving Holy Communion, we need to go back to our pews and praise the God who we just received.

What gets in the way of accepting Jesus the center of our lives?  Simply, I think our pride and our need to control everything.  Our faith is a gift and not something to inflate our egos and make us better than anyone.  Putting God first is true humility.  Control is an illusion that we all fall into and the parable is the best example of that.

So, my brothers and sisters, I invite you to consider all week this simple question:

What is really important to you?  Is it Jesus or you?