Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

It is still early in the process of preparing next weekend’s homily since it is only Monday, but I’m working on my homilies which I will give at all the Masses this weekend for Parish Life Weekend. I am certain that your happiness, your sense of being fulfilled, even your salvation depends upon your and your family’s involvement in the life of the Church. Use Parish Life Weekend as a time of grace to be fulfilled.

I have never known a single person who has gotten involved, really involved, in ministry who hasn’t said that it changed their life.

So I begin my homily preparation for next weekend asking the question, “Why is that? How can there be so many people even just in our small sphere of experience who have left the Church, who have decided they were unfulfilled, who feel empty?”

It is because most people today live life on the  level of emotion only. They have never actually, really, done anything about it. They have never looked real poverty (and I don’t mean lack of money) right in the eyes of another human being and realized that God was asking them to unleash the power of grace that is within them to do something to alleviate that suffering, or to make injustice right, or to empower another to hope. Our world is a place where, too often, self absorption has shut out the possibility of change, transformation, grace, conversion.

Today I want to tell you that our faith is not a  feeling. Faith is a gift you received in Baptism, a supernatural virtue that God gave you so that you could look at the world with the eyes of Christ, as a member of that Mystical Body. “I’ve lost my faith” is such a common statement today… but that is, actually, impossible. It is a gift that God gave you. But as long as you let it remain on the shallow level of feelings it will never grow roots. You will wake up one morning and feel that it is gone, a feeling that has no more value than feeling good about having it. To activate faith in your life you must do something about it. You must act. You must be involved in God’s work of grace and renewal in his creation, an ambassador of his Word, a true disciple. Faith is trust that God is here, and sends us out to do something about the rest of the world that is waiting to know that trust in God for themselves.

Today I want to tell you that hope is not a feeling, either. Hope is another theological virtue, a supernatural virtue (these are things that we would never come up with on our own) like faith that you received in Baptism, so that you can confront the apparent despair of the world with the eyes of Christ, as a member of that Mystical Body. “I have lost hope” is another common misunderstanding. You can’t lose hope, it is in your heart sacramentally by God’s design. It is a gift that God gave you. Hope is a little different, it seems to me that you learn to know hope by the example of others who teach us to shine like stars in the sometimes nighttime of everyday life. Saints who endured great suffering or people who held onto God in the most difficult times of persecution, turmoil, impossible odds, make us strong, and help us to see a way forward in hope when our nature tells us to despair. You can’t lose hope because it is a gift God gave you. But you can make it real through serving others. When we give hope to others, we know it is real in ourselves.

Finally, love, the third gift you can’t lose, is the most obvious. The reason that so many marriages have failed in our world is because love is still mistaken for a feeling. Love is a commitment. The theological virtue of love (charity) might feel good (one would hope so, certainly in marriage) or it might be terribly difficult and painful. Consider how parents might suffer for their children, or a friend might give up his life to save his friend. This virtue received in Baptism as we are incorporated into that Mystical Body of Christ is totally above our nature, to love as Jesus loves, from the Cross. Love is sacrifice, and though it might not make us happy in the moment, its realization will be the deepest joy you will ever know. But again, it will never be realized in your life unless you act.

Confirmation is the time Jesus Christ asks all of us who received these gifts to put them into action with the power of his Holy Spirit. We have time to make it happen.

Our Parish Life Weekend is your opportunity. Find what you are looking for in loving service to God and others. Allow your prize to be outside yourself, giving as Christ gives. Time in prayer, talents in service, supporting the work of God through his Church. Offer God your love.

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

At the welcome and introduction of each Mass, you may have heard the Lector say “We are not complete without you.” These are words of true longing, but also theological words: we  miss people who were once with us; we recognize our lack of diversity when we know that our baptized brothers and sisters are divided up all over Sunday according to bad decisions in the past, both personal and churchwide; we also know that Jesus’ prayer on the night before he died was clearly that we get it together and realize that we are not here for ourselves, but for something much bigger, which we call the Body of Christ.

It is time to go to work, once again this year.

It is the responsibility of each member of the Body of Christ, which has literally taken place in God’s plan at Saint Mary in Fredericksburg, to “come to Christ’s full stature,” to recognize  God’s call and be thankful, then to do something about it. Parish Life Weekend is the time for each and every person in this Body to take their place, to learn and to teach, to feed and to be fed, to reach out in healing and to be healed, to comfort and to find peace in the work that God, in his Mercy, has given us to do. There is no doubt in my heart that at this moment, God has no other plan for us than that we grow together in prayer and loving service and know God’s plan in each of our lives and the life of Saint Mary. To be reconciled, to be holy and wholly his. The knowledge of God is the science of the saints, and we are all called to be saints.

By now you surely have received your Parish Renewal Handbook and Annual Report  which contains a catalog of ministries and contact information, as well as a spiritual development of our parish theme, “People of Thankfulness, Sowing Seeds of Mercy.” If you haven’t  already, I ask you to read it and prepare your hearts to make a commitment to God and the life of this parish in the year to come with a plan: how are you going to express your thanks  to God in the coming year? How much time do you plan to pray? In which ministry do you plan to serve, using your special talents to build up God’s kingdom in the way that is unique to your gifts? And how much are you willing to give to support financially the mission of this parish and her many works? Ultimately, it is a question of how much you are willing to give your own heart to God, because where your heart is, there is your treasure.

Hearts only grow through thankfulness. Gratitude is the secret to just about every aspect of the spiritual life and the growth of community. Without it we are drawn into ourselves, trapped in self-centeredness and isolation. The kind of individualism that we see so common today is exactly what could ultimately destroy culture, families, and churches. It is already happening.

One who is forgiven much loves much. And this person is one who realizes the secret of self is that we give ourself away in love and service. How important are your things in life? For what are you most thankful? We realize that the best things in life aren’t things. They aren’t things we have earned, or bought, or found. They are gifts—grace, relationships, love, faith and hope— that are given to us by God, gifts that won’t wear out or decay. We want to return them to him a hundred-fold. Honestly, it isn’t possible to be truly a Christian and not be a person who gives. We are made in the image and likeness of God, who pours himself out for us.

Every family, please, return a card and get involved. We will place our commitment cards in the offertory baskets at next week’s Masses.

God will certainly bless you.