19th Sunday of Ordinary Time
You've probably noticed that Father Gary and I are almost finished painting the church. Actually, Tom Turner, a member of our parish is doing the painting. If I had anything to do with it there would be paint on the carpet and paint on the pews and paint everywhere else. I'm not much of a painter.
I'll have to admit I was a little skeptical at first. Don't tell anybody but I liked the old blue. I know. I was in the minority, but I liked it. Maybe it's because I'm a hockey fan. Maybe it's just because I like to be counter-cultural. But I thought it was pretty. So, like I said, I was a little skeptical about the softer colors.
As it turns out, I'm pleasantly surprised. It's very nice. It definitely makes the church look bigger. And the soft contrasts are very peaceful and relaxing. It's definitely an improvement.
I was sitting here the other morning admiring the paint job and thinking about the places where we encounter God. In the first reading Elijah meets an angel while he's sitting under a broom tree. I didn't even know brooms grew on trees. Anyway, it does seem like an unusual place to have a life-changing experience like that. But the angel gave Elijah a cake and a jug of water. Strengthened by the food and drink, he got up and walked for forty days and forty nights. I guess you could say he cleaned up his life under the broom tree. You could say that, but you probably wouldn't.
We all know that God is everywhere, but when we want to meet Him, we usually think of coming to a place that we call a church. And we come here to receive the Bread of Life, the Eucharist, just like Jesus tells us to do in today's Gospel. But how important is the location where we receive Him? I've been to mass in great Cathedrals, like the one here in St. Louis. I've been to churches in Ireland that are hundreds of years old, built when they really knew how to build a church. I've been to mass at a church where the Blessed Mother once appeared. As a scout leader, I even went to mass sitting on a log where a tree stump served as the altar. I've even assisted Fr. Gary at mass on the parade grounds at Jefferson Barracks. We were standing on the back of a flat bed trailer.
Jesus once said that whenever two or more are gathered in His name, He would be there. So how important is the place where we worship?
Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN, the Catholic TV network, took a lot of heat for spending millions of dollars to build a shrine to the Blessed Sacrament at her headquarters in Alabama. Some folks thought that the money would have been better spent feeding the hungry. Our former Archbishop Burke was also criticized for building a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wisconsin. You have to ask the question, "How elaborate a building do we need to worship God?" Clearly we don't need a building at all. But all through history men have built temples and churches to house their religious services, and we've always made them as grand as time and money allowed.
Our new paint certainly doesn't rival the mosaics at the Cathedral Basilica, but in our humble way, it's our means of honoring God's presence in the tabernacle, on the altar, and in the pews.
Last weekend was very busy for me. Friday evening I officiated at a wake service for a young woman who passed away much too soon. It was a very small gathering at a very old south city funeral home. In fact I was told that it was the first funeral home built west of the Mississippi. It was a fairly somber service as I tried to come up with something to say to comfort the lady's two young daughters and the rest of the family. The best word I can come up with to describe the evening would be humble. And God was definitely there.
Then on Saturday, Father and I participated in the wedding ceremony of our music director, Adam Wright and his new bride Beth. It was held at St. Gabriel's in the city, which is a beautiful church. As Father told you last weekend, the wedding was wonderful. Not because of the location, it would have been just as wonderful if had been held in any church, but because of the time and effort that was put into preparing for the service. There was a full choir, there were two priests and two deacons, three seminarians, and a server, our own Brandon Dake, on the altar. The vestments were all ornate and fancy, not something that Father or I were very comfortable with, but one thing is for sure. Nobody left that church not knowing that they'd been to a Catholic wedding. There were a lot of young people present and I hope they got the hint.
Then on Sunday, I baptized little Finnegan Gorman. He's the son of Bernadette and William Gorman. Bernadette is the daughter of Maryann and Rich Heavrin, long-time parishioners. She graduated from our parish school in the same class as my oldest son. Bernadette and William live in Omaha. They came back to St. Louis, back to St. Bernadette to have Finnegan baptized just as they traveled all the way from Phonex to have their older son baptized. Why? Because this is home. They have lovely churches in Nebraska, but they chose to travel all the way to St. Louis because they know that Christ is present here to them, especially Bernadette, in a very special way.
So, three days, three very different services in three very different locations. Here's the thing. We call the building a church. But the real church isn't the building, it's the people inside the building. The Gormans didn't drive all those miles because of the building. They came to be with their family, their natural family and their church family.
Beth and Adam's wedding would have been just as special, just as holy, just as faith-filled if it had been held here rather than at St. Gabe's. But our building wouldn't have been big enough. Father and I were there, Brandon was there, our choir was there, and some of you were there representing our parish family. The wedding didn't come to St. Bernadette, so St. Bernadette went to the wedding. Our building may be small, but the reach of our parish family has no physical boundaries.
Finally, at the wake service on Friday I got the nicest compliment I think I've ever received, but it was more a statement about you than about me. One of the family members, a parishioner came up to me afterward and said, "That's why I go to St. Bernadette."
Think about that for a minute. Our parish numbers are growing. People are choosing to come here. Why? Because you people take Jesus' words "Love one another as I have loved you" seriously. Sure we have good music and outstanding preaching.......We have convenient free parking, we're close to major highways, and now we have a nifty new paint job, but that's all window dressing.
We all come here for two things. One is the Eucharist. Like He said, "This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die." The other is the community. That's you and me. If we didn't have that, this would just be a former movie theater with a new coat of paint.
I'll have to admit I was a little skeptical at first. Don't tell anybody but I liked the old blue. I know. I was in the minority, but I liked it. Maybe it's because I'm a hockey fan. Maybe it's just because I like to be counter-cultural. But I thought it was pretty. So, like I said, I was a little skeptical about the softer colors.
As it turns out, I'm pleasantly surprised. It's very nice. It definitely makes the church look bigger. And the soft contrasts are very peaceful and relaxing. It's definitely an improvement.
I was sitting here the other morning admiring the paint job and thinking about the places where we encounter God. In the first reading Elijah meets an angel while he's sitting under a broom tree. I didn't even know brooms grew on trees. Anyway, it does seem like an unusual place to have a life-changing experience like that. But the angel gave Elijah a cake and a jug of water. Strengthened by the food and drink, he got up and walked for forty days and forty nights. I guess you could say he cleaned up his life under the broom tree. You could say that, but you probably wouldn't.
We all know that God is everywhere, but when we want to meet Him, we usually think of coming to a place that we call a church. And we come here to receive the Bread of Life, the Eucharist, just like Jesus tells us to do in today's Gospel. But how important is the location where we receive Him? I've been to mass in great Cathedrals, like the one here in St. Louis. I've been to churches in Ireland that are hundreds of years old, built when they really knew how to build a church. I've been to mass at a church where the Blessed Mother once appeared. As a scout leader, I even went to mass sitting on a log where a tree stump served as the altar. I've even assisted Fr. Gary at mass on the parade grounds at Jefferson Barracks. We were standing on the back of a flat bed trailer.
Jesus once said that whenever two or more are gathered in His name, He would be there. So how important is the place where we worship?
Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN, the Catholic TV network, took a lot of heat for spending millions of dollars to build a shrine to the Blessed Sacrament at her headquarters in Alabama. Some folks thought that the money would have been better spent feeding the hungry. Our former Archbishop Burke was also criticized for building a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wisconsin. You have to ask the question, "How elaborate a building do we need to worship God?" Clearly we don't need a building at all. But all through history men have built temples and churches to house their religious services, and we've always made them as grand as time and money allowed.
Our new paint certainly doesn't rival the mosaics at the Cathedral Basilica, but in our humble way, it's our means of honoring God's presence in the tabernacle, on the altar, and in the pews.
Last weekend was very busy for me. Friday evening I officiated at a wake service for a young woman who passed away much too soon. It was a very small gathering at a very old south city funeral home. In fact I was told that it was the first funeral home built west of the Mississippi. It was a fairly somber service as I tried to come up with something to say to comfort the lady's two young daughters and the rest of the family. The best word I can come up with to describe the evening would be humble. And God was definitely there.
Then on Saturday, Father and I participated in the wedding ceremony of our music director, Adam Wright and his new bride Beth. It was held at St. Gabriel's in the city, which is a beautiful church. As Father told you last weekend, the wedding was wonderful. Not because of the location, it would have been just as wonderful if had been held in any church, but because of the time and effort that was put into preparing for the service. There was a full choir, there were two priests and two deacons, three seminarians, and a server, our own Brandon Dake, on the altar. The vestments were all ornate and fancy, not something that Father or I were very comfortable with, but one thing is for sure. Nobody left that church not knowing that they'd been to a Catholic wedding. There were a lot of young people present and I hope they got the hint.
Then on Sunday, I baptized little Finnegan Gorman. He's the son of Bernadette and William Gorman. Bernadette is the daughter of Maryann and Rich Heavrin, long-time parishioners. She graduated from our parish school in the same class as my oldest son. Bernadette and William live in Omaha. They came back to St. Louis, back to St. Bernadette to have Finnegan baptized just as they traveled all the way from Phonex to have their older son baptized. Why? Because this is home. They have lovely churches in Nebraska, but they chose to travel all the way to St. Louis because they know that Christ is present here to them, especially Bernadette, in a very special way.
So, three days, three very different services in three very different locations. Here's the thing. We call the building a church. But the real church isn't the building, it's the people inside the building. The Gormans didn't drive all those miles because of the building. They came to be with their family, their natural family and their church family.
Beth and Adam's wedding would have been just as special, just as holy, just as faith-filled if it had been held here rather than at St. Gabe's. But our building wouldn't have been big enough. Father and I were there, Brandon was there, our choir was there, and some of you were there representing our parish family. The wedding didn't come to St. Bernadette, so St. Bernadette went to the wedding. Our building may be small, but the reach of our parish family has no physical boundaries.
Finally, at the wake service on Friday I got the nicest compliment I think I've ever received, but it was more a statement about you than about me. One of the family members, a parishioner came up to me afterward and said, "That's why I go to St. Bernadette."
Think about that for a minute. Our parish numbers are growing. People are choosing to come here. Why? Because you people take Jesus' words "Love one another as I have loved you" seriously. Sure we have good music and outstanding preaching.......We have convenient free parking, we're close to major highways, and now we have a nifty new paint job, but that's all window dressing.
We all come here for two things. One is the Eucharist. Like He said, "This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die." The other is the community. That's you and me. If we didn't have that, this would just be a former movie theater with a new coat of paint.
posted by Mike at 4:17 PM
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