“The parish is a privileged
place where the faithful concretely experience
Church.” John Paul II (The Church in America, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, 1999)
A “privileged place
I came to Incarnation to worship 23
years ago having been gone away from parish life for a while. Although at that
time I was not yet a convicted follower of Christ, it was here where I felt God‘s
call to know him more. God was good and
merciful to me and revealed himself in the Eucharist and in his Word and in the sacrament of Reconciliation. This personal
encounter of being welcomed and loved led me to see with new eyes. I became
aware that my Incarnation parish was a special place that God had prepared for
me and my family. It became a place where he could strengthen, nurture and
sustain me so that I could take it back to my home and work place. The peace I
felt here when I received of Jesus at Communion or when I would go to
Confession allowed me to have that peace within me more deeply. Yes, our parish
is a privileged place!
Over the years I baptized two additional
children at Incarnation, all four children received their First Communion here
and three have celebrated Confirmation. Our
oldest daughter was married here by our Pastor, we have celebrated many funeral
Masses and Remembrance Masses for dear departed family members and friends. At
Incarnation I have wept together with my community, fed the needy and clothed
the poor, prayed for one another, welcomed new members, said good bye to
others, studied God’s Word , shared faith, and come to know each other’s
stories. I learned what a diverse community we are. Yes, we are privileged community!
The people I have met throughout
the years in my parish have marked my spiritual journey in profound ways. I think of Yolanta, an adult Polish American woman who I
became great friends with before she died from cancer when my son was only 1
year old. Although we had only about six
years together, our friendship was solid and strong. When I met her, she used to sit in front of
us at Church. She had suffered car accident years earlier and was left
disabled. She needed a cane to walk. It
was obvious that she was a bunch of energy and determination. Her spirit was
fierce and Catholic, in the purest and best sense of the word! One day after
Mass she turned around, shook my hand and said, “my name is Yolanta, with a ‘t’”. She and her family became very special to us.
I learned their story. I was inspired by their faith and how it had
sustained her parents through World War II, the Holocaust, forced to work as farm laborers
when they immigrated to this country and prospered so that their children
(Yolanta was one of two) could live peacefully and worship God in their Catholic faith.
We ate with them in their home, prayed with them, learned to love Polish food, and
share in their Polish traditions.
If I ever missed Mass, Yolanta would leave a
phone message that went something like: “Where the bloody h_ll were you? Call
me!” Yolanta loved standing by the front
doors of our church each Sunday and personally welcome each person that walked
in. This was not an official duty, this was just Yolanta being herself. This was truly someone who was
Catholic. The last memory I have of her is at my son’s birthday party, when she
and her family shared this special day with me and my family. She was there for a short bit, very sick
fighting Cancer, but she did not want to miss this special day in our son’s
life. She was not going to “bloody miss his birthday!” She passed on not too many weeks later. Yolanta was sharing with me what she had received
from God: love in huge, generous amounts. She is a very powerful reminder for
me of how our parish is a privileged place.
The Church is a privileged place
because it is where we celebrate the miracle of all miracles and gift of all
gifts: the Paschal mystery. Jesus suffered, died and resurrected for us,
sinners. In our parish, Body and Blood of Christ has been shared and celebrated
every single day for 50 years. What a blessing!
Indeed, Incarnation is a privileged
place as the Holy Father reminded us. We celebrate Mass together and we become Christ-like
to one another. We are united to his Body, each of us having a part to play, through
our baptism. (1 Cor. 12:27) Together we are Jesus’ caring hands, we are his
loving glance, and we are his soothing words. We celebrate 50 years as a Eucharistic
community, as a parish, as our spiritual home.
A “concretely experience Church.”
We are not perfect because we are
human, but there is a divine dimension to our community. As a parish we can be
sacrament. The definition of sacrament according to our catechism is a special
symbol (efficacious symbol) that points to another reality and brings about the
very reality that it points to. Jesus, for example, points to God’s love. He IS
truly what he represents. Our parish points to God’s true presence among His
people. Our parish points to that reality!
Today is a great opportunity to
think about how we as active members of our parish have an incredible
responsibility to be sacrament to one another! Being parish means to take
seriously the social dimension of our encounter with the Risen Lord. “He who does not love his brother, whom he
has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 Jn 4:20) In our parish I have experienced members
sacrifice for others; share their time, their talents and their treasures with
the community. I have seen men and women
dedicated to their work in our parish, doing most of their serving away from
the lime light. I have experienced it personally, as the times my parish prayed
for my sick son during his surgery,
visited my loved one at their death bed, sent me cards, held me up in very
difficult moments and celebrated with me when God blessed us. Many of these parishioners did not know me
personally, and yet, I felt united with them in a special way in those moments.
Through them I felt God’s hand in my life.
Incarnation Parish has been
blessed by God. We have seen our community change, we have grown, and at times
the changes were not easy. Today we gather and we give thanks for those who
came before us to make Incarnation the parish it is today. Now, we must be mindful that we too must
carry on the work of Christ, to be concrete examples of God’s love for everyone
who comes through our doors and take it to others who may never enter our
doors, always remembering how privileged this place continues to be.
Let us continue to work as a
parish in solidarity with our Pastor Michael Suszynski, our Bishop Robert Lynch
and with our Pope Francis I. Together lets all be reminded of St. Luke’s words “From those who have received much, much
will be required.”
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