Solemnity of the Dedication of St. Joseph Church
There
is, perhaps, no more famous saint in the Church (after the Blessed Mother) than
St. Francis of Assisi (though I would say that St. Anthony is a close third!),
whose feast we celebrated last week.
Even non-Catholics often have a statue of St. Francis, surrounded with
birds and animals, in their yard.
This saint is often misrepresented–domesticated, we might say. As a priest I know once preached, if we
started talking to animals and calling the sun our brother and the moon our
sister, it wouldn’t be a man in white from the Vatican coming for us, but men
in white coats to take us to a psychiatric ward. Still, even amid the confusing stories that often get warped
over time, there is one I want to focus on today, reported by St. Bonaventure,
himself a spiritual son of St. Francis:
One day when Francis
went out to meditate in the fields he was passing by the church of San Damiano
which was threatening to collapse because of extreme age. Inspired by the Spirit, he went inside
to pray.
Kneeling before an
image of the Crucified…he heard with his bodily ears a voice coming from the
cross, telling him three times: “Francis, go
and repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruin.”
[…] He began
zealously to repair the church materially, although the principle intention of
the words referred to that Church which Christ purchased with his own blood, as
the Holy Spirit afterward made him realize….
When
we think about the dedication of the church, we may think that what we are
primarily celebrating is the physical structure that was consecrated by the
Bishop of Detroit, Most Rev. Casper Borgess on 13 October 1878. That is what our eyes see, just as St.
Francis’ eyes saw the dilapidation of the church of San Damiano. But, this church building itself is a
symbol, a visible sign of an invisible reality, which is meant to remind us
what St. Paul told us in the second reading: “in [Christ] you are also being
built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” We are the living stones and
decorations of the temple of God, and God is making us into the heavenly temple
of the new Jerusalem, “built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.”
The
call that St. Francis heard in 1204 to rebuild the Church of God is still the
call that echoes all these centuries later. God is asking us to rebuild his church. And he is not asking us to raise money
to add on to the building. God is
asking us to be shaped into the living temple of God. The call to rebuild the church of God is the call I am
communicating to you today in the name of God!! God’s church is in need of repairs, and we are the ones to
repair it!!
Since
my arrival here in July, I have listened carefully to what people have told me about
the parish. So many people have
used phrases like, “we used to…”, “years ago…”, “when Adrian was bigger…”. My sense is that there is a great
longing for the glory days of this parish, to return to activity, and joy, and
a full church. And I stand with
you on that goal!! There is no
reason why this parish cannot be one of the greatest parishes in the Diocese of
Lansing. There is no reason why
our parish cannot have glory days once more!! We will do it, not for our own glory, but for the glory of God,
and for the salvation of souls!!
But my excitement to do this is often rained upon by others when they
remind me, as we all know too well, that the city of Adrian and its surrounding
areas is in the midst of an economic downturn. Money is not readily available. And to that I say: that doesn’t matter!! I’m not here to ask you for money. I’m here to ask you to give your life
to Jesus Christ! Not just part of
it, not just one hour on Sunday, but all of it!! Because we are the temple of God. Because we are, all of us, integral members of the Church of
God. And when we band together to
support each other, there is nothing we cannot do if God wills it!
About
a month ago, I saw the PBS special on the Roosevelts. What came to my mind is that during the Great Depression,
people didn’t have more than we have now.
In many cases they had less.
And yet, they were still able to do great things. Not just because the government
provided programs like the TVA, but because people wanted to be active and work
for something greater than themselves.
As a Catholic family, here is our chance. Right now we can band together to proclaim the Gospel of
Jesus Christ and become greater together than we are individually. We are still important as individual
members, but we become something greater when we band together, just as the
individual bricks and stones of a building are important individually, but when
put together in a particular way, builds this beautiful building in which we
worship God.
But
a thriving parish will only happen if we all band together. A few of us cannot bear the entire
burden. We have volunteers,
probably about 10% of the parish, who volunteer for about 90% of the work. That is how burnout happens, and why
people stop volunteering.
And that is when parishes start to die. I’m not asking you to do it all. I’m asking all of us to do a little and to use our gifts and
talents to make this parish a place where we come to know and love the Living
Lord, Jesus Christ, and to share that faith with others. That is how we worship in spirit and
truth. That is how we build up the
church of God. Parishioners of St.
Joseph: go and rebuild the church of God!!