Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Today's reflection is based on Fr. Satish Joseph's installation of Pastor at Immaculate Conception and St.Helen Parishes. This homily is his vision for Immaculate Conception, since this website is of the Immaculate Conception faith formation ministry. He wrote a separate one for St. Helen Parish, which will be available on www.sthelenparish.org).
It is with immense gratitude to God, to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and to the parishioners of Immaculate Conception and St. Helen parishes, that today, I assume the awesome responsibility of Pastor of both these parishes. As I do so, I ask God for two graces: humility and wisdom - humility to know that pastorship means to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, the Good Shepherd; and wisdom to view each person and situation through God’s eyes. Even though Fr. Vincent is new to our communities, I consider him integral to the ministries at both parishes. I believe that God has placed him among us for a reason.
Please allow me to share how I understand the role of a pastor and his relationship to a parish. While this is not a comprehensive statement, it would like to give you an insight into my thinking, my spirituality, my leadership, and my ministry. As usual, God speaks to me in three points.
Parish with A Vision: A Community of Disciples
When I first assumed the role of Associate Pastor of St. Immaculate Conception and Helen parishes, Fr. Dave assigned me the responsibility of both leading and administering IC. I had no experience in parish administration. However, I knew one thing - being a maintenance parish was not an option. We had to be an intentional parish community - a community with a vision and a community that knew its call and its mission. Today, I am very grateful for God’s wisdom and grace, as the then small parish staff, the Parish Pastoral Council, a few parishioners and I, embarked on the delicate yet crucial task of developing a vision for our parish. In prayer, reflection, and some deliberate decision making, we made an effort to align ourselves with the vision of Jesus Christ. With a sense of awe and humility we rediscovered Jesus’ call to his very first followers- the call to discipleship. Through our annual parish retreats and discipleship training seminars, we communicated that vision to the entire parish. Very soon the entire parish community had embraced this vision. Today, Immaculate Conception parish thinks of herself as a “Community of Disciples.” We define discipleship as “Think like Jesus, Talk like Jesus, and Act like Jesus.'
Discipleship is the most basic call of the gospel. Each person and every community that intends to follow Jesus is first and foremost called to discipleship. This means that every parishioner is invited to think of their Catholicism, their spirituality, their religiosity, indeed their entire life as a personal response to Jesus. The vision of Immaculate Conception Parish is to facilitate reflection, to create the conditions, and offer the possibilities for each parishioner to discover, grow, and live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Our worship, the preaching, our social gatherings, our faith formation, our finances, our administration, our organizations, our ministries, everything we do, and every breath we take, we strive to accomplish it as an act of discipleship. As an individual parishioner and as a community we try to think like Jesus, talk like Jesus and act like Jesus. If Immaculate Conception Parish exists, and if each one of us has become a parishioner, it is because we are responding to the gospel call of discipleship. In the coming years, as individuals and as a community, we will strive toward growing in discipleship. As pastor, I am committed to this vision.
Christ-centered Parish/Gospel-centered Parish
When Pope Francis became the Pope, he spoke about his vision for the church. According to him, the church faces three temptations: the temptation to turn the Gospel message into an ideology; the temptation to run the church like a business; and the temptation of clericalism.” I too am aware of the temptations for a parish - the temptation to maintain the status-quo, to be a maintenance parish, to yearn for financial security at the cost of mission, to be elitist, exclusive, and businesslike for the sake of efficiency. To avoid falling into these temptations, I envision parishes as “Gospel-centered communities.” As Immaculate Conception Parish, we must be like the disciples who gathered around Jesus Christ. It was from Him that the disciples learnt what it means to be Church. It was from Him they learnt love, mercy, compassion, faith, peace, kindness, self-sacrifice, radical trust in God, and developed a passion for God and people. I passionately believe in a Christ-centered parish and not a Church-centered parish. As Pope Francis says, “The center is Jesus Christ, who calls us and sends us forth. If the church “makes herself the ‘center,’ she becomes merely functional, and slowly but surely turns into a kind of NGO.” In other words, our liturgies cannot be liturgy-centered liturgies; they must be Christ-centered liturgies. Our ministries cannot be ministry-centered ministries; they must be Christ-centered ministries. Our music, our preaching, our service are not for their own sake. They must be rooted in and find their purpose in Christ and service to His people. In an interview in September 2013, Pope Francis spoke about the mission of the Church in these words: “I can clearly see that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds and warm the hearts of faithful, it needs to be by their side. I see the Church as a field hospital after a battle. It’s pointless to ask a seriously injured patient whether his cholesterol or blood sugar levels are high! It’s his wounds that need to be healed. The rest we can talk about later.” Similarly, I imagine our parishes to be Christ and Gospel-centered communities. In other words, when people come to our parishes, in some way they must feel that they have encountered Christ. Our goal must be to intentionally be a community that gives people an experience of the love, the mercy, the forgiveness, the goodness, and the power of Jesus Christ. We do this as a people of faith, a community of disciples, as a people called by Christ, and as a people who stand for what Christ and the Gospel teach us. This task does not belong to the pastor and the staff. This is the common responsibility of every parishioner! Together let us strive toward this holy endeavor.
Pastoring as “Nurturing”
When I think about the word “pastor,” my mind immediately goes Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Jesus had said of himself, “I am the Good Shepherd.” The criterion for separating the good shepherd from the bad came down to one quality - the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I interpret Jesus’ words as as “radical nurturing.” I understand the role of the pastor as “nurturing the people that God has entrusted to my care.” You are not my people or this parish is not my parish. You and I together are God’s people. I see this parish as God’s parish. This means that I genuinely love, care, serve and accompany the people who belong to God. I see my main role as nurturing the staff, the people, the ministries and the mission of this parish. This can take many shapes. First of all, this means that I ensure that our worship is life-giving. My priority is not to provide the shortest masses in town, or to deliver entertaining homilies, or to create a social gathering place. I must ensure, that people who come to our worship first and foremost encounter Christ; that they find Christ in one another; that they find inspiration for another week; that they find life and faith come together in our worship. I must also ensure that the rest of the parish life - our social and charitable ministries, our finances, our presence in the neighborhood, our parish organizations flow from our communal worship and life. I see my role as accompanying people through the journey of life through personal care and involvement in their daily life; in helping discover God who is already in every heart. I must know each one of you by name. You can expect me to love, respect, honor and nurture you most sincerely. All this does not mean that there will not be disagreements, differences of opinions, or sometimes the possibility of parting ways. Built into the role of the pastor are all these possibilities. Pope Francis is facing this challenge these days. Even Jesus were not immune from this. I welcome disagreements and differences of opinion. My only hope is that we can do this with humility, with respect for one another, never compromising Christian charity, dialoguing with one another, always keeping the greater good in mind, and most of all, instead of our personal gain, constantly furthering the mission of Jesus Christ and his church. In this way, as Pastor, I hope to walk in the footsteps of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
Towards this vision of a parish, Fr. Vincent and I humbly seek your blessings. As Fr. Vincent and I hope to nurture these two communities, we ask you to nurture us. Please get to know us better as we try to get to know you better. Please help us to find rest, peace, love and acceptance as we try to serve you. Together, let us be a community of disciples.
- Fr. Satish Joseph