Homily Twenty-second Wednesday of Ordinary Time (Colossians 1:1-8)
Twenty-second Wednesday of Ordinary Time (Colossians 1:1-8) “I Know Your Name”
I get a letter every year at Christmas time from a missionary I met only once. He came to the Western Illinois Newman Center in Macomb when I was chaplain there. He made a mission appeal. He was not so much asking for money as for the students to consider volunteering in the missions. When this missionary writes to me he starts by greeting about a half a dozen students he remembers from his visit. It always makes the letter more intimate. He must have a good memory or wrote all those names down in a file.
We notice that whenever Paul begins to write one of his letters to a Christian community, he starts by addressing certain people in the community by name. We might wonder if he knew all these people.
We think of the Catholic Christian Church as a worldwide church with a billion members. Not many of the church members are known to everyone. The church was not always that way. In the first century there were a few thousand congregants spread around the Mediterranean Sea. Paul got to know the people he mentions in his letters as he visited certain cities. But the names he mentions were probably known to a wider audience. What I am trying to say is that the church was smaller and more intimate. There was a connectedness that we do not feel today.
What is church all about? We might say that the main mission of the church is passing on the tenants of the faith. Becoming Christian is an intellectual process. But we could also say that church is about building community. When we feel loved and supported by other church members there is a sense of security.
This is big part of why we come together at Mass. We remain connected by being a part of the Eucharistic community. When we can’t get together it is detrimental to our community.
As we slog through the COVID pandemic we once again are facing many challenges in keeping the Sacred Heart Community together. We are trying to do that with social media, but nothing will every replace the intimacy of gathering for Mass each day.
Reflection Questions:
- Have I felt disconnected from my church lately? What might cause that?
- How do I feel when I walk into church on Sunday and see familiar faces? How important is that sense of belonging to me?
Dear Parishioners,
Our Development Committee and our TTT Steering Committee are putting in a lot of work right now. They are going to start asking people to donate towards the new gathering center we hope to build at Sacred Heart on the site of the old rectory. If all those who pledged for three years would just add one more year to their commitment, we ought to get to our campaign goal and be able to construct the church addition we would like to have.
We have faced many hurdles to get this far. Now we have to struggle with the upsurge in COVID cases and the uptick in the cost of building materials. No goal that is important ever comes easily. Let’s continue to pray that we will complete the task.
May Our Lady and All the Angels and Saints watch over us today.
Fr. Mark