I thought you might be interested in the sermon I will be preaching this Sunday as it touches on some matters that I have raised recently in this blog.
“Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7.50)
The story of the repentant woman who is forgiven by our Lord is very moving. Our Lord restores the woman’s self-respect which has been lost with her reputation and offers an analysis of his action to his friend, the Pharisee Simon, that will cause him and countless others after him to examine their conscience and begin to root out the capital vice of pride.
A modern reading of this episode might well stop there. However, the gospel account ends with our Lord’s proclamation of the woman’s salvation “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” This turns out to be the essential outcome of her encounter with Christ.
It is worth reflecting on this in relation to our own work in the parish. People often say to me that the parish is a good one and I like people to say this: it brings a sense of, I think, legitimate pride – I am aware that there are many things that we could do much better.
But the other day, I was being interviewed for a programme to be broadcast on EWTN and the interviewer spoke of the parish and asked about its “success.” I think it was a light given by the Holy Spirit which prompted me immediately to say that I will only know whether the parish has been a success at the last judgement when our Lord will show me how many parishioners have been saved.
Our “success” or “failure” as a parish is not measured by how we feel or how much money we raise or how many activities we can arrange. The true success of all our endeavours in the Church will be measured by how many of us are saved and go to heaven. A consequence of this view of “success” in a parish is that all our activities should be directed towards this final end.
In fact, the ordinary things that are done well here (and can always be done better) are not irrelevant to this end. A parish where people feel welcomed, where there are activities for people of all ages, where we are able to keep the buildings in good order, will be more likely to help people to get to heaven than one which is neglected or unfriendly. Therefore it is right that we should try to be more welcoming, offer more activities for people, and involve more people, in other words to try to do better the things that we sometimes do quite well.
Nevertheless, we should always keep in mind the real point of existing as a parish in the Catholic Church. In the end it is not so that we can feel good about ourselves, it is so that we can help one another to live the Christian life as well as possible, keep the commandments, pray devoutly and regularly, frequent the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion, and especially foster vocations: both to Christian marriage lived according to the teaching of the Church and to the priesthood and the religious life.
Parish activities usually begin and end with a prayer. That is how it should be. We should never see this as a token gesture indicating that our activities are Catholic rather than run by, say, the local Council. Committing all our activities to the care of our almighty Father and our patron, the Blessed Virgin Mary, reminds us that the ultimate reason for any of our activities is that we should help one another to get to heaven.
Our secular government has recently decreed that religious charities must prove that they provide some “public benefit” apart from “advancement of religion.” The Bishops have quite rightly expressed concern about this and I have tried to do so myself through my own writing.
Reflecting on today’s beautiful gospel, we can see that our priorities are diametrically opposite to those expressed by the Charities Commission. For us, the “advancement of religion” is the supreme public benefit. It is ordered to the salvation of souls and not merely the increase of temporal benefit in this world, whether physical or psychological. If, please God, we do bring benefits to the public, we do so because we because we wish to follow the command of Christ that we should love our neighbour, and because we believe that anything done for the least of his brothers or sisters is done for him.
The Charities Commission may be right in one respect. The public benefit that the “advancement of religion” brings may not be measurable by secular standards. Indeed it may never be seen this side of the last judgement.
7 comments:
that was a wonderful sermon Fr. Just one thought struck me & it was this. That whilst it is nice to have nice buildings & surroundings, it was often the case that Churches were jam-packed in old flea-bitten former gin-distilleries!& do you remember as i do the Missions preached when the Church was packed every evening..still happens in some Parishes in inner City Birmingham.
What was going on here then? The real transmission of the Faith..frequent Confession, celebration of the Mass & powerful preaching, just like you just gave!
The Charity Commision would never in a million years get this! But please don't let us start providing for the benefit of people as they see it. That would water our Faith down.
God will provide. Thankyou for drawing our attention to these new developments..
Fr. Tim - you will already have preached this homily, as I am struggling with last minute thoughts for my penultimate weekend in this parish. With your permission, I will 'borrow' your central idea - it works perfectly as I try and look back over the last four and a half years in this community. I leave next weekend, our Parish Feast Day - St. John the Baptist - and will be home in England for a couple of weeks. Thank you for your thoughts this weekend - Fr. Benedict.
Jackie - yes, in the days of Mass being said in sheds and schoolrooms, the primary focus was much more clearly on salvation. That is also, of course, why those people sacrificed so much to build the beautiful Churches we benefit from.
Fr Benedict - by all means use anything that you feel would be helpful. I hope your move goes well. Always difficult leaving a parish behind.
Great, Father!
One of my priests said, "Everything that you do in this life should be something that will be used for grounds for your canonization in the next."
Or something like that.
(I probably screwed it up.)
I will only know whether the parish has been a success at the last judgement when our Lord will show me how many parishioners have been saved
You mean to say that you don't think we all are??
;-)
(I guess it's easy to see where you stand on the "pro multis" debate!!)
Fr. Tim said, "....I think it was a light given by the Holy Spirit which prompted me immediately to say that I will only know whether the parish has been a success at the last judgement when our Lord will show me how many parishioners have been saved.
And, I suppose when I read this profound statement, it was the light of the same Holy Spirit, which prompted me to think that I play some role in the salvation of my own pastor.
Like marriage, a man should desire the salvation of his wife and a wife should work for the salvation of her husband.
Your words prompted me to see a similar connection between a parish priest and his parishioners. We should all be working towards each others salvation.
Diane - you are right. I read once, I think in a publication by some sound Catholic women, the advice that whenever the priest calls to your house, it is a good idea to ask for his blessing. For many priests, this could be a good reminder of why they are in that house at all - because they are a priest. They may be a friend as well, or they may have called round to watch the football. But first and foremost the Catholic family values their priesthood. Little things like this can do a lot to keep priests on track.
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