40th Anniversary of Ordination
~ Homily ~
{Based on Luke5:1-11}
St. Walter Parish
Roselle
A little over 40 years ago the Catholic Church was in the midst of sweeping and exciting changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council that concluded in 1965.
One of the most profound, and I think significant statements of the bishops is in the Constitution on the Church (1964) that articulated a new understanding of what is the Church, or more precisely,who is the Church. The phrase “the common priesthood of the faithful” laid the foundation for an entirely new way of identifying the people of God. This radical notion of the “priesthood of thebaptized” affected every aspect of the life of the Church, - how it should be governed, the manner of our worship (full, active, conscious participation is everybody’s task), and who is responsible for the universal and the local mission of the Church.
Some 44 years after that document there are still some who don’t believe that that is what it means to be Church; some who reject it as not being hierarchical enough; some who are frightened by the prospect of shared power, - as though the action of the Spirit resides more in some than others; and many others still waiting for this theology and vision of Church to be fully realized.
But the Church has changed in so many ways and so many of us have been agents of that change, and communities of faith, like St. Walter’s, throughout the world give evidence that the fabric of the church has indeed been reformed and remade in its identity, its mission and its vision.
At the very heart of the Church is the fundamental call to ministry; and it does not come from councils or documents, but from Jesus Christ. Today he stands in a boat (in the gospel account from Luke) and announces a new way for all his followers to live and to be his disciples.
My call to ministry originated in the parish community of St. Charles Borromeo, in READ Ontario. This small Irish farming community is well known for its vocations to the priesthood and to vowed life in religious communities. The statistics are pretty impressive: in the 150+ years of its history 18 men have been ordained to the priesthood and over 30 women have joined religious communities. (You can understand that it wasn’t easy to get a date in those days!)
I am often asked if my parents ‘pushed’ me into the priesthood, and I respond “no, but their support and life of faith were certainly factors in my vocation.”
Of course, I believe that unknown to all of us is the work of the Spirit within our searching for what to be in life. One of the most memorable and touching moments happened when my parents dropped me off at the seminary in Toronto. As my Dad was preparing to leave me in this great big building all alone, he came to me on his own and said, “Philip, don’t forget you can always come home.”
I am sure it was as true for every one of those women and men from that parish as it was for me; - they would say that their call to a ‘particular’ ministry was never separated from the faith-filled life of prayer and ministry that has always identified this community. The priesthood of the baptized continues to be alive and flourishing in that local church.
I am often asked, as are most priests many times in life, “when did you decide to be a priest?” I am never quite sure what to answer, as there was never an instant revelation, or a profound moment of decisive insight; so I have developed an answer and I simply say, “this morning.” No matter what is our vocation in life, as disciples, we begin every morning to answer that call and live it as best we can for another day.
I can only speak of my call to ministry, but I believe it is true of priesthood; - it can never be understood in isolation or in the name of a hierarchical structure. Priesthood exists within the sacramental community of all believers and in the exercise of a human and graced ministry, - one that gives life, brings joy, encourages hope, honors diversity, binds up the broken, and builds up, always builds up the goodness and dignity of everyone.
Jesus does not allow us to simply wash the nets of past labors and ways of doing and thinking, as though the work was done and past structures and strategies were still sufficient…there is a new dawn upon us and it’s time to put out into the deep.
Pope John XXIII certainly called the church out into the deep, and many have echoed that call over the years; and yet we still need the courage and the will to hear the call of the Lord over and over again. So often in the Church we are caught up in trying to figure out is this or that correct; are they in or out, - those ‘others’; telling the Lord what he really meant, especially so that it suits our way of thinking and acting; initiating practices and even laws that trample on good people and faithful intentions.
Ministry, of course is not just about doing more things, or doing the same things in a different way, - it’s not just about being busy.
First and foremost, the call of the Lord is to change hearts and behaviors…see how he invited the fishermen to not only change their way of doing things (fishing from the other side of the boat) but of believing in their ‘fisher-folk’ hearts that there is another way for life to unfold; and it would not be just to catch fish but to catch the vision in his word.
That’s what is needed; before we can catch others we must first be ‘caught up’ in the word of God…notice his interaction with them came after his teaching on the shore. They were ready to just do the same thing; but the Lord wanted them first to believe in a new purpose for what they do, namely to discover the hand of God in the mystery of the deep, the place where they had never been before. This is the challenge for us today.
There are some necessary and courageous demands on the mission of the Church, on each of us, in these days; putting out into the deep is not easy or comfortable. But there are many among us that wait and hope for the ministry that we must offer, and that they deserve.
- How do we as Church and as individual disciples care for those who are separated and divorced?
- How do we as Church, as followers of the Lord welcome and embrace the members of the gay community in our midst?
- How do we as Church acknowledge with intention and respect the call to every ministry that the Spirit has placed in the hearts of women among us?
- How do we as disciples, and as a Church, reverence and attend to those among us who are poor, who suffer injustice, and those who are disenfranchised by the Church or by society?
Being caught up in the word of the Lord starts within our attitudes, eats away at those religious postures that are sometimes ill-formed and judgmental. Like the disciples, when the Lord asks to put out into the deep, it’s about seeing life and people in a new way.
To continue the fishing analogy, we need to go below the surface, where we’ve never dared go before, because it was too risky, too hard to let go, too much to trust, too unlike the usual; and there in the unknown and unchartered we discover that the Lord does care how we live and act and make decisions and we discover so much more than we expected, or can deal with on our own.
Perhaps it is then that we realize that to be re-made in the way of the disciple is to discover that it was Christ all along that re-fashions us. Like the disciples with the great catch who turned to others, to their fishing buddies, we discover that we are very much part of a great and gifted community. St. Walter’s is just such a community, and I am so very grateful to have been a part of this parish for over 12 years. The “priesthood of the baptized” is truly alive and well is this parish!
This local Church community is a people with many gifts, all of them designed and needed for the good of everyone. This local Church is evidence of the abundance of God. In a sense God is waiting for us and for the whole Church to see, even in the darkness of the deep, the incredible images of Jesus Christ in each other, no matter who they may be.
The fullness of your ministry and mine is made possible by being courageous and inclusive, and faithful to the work and word of Lord. When we come here to this table to be fed we come as the baptized, all of us sharing in the priesthood and the ministry of Jesus Christ because of our common baptism. You know how I love the liturgy and that it has been my joy to celebrate with you; but like all ministry my preaching and presiding are only meaningful, and I am nourished only when all of you are gathered before the word and around this table.
There are moments when we stand at the edge of the water, - on the shore where the firmness of the earth meets the beckoning of the water - the ‘threshold’ between a place of safety and familiarity and the mysterious call of the deep where the generosity of the Lord awaits us, moving us always into the joy of the resurrection to whatever new life our ministries will take us.
Maybe every 40 years we need to think about that, or every year, or every so often, maybe every day when our feet hit the floor, we simply say to ourselves “it’s time to put out into the deep once again” for the Lord is waiting to surprise us and to bless us.
My dear friends, for all the blessings you have given to me in my years of ministry, I thank you.
Fr. Phil Horrigan