Farewell Homily to St. Augustine's Parish - 11 August 2024 - The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinarty Time

The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Dear brothers and sisters,

Mother Church presents us today with two seemingly contradictory messages. First, we heard the Prophet Elijah, who has suffered greatly because of his service of God, say, “This is enough, I Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (I Kings 19:4). Hearing Elijah’s overdramatic complaint and after he took a nap, God gives him simple advice: “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you” (I Kings 19:7)! This is one of my favorite passages because it proves that one cure for sadness has not changed over the centuries: sleep and food. (Saint Thomas Aquinas will later also advise a glass of wine and a warm bath.)

The second seemingly contradictory message we heard in the Psalm: “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth” (Psalm 34:2). Maybe Elijah missed that memo. Saint Augustine, though, did not.

Pondering this verse, the Doctor of Grace asked a straightforward question: “When are you to bless the Lord?” He considered various circumstances in life in response to his question:

When he showers blessings on you? When earthly goods are plentiful? When you have a plethora of grain, oil, wine, gold, silver, slaves, livestock; while your mortal body remains healthy, uninjured and free from disease; while everything that is born on your estate is growing well, and nothing is snatched away by untimely death; while every kind of happiness floods your home and you have all you want in profusion? Is it only then that you are to bless the Lord? No, but “at all times” (Psalm 34:2). So you are to bless him equally when from time to time, or because the Lord God wishes to discipline you, these good things let you down or are taken away from you, when there are fewer births or the already-born slip away. These things happen and their consequence is poverty, need, hardship, disappointment and temptation. But you sang: “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth,” so when the Lord gives you good things, bless him, and when he takes them away, bless him.

The memory of this part is essential: God never takes himself away from me; he never takes himself away from you. Do not forget this!

We know how easy it is to bless God, to praise him and thank him, when everything is, as it were, going our way. But when the storms of life come – as they surely will – and everything seems to be falling apart, blessing, praising, and thanking God becomes more difficult and requires a conscious and intentional effort. Perhaps this is the point; blessing, praising, and thanking God should not be an unthinking or automatic response to the situations of life, but a deliberate response to whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. At all times we must draw near to Christ Jesus, to him who never withdraws from us, and say with Job, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21)!

Today the sadness of Elijah and the gratitude of the Psalmist are both present in my heart as I prepare to take up the roles of Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry, as well as that of Adjunct Assistant Professor, at Quincy University and will therefore soon cease to be your Pastor. As I have told you before, I am very eager to take up this ministry and pray the Lord will bless my efforts to help the university students come to know, to love, and to serve him. Still, my heart is heavy.

These past seven years with you have been one of the great blessings of my life; departing from you will not be easy. I cannot thank you enough for the support and encouragement you have given me, or especially for the many prayers you offered for me.

Looking back over these years since my arrival here, there have been:

• 29 baptisms;
• 2 receptions into the Catholic Church of those previously baptized;
• 4 weddings (one with Father Chuck Edwards, one with Deacon Greg Maynerich, one convalidation with me, and one wedding with me yesterday);
• 11 Confirmations (mostly during COVID-time); and,
• 33 funerals.

We have also accomplished a great deal together to improve the physical complex of this parish in a number of ways:

•          we trimmed back a few trees (though that, or more, needs to be done again);
• we replaced the roof of the hall and of the church, and have money set aside to replace the roof of the rectory;
• we replaced air conditioners and furnaces at both the hall and the rectory and replaced the church boiler with furnaces;
• we replaced the refrigerators in the hall;
  
• we replaced the flooring, windows, and exterior doors of the rectory, as well as the stove, washer, and dryer;
•  we installed a new organ; and,
•  we repainted the Nativity set statues.

Hopefully the next major project here will involve a renovation of the bathrooms and kitchen in the hall.

The financial resources of the parish have also improved in a mind-boggling way:

·    you contributed $94,000 to our capital campaign that had a goal of $70,000, which allowed us to improve the physical plant;

·       looking at the calendar year, the average weekly collection has increased over these seven years by more than $500 each week, despite the increased costs to just about everything; and,

·       our capital campaign fund still has around $20,000 in it and our checking account has around $45,000 in it and our savings account around $70,000, funds which will go a long way to making continued improvements.

The financial situation of the parish caused me stress in my first few months, but your impressive generosity quickly took that worry away.

Each of these accomplishments demonstrates some of the strengths of this parish and the commitment of you, its parishioners. It is remarkable for a parish of 58 households! Still, if these accomplishments are all we have accomplished during my pastorate, I will have failed as your Pastor and should with Elijah, “This is enough, O Lord. Take my life…”

When I was installed as your Pastor, I told you I came with no particular agenda, save one. You may recall these words I said to you:

When a new pastor arrives in a parish, many of the parishioners wonder what program he will enact. The only program, if you will, which I hope to enact is to help you prepare to see the face of Christ more clearly, to help you draw near to him and bask in the light of his face, a light which can transform us and make us like himself. I hope to help you seek the Lord not in curiosity, but in love, to not only hear his voice speaking in the quiet of your hearts, but to see his face and become witnesses of his majesty and to take your places within the Father’s house.[1]

Looking back, I fear the necessary physical improvements may have sometimes distracted me from focusing on my intended goal. Yet I must hear the Lord say, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you.”

By God’s grace, I pray we have been able to draw nearer together to the Face of God, to see him more clearly, to be conformed more closely to him, and more prepared to dwell with him in love. If this has been achieved, then my time as your Pastor will have been a success.

No matter where we are in the world, no matter how many miles lie between us, whenever we look to Lord and draw near to him, we will not be far apart; gathered at his altar we are ever close to one another through Christ Jesus. This is the great mystery of his love that forms us each into his Body.

With this in mind, let us not dwell too much on sadness today, but give thanks to God for the time he has allowed us to have together. As Saint Augustine’s heart was pierced with the love of God, so has my heart been pierced with your love. You will always have a place in my heart and a remembrance in my daily prayers; please, remember me in yours.

As we continue to seek the Face of God, let us pray with Saint Augustine:

You have radiated forth, you have shined out brightly, and you have dispelled my blindness. You have sent forth your fragrance, and I have breathed it in, and I long for you. I have tasted you, and I hunger and thirst for you. You have touched me, and I ardently desire your peace.[2]

May the Lord fulfill our longing, thirst, and desire, and gather us together again before his Face. Amen.

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[1] Daren J. Zehnle, Homily at the Mass of Installation as Pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Ashland, Illinois, 6 August 2017.

[2] Saint Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, X.27.38.

Homily - The Wedding of Quinlan Mahoney and Chris DeGroot

The Wedding of Quinlan Mahoney and Chris DeGroot

Dear brothers and sisters,

We have come together this afternoon, in this church dedicated to the honor of God and of Saint Augustine of Hippo, to witness the exchange of consent of Chris and Quinlan, and to celebrate with them as they “establish between themselves a partnership of their whole life.” By its very nature, this union “is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of children” (canon 1055).

On behalf of the couple, I greet you, their family and friends, with affection and I welcome you in the name of Christ. I thank you for the love, support, and encouragement you show them by your presence with us today. I am confident they will count on you in the days, weeks, and years ahead for this same encouragement, support, and love. Now, my friends, before we witness the exchange of their promises to live in committed love until death, I ask you to allow me to speak directly to the couple; you, of course, may listen in.

Chris and Quinlan, we, your family and friends, and I, the Church’s minister, are truly happy to share in your joy and in your love for each other. It is fitting that we gather here in this sacred place where the most important moments in life are held to seek merciful love of God. Today the Lord fulfills his promise to “turn their mourning into joy” and “show them compassion and have them rejoice after their sorrows” (Jeremiah31:13).

Although it is becoming less obvious to some, we know man and woman different from each other both physically and emotionally. We also know man and woman complement and complete each other. It is “for this reason [that] a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh” (Mark 10:7-8).

You have chosen for us to hear of this complementarity today from the Book of Sirach: “Blessed be the husband of a good wife, twice-lengthened are his days; a worthy wife brings joy to her husband, peaceful and full is his life” (Sirach 26:1-2). At first glance, it may seem as though Sirach speaks only of blessings for the husband since the wife is mentioned only in relation to him. The opposite, however, is also true: the husband is only mentioned in relation to his wife. Both are so intimately connected that they cannot be spoken of apart from the other. A wife can only bring joy to her husband if he has also brought joy to her and a wife delights her husband because he delights her. A husband and wife are mutual gifts to each other; there is no other way around it. A wife is a gift to her husband and a husband is a gift to his wife. Only in this way can Sirach say, “Be he rich or poor, his heart is content, and a smile is ever upon his face” (Sirach 26:4).

But what is it that binds a man and a woman so deeply together that they cannot be spoken of apart from each other? What brings them together and unites them so deeply? The answer is found in what Jesus says to us today, “Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Mark 10:9). It is God, therefore, the God who “is love,” who so intimately unites man and woman together as one (I John 4:4-8). Love is the bond that makes them “one flesh” (Mark 10:8). 

This naturally brings us to a consideration of what love is at its core. We can rightly say that “love is the bond of perfection in the sense that it completes and unifies the virtues, and more importantly it perfects, or matures, the community itself.”[1]

“The love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings” is no mere infatuation; it is no mere flurry of giddy emotions; no, this love is much more than the swirling of butterflies in one’s stomach.[2] Whether it is recognized as such or not, the love that unites a man and woman together is the same love that drove the only Son of God to abandon the glory of heaven and to take upon himself our frail humanity; it is the same love that led the Son of God to take upon himself the sins of the world and die upon the cross for our salvation.; it is the same love that raised the only Son of God from the dead; it is the very love that sent the Holy Spirit to be with us always. God’s love for us is very much a nuptial love and it is what unites a man and woman together in marriage. It is the core, the center, the very foundation, of the married life that you, Chris and Quinlan, seek to enter today.

The “still more excellent” way of love of which Saint Paul speaks is the imitative love of God manifest for us in Christ Jesus. The one who loves in this way does not seek his or own good, but only the good of the beloved. For such a one, “love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.”[3]

There is a temptation today to over-romanticize marriage, to think it will somehow automatically bring about a life of bliss without any difficulties whatever. The reality, however, as any honest couple will tell you, is not quite so picture perfect. Marriage is difficult and requires compromise, patience, and gentleness; and when these are embraced, marriage is also beautiful, perhaps because of its difficulties. Marriage is quite simple, but it is not easy. It is simple because, at its core, marriage involves only one thing, namely, that every day each spouse must desire the good of the other above his or her own and labor to obtain that good for the beloved. In this, marriage daily requires self-denial, and, for this very reason, it is far from easy.

The great J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, reflected on the reality of marriage in a letter he wrote to his son Michael in 1941. Then, after twenty-five of his fifty-five years of marriage to his beloved wife Edith, the elder Tolkien wrote these words:

No man, however truly he loved his betrothed and bride as a young man, has lived faithful to her as a wife in mind and body without deliberate conscious exercise of the will, without self-denial. Too few are told that – even those brought up ‘in the Church.’[4]

Tolkien here speaks of a danger for the groom in marriage, but lest some think marriage brings no danger for the bride, we might note the temptation of the wife to always imagine herself to be right. Marriage, for her, too, requires deliberate conscious exercise of the will, that is, self-denial. I do not want the two of you to be unaware of this.

If you will allow me to return for a moment to that first line we heard from Sirach: “Blessed the husband of a good wife.” We know, as we said, the opposite is equally true: “Blessed the wife of a good husband.” Quinlan, I sometimes have a concern when a Christian desires to marry someone who is not yet baptized because of the importance of faith in uniting a couple, but I cannot say I had these same concerns with the two of you. Chris, thank you for the quiet, gentle, and strong support you have been for Quinlan in days that have been of the deepest sorrow. To quote Samwise Gamgee, you “showed your quality: the very highest.”[5] Continue to stand by her in the same manner. If you and Quinlan love each other each day with this same selfless love, your love will never fail, and you will have joy to surmount every sorrow (I Corinthians 13:8).

Quinlan and Chris, may you always smile at each other. May you always teach each other and learn from each other the still more excellent way of love. And may the example of your married life teach others the way to perfection. Amen.

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[1] Dennis Hamm, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2013), 220.

[2] Pope Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, 3.

[3] Ibid., 6.

[4] J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter to Michael Tolkien, 6-8 March 1941. In The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Humphrey Carpenter, ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000), 51.

[5] Ibid., The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of the Lord of the Rings, “The Window on the West.”