Pastor’s Corner — February 12th, 2023
Giving Statements: Thank You!
By now you should have received (or will receive soon) your giving annual statement for all of your tax-deductible financial gifts to St. Patrick’s. I want to take this opportunity to thank you all once more for the generosity to the parish. While the proportion of your income that you give as a tithe to the parish is a serious and personal decision between a family and the Lord, it’s important that you hear from me that your intentional response in giving to the Lord for our parish is positively and significantly helping us fulfill our mission of making Spirit-filled missionary disciples here. The wonderful things God is doing is both reflected in your generosity and the fruit he’s bearing in our parish. If you’re not yet signed up for online giving and/or wish to prayerfully consider increasing your gift, please don’t hesitate to sign up for online giving here. Again, thank you!
Radical “Inclusion” and the Synod on Synodality?
I don’t know many people in the Church who want to be perceived as being “exclusive” “discriminatory” or “bigoted”, or “hateful.” And so when the world calls for the Church to be more “inclusive” and “welcoming” it could be tempting for us to quickly conclude that we need to change. But what does being more “inclusive” and “welcoming” even mean? Does that mean the Church needs to do better at treating some people or certain groups of people with love and dignity so we can more effectively invite them to faith and repentance more effectively? Or does this mean that the Church should “get with the times” and no longer call people to faith and repentance but instead bless the lifestyles and behaviors that contradict the gospel of Jesus? Of course, we know the answer to these rhetorical questions.
But nonetheless this topic can be confusing for many sincere Catholics who don’t know how to respond to the world’s insistence that we change in the name of inclusivity. Bishop Robert Barron recently wrote an excellent short article on the calls for the Church to be a more welcoming and inclusive in light of the upcoming Synod on Synodality. His article, which even Bishop Boyea recommended recently, is worth quoting at length:
“[Jesus’] attitude of radical welcome is nowhere on clearer display than in his open-table fellowship, that is to say, his consistent practice—countercultural in the extreme—to eat and drink not only with the righteous but also with sinners, with Pharisees, tax collectors, and prostitutes. These meals of sacred fellowship Jesus even compared to the banquet of heaven. Throughout his public ministry, Jesus reached out to those considered unclean or wicked: the woman at the well, the man born blind, Zacchaeus, the woman caught in adultery, the thief crucified at his side, etc. So, there is no question that he was hospitable, gracious, and yes, welcoming to all.
By the same token, this inclusivity of the Lord was unambiguously and consistently accompanied by his summons to conversion. Indeed, the first word out of Jesus’ mouth in his inaugural address in the Gospel of Mark is not “Welcome!” but rather “Repent!” To the woman caught in adultery, he said, “Go and sin no more”; after meeting the Lord, Zacchaeus promised to change his sinful ways and compensate lavishly for his misdeeds; in the presence of Jesus, the good thief acknowledged his own guilt; and the risen Christ compelled the chief of the Apostles, who had three times denied him, three times to affirm his love.
In a word, there is a remarkable balance in the pastoral outreach of Jesus between welcome and challenge, between outreach and a call to change. This is why I would characterize his approach not simply as “inclusive” or “welcoming,” but rather as loving. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that to love is “to will the good of the other.” Accordingly, one who truly loves another reaches out in kindness, to be sure, but at the same time he does not hesitate, when necessary, to correct, to warn, even to judge. My mentor, Francis Cardinal George, was once asked why he disliked the sentiment behind the song “All Are Welcome.” He responded that it overlooked the simple fact that, though all are indeed welcome in the Church, it is “on Christ’s terms, not their own.”
An overall concern that I have, very much related to the consistent use of the terms “welcoming” and “inclusivity,” is the trumping of doctrine, anthropology, and real theological argument by sentiment, or to put it a bit differently, the tendency to psychologize the matters under consideration. The Church doesn’t prohibit homosexual acts because it has an irrational fear of homosexuals; nor does it refuse communion to those in irregular marriage arrangements because it gets its kicks out of being exclusive; nor does it disallow women’s ordination because grumpy old men in power just can’t stand women.
For each of these positions, it articulates arguments based on Scripture, philosophy, and the theological tradition, and each has been ratified by the authoritative teaching of bishops in communion with the pope. To throw all these settled teachings into question because they don’t correspond to the canons of our contemporary culture would be to place the Church into real crisis. And I sincerely do not believe that this shaking of the foundations is what Pope Francis had in mind when he called for a synod on synodality.”
Priest Greeting Locations
It seems silly to write this in the bulletin, but if you don’t see Fr Miguel or I at one of the doors after or before Mass, it’s likely because we’re at another door greeting people. We’ve changed this up a bit recently and I say this in case people need to find one of us priests before or after Mass
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias