"We are the Body of Christ, Memebr for Member"
In
1 Corinthian’s Paul writes that all of us “are the Body of Christ, member for
member.” I’m speaking to you today on behalf of your Pastoral Council.
The Pastoral Council counsels Fr. Joe on the needs, the concerns, and
joys of our community.
Part of our ministry, as PC members, is to assist in the bringing
together the people of God, in a spirit of collegiality,
so that we can better fulfill Christ’s mission on earth.
Collegiality, by my definition, is the coming together of a community
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
and through prayer, discern what is
required of that community to increase our understanding
and appreciation of each other and the Word of God, so that we may better
live as witnesses to the Gospel.
The members of these communities include the parishioners, the pastors
and the Episcopate and so together we have an opportunity to illuminate the path
we are to follow, both as individual souls and as a church community.
As church, we are the second of the great sacraments; we are the ongoing
sign of Christ’s presence in the world through the grace of the Holy Spirit.
As church, as Corpus Christi, over the past 6 months, we have celebrated
our life as a community of God centered about the greatest of all sacraments,
the Eucharistic Celebration of the Mass. We initiated our Jubilee Year with
Msgr. Sean in January and then, in unity with our past, we celebrated the gifts
of each of our former pastors, concluding with Fr. Joe. Over these past 6 months
we celebrated our Corpus Christi as a Community, we demonstrated our gratitude
by recognizing the role each of our pastors as our spiritual leaders.
We have now stepped into the second half of our 1st century. During
August, we heard in the Gospels proclaimed by Fr. Joe, how Christ had compassion
on the hungry, and fed them; had mercy on the afflicted and healed their
physical, mental and spiritual ailments. We saw how Peter took an enormous risk by walking out to meet Jesus on the Sea of Galilee.
Peter so much like us demonstrating how within our own lives we may feel the
same risk of reaching out.
Last weekend during his homily, Fr. Joe initiated our journey for our next
fifty years. He suggested that we increase our faith practices by offering
perhaps an additional hour a month, an hour a week or whatever we can
accomplish. It may be an hour for our families, or an hour for ourselves, or an
hour for our community – however and how much and for whom the Holy Spirit
guides us.
And so, your Pastoral Council, over the next few weeks will be inviting
you to enter into a collegial dialogue with us and each other. After each Mass,
we will be presenting to you some reflections for you to consider. Then either
just prior to Advent or immediately in the New Year we will be inviting all of
you, after one of our Sunday Celebrations to a 2 hour Parish Synod that will
also include Msgr. Sean. A synod where you
have the opportunity to assist in discerning what will be the journey and
mission of Corpus Christi until we reach our centenary celebration. If you have
any questions all of us are available.
May the Peace of Christ be with you and your families.
"Stewardship, a flowing to God"
As you know, in the coming weeks we will be asking for your participation in determining the Parish Pastoral Plan and consequently, the direction of our Parish. In order to help you with this, it was thought that it would be a good idea to give you some background into the pillars of our faith. I would like to talk to you today about one of those pillars; Stewardship.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines stewardship as:
the conducting, supervising, or managing of something
; especially : the careful and responsible management of something
entrusted to one's care
What does this mean in terms of the context of the Church? It is the giving of one’s time, talents, and resources towards the conservation and advancement of God’s kingdom on earth.
Thus, stewardship is a flowing to God in which we cast aside our former life of selfishness and embrace a life of selflessness. For, we find ourselves in a life with God in which we are in service to Him for the sake of others; we are acting as His representatives.
What is the steward’s priority?
I would like to share with you a passage from Matthew (25: 14-29) which explains the importance of sharing one’s talents.
“It is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out. Now a long time after, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents came forward. ‘Sir’, he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.’ The second came forward, much in the same way. Last came forward the man who had the one talent. ‘Sir’, said he, ‘I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back.’ But his master answered him, ‘ You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the ten talents.”
This parable explains that we are not simply to bury our talents but to make the best possible use of them. When we talk of stewardship it is about how we manage and use all that God has given us. Although this parable spoke of money, talents encompass much more than this.
A good example of the use of one’s talents includes the various ministries which exist in this Parish. Some examples of these ministries include Liturgy, which encompasses all the rites, ceremonies, prayers, and sacraments of the Church, Social Justice, which strives towards the fair treatment and equality of all the world’s inhabitants, Out Reach which helps those in need in our local community, Faith First, which prepares the children to receive the sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation, and the Auxiliary, which does fundraising to support parish needs and various charities. Of course there are many other ministries, and most likely, there are many other needs for which we do not currently have any existing ministries to address them.
How much are we supposed to give? This is something which is difficult to quantify, for there is no law which gives a specific measure to this, rather it is a question which must be answered individually through the grace of God. What can be said is that this giving must be done in the right spirit.
In conclusion, I would like to quote a passage from Saint Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians;
"A Call to Ministry"
“Each one should give what he has decided in his own mind, not grudgingly or because he is made to, for God loves a cheerful giver. The one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide you with all the seed you want and make the harvest of your good deeds a larger one, and made richer in every way, you will be able to do all the generous things which through us, are the cause of thanksgiving to God. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (II Cor 9:6-8, 10-11, 13-15).
In August Fr. Joe
guided us through his homilies to the notion of us perhaps offering an hour a
month or even an hour a week for ourselves, our families, or our community.
In Sept Gene
presented the idea of a parish dialogue leading to a parish synod whereby we
can, as a community in Christ, determine who we are and where are we to go as a
people of God.
And last week Taryn
presented the ministry of Stewardship, a ministry of treasure, time and talents.
Paul
Lakeland in his book, In Liberation of the
Laity writes:
“when
the community of faith lives up to its responsibilities,[through] the Grace of
God [is] what it means to talk of the church as sacrament.”
So,
what does it mean “the church as sacrament”? What does it mean to be a
Christian? A Christian community? A Christian community called Corpus Christi, a
Christian community of Montreal, of Canada, of the world?
These
are some of the questions to be answered in our parish dialogue and concluded in
our parish synod.
As
so for this your Pastoral Council is asking for some volunteers from amongst the
broader parish community and from some of the existing ministries, including
wardens, faith first, music, social justice and so on, to assist in the
preparation and framing this vital dialogue.
And
finally, we invite anyone who may have the time, the Holy Spirit will provide us
with the talents needed and so if you are so moved, speak to Fr. Joe, or one of
the PC members. We require about 10 to 15 parishioners – young and less young;
those who question and those with few questions – a cross representation of
our small Christian community.
"Being Church, a Personal Experience"
Hello.
For those of you that don't know me, my name is Dan Wheeler, and I've been a
member of your pastoral council since August, 2004.
As
most of you are by now aware, Fr. Joe and the pastoral council are planning a
parish synod, a two hour event that will take place in January of next year, and
in which we, as members of this parish, will help to discern what direction this
community will take in the future. As we prepare for this synod, we are hoping,
and praying, that a very large number of you will participate at some level,
large or small, and choose to be part of that future in a personal way.
Fr.
Joe first spoke to us about making some time in our lives for our faith, of
finding an hour per week, or per month, that we can put towards our family,
ourselves, or our church. Gene spoke about collegiality, a process of
discernment of the people of God guided through prayer by the Holy Spirit, Taryn
about stewardship, a flowing to God in which we cast aside our former life of
selfishness and embrace a life of selflessness, and Hank spoke practically about
our need for volunteers in the various aspects of our church life.
What
I would like to do today is share with you briefly how my personal experience of
church has evolved, and what it has meant to me.
In
early 2004 I was attending St-John Fisher Parish in Pointe-Claire. Up to
that point in my life, the word "church" was synonymous with
"mass". Church was very simply a place to which one went to attend
mass. I didn't really know anybody there, nor did I feel like I really wanted
to. After all, I wasn't looking to broaden my social life. I would occasionally
run into a familiar face, but in no way did I ever relate my church attendance
with anything that I could describe as belonging to a community.
During
that year I had occasion to attend a mass at Corpus Christi. I thought it was a
quaint little church, and I found I liked Fr. Lou, who was then the pastor. So,
every now and again, when I had enough time, I would take the extra 10 or 15
minutes to drive up here from Pointe-Claire.
It
was during this period that I started to feel that something was missing in my
spiritual life; that somehow I needed to take a step forward. Upon reflection, I
decided that what I was missing was action: some kind of physical manifestation
of my faith that would go beyond just showing up somewhere. So it was that in
August 2004 I went up to Fr. Lou after mass one Sunday and asked him if there
was any way I could get involved in this church and help out. He thought for a
minute, and then invited me to attend the next pastoral council meeting. That is
how I've come to be a member of the pastoral council almost as long as I've been
a member of this parish. I had never been involved in anything like it and I had
no clue what I might be expected to do. I had hardly ever attended a church
event, much less helped to organize one. I felt barely capable of keeping my own
spiritual life on track, never mind helping to guide the pastoral life of a
parish. However, I have always simply done what I've felt capable of
doing, and that has always been enough.
I
found what I was looking for that day. Since that tentative beginning, this
church has become an important center of my spiritual life. I realize now that
what I wanted was to finally experience Church, not as a place, but as the Body
of Christ; as a faith community. I've discovered what it means to work side by
side with people with whom I share my faith; to pray and laugh together. I've
had a chance to get to know some wonderful people, and to see and experience the
generosity of our parishioners first hand. I've had the pleasure of experiencing
the collegiality of which Gene spoke, and of contributing in some small way to
stewarding Christ's Church.
In
closing, I'd like to share a story I once heard, which I hope illustrates what
I'm trying to say. There was once a new Christian in a small village who felt he
didn't need to go to church, and that thought he could find God just fine by
praying and reading his bible by himself. The pastor of his parish was visiting
him one evening, and told the man that he really should come to church. When the
man asked why, the pastor went to the fireplace, where there was a roaring fire,
took one of the coals out, and placed it on the stones nearby. They both watched
as the coal turned from red hot to dull gray. "That", said the pastor,
"is what happens to you when you're separated from the church". The
man got the message.
The
roaring fire is that of the Holy Spirit leading Christ's Church. The farther we
are from it, the colder we get. Different people contribute to this parish in
different ways and in differing amounts, depending on their circumstances. What
is important is not what, or how much, we do, but that we follow the call to be
part of the fire rather than smouldering on its fringes. When the synod is held
in the New Year, I encourage each and every one of you to participate in
whatever way the Spirit might lead you to, and to add to the bonfire of the Holy
Spirit that can help to warm a cold world.
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