In these days of goodbyes and farewells
I've not felt as truly loved,
keenly cherished,
warmly cared for
and closely held
since the day my mother and father
first welcomed and held me in their arms...
Help me hold dear, Lord,
the memory of this time:
a sign of your love for me
made a sacrament
in your people's embrace...
Yesterday's weather, Lord,
more than promised a season's change
- it delivered!
It was warm enough to suggest
that the corduroy pants I was wearing
were past their time,
that it was finally time, and none too soon,
for a change in my closet's wardrobe...
So I spent a couple hours last night
putting away my winter wear
for lighter fabrics and brighter colors...
When my work was done I stepped back, Lord,
and with no small amount of satisfaction,
surveyed my summer wardrobe...
And then it struck me, Lord:
how often I feel entitled
to the luxury of so many outfits:
clothes arranged by season,
more shirts and pants than days in the week,
in colors to suit my mood and whim
not to mention any occasion or time of day...
Embarrassed by this excess, Lord,
I thinned my winter and summer collections
and packed a box for those who have
fewer resources and greater want...
But still I have more clothes than I need...
So, make me mindful of others' needs, Lord,
and move my heart to give, generously,
not just from my surplus
but from my substance...
Make me more aware
and truly grateful, Lord,
for.all the things I have
and often take for granted...
Keep me from desiring and buying
clothing I don't need and most of all
- things that I might never wear...
Clothe me in heartfelt mercy, Lord,
and dress me in garments of grace;
attire me simply and modestly
from a wardrobe well-suited for a man
called to serve the poor...
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter Scripturesfor today's Mass
This weekend included my last Sunday masses in Concord after 25 years. Here's my homily on video, followed by an audio-only version, followed by the text. I'd especially encourage you to watch the video or listen to the audio for the song with which my homily closes.
Audio
Seated at the
Last Supper table, on the night before he died,
Jesus told to
his friends,
“I will be with
you only a little while longer…”
As it happens, I
can say the same thing to you today
“I will be with
you only a little while longer”
and then I’ll be
in my new assignment in Belmont.
And it also
happens that this day, May 19, is my ordination anniversary.
Forty-six years
ago today,
Cardinal
Humberto Medeiros laid his hands on my head.
And he ordained
me to preach the Word of God
and to shepherd
God’s people - to this Table.
I was ordained
to gather you here, week after week on the Lord’s Day
• to break open
the bread of the scriptures
to find wisdom
and strength
• and to
break the Bread and bless the Cup
to feed our
hearts and souls with the very life of Jesus in Communion.
I have loved
meeting you at the Lord’s Table these past 25 years
and I will miss
meeting you at this table
when I leave
Concord at the end of this month.
But you will, I
trust and pray,
you will
continue to come to this Table
• to be
strengthened by the One
who truly is the
One who gathers you here,
• to be fed by
the One who have his life for you on the Cross,
• to meet here
the Risen Jesus in the Bread and Cup of the Eucharist.
I pray you’ll
continue to do that.
And I, on the
Lord’s Day, at another altar in another church,
will, on
Sundays, go to the Table,
where I
willoffer praise and thanksgiving
for the wisdom
and the peace Jesus offers us in our worship:
you in Concord,
I in Belmont.
Twenty-five
years ago I was a new guy in town.
But over a
quarter of a century, through the grace of God
and through my
share in the ministry of Jesus,
and through the
faith you and I hold in common,
this parish and
town have become my home
and you have
become my family.
The bonds that
tie us together are considerable:
they are the
bonds of home and family,
the bonds of
grace and mercy,
the bonds of
word and sacrament,
the bonds of
friendship and love.
All this joins
us together and make us one:
we are not just
as pew-mates in the house of the Lord,
we are
soul-matesin the Lord’s heart.
In fact, we
believe and profess that the bonds that join us
are stronger
than death.
Nothing less
than that is at the heart of the Easter message:
the bond of
faith is stronger than death.
If the grace
that binds us as one is this strong
- it’s certainly
not unreasonable to believe
that you and I
can and will survive anything, including
my departure as
your pastor
and Fr. Silva’s
arrival as your new pastor -
we will all get
through this intact, in one piece.
We can do that
and we will do that.
Yet, as
Shakespeare said:Parting is such sweet
sorrow.
it’s the parting
brings the sorrow,
while the
sweetness is found
in the hope of
meeting again…
Let’s then
listen again at Jesus’ words in today’s gospel:
I will be with
you only a little longer… love one another.
As I have loved
you, so you also should love one another.
This is how all
will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love
for one another.
And allow me to
paraphrase the Lord’s words for our purposes here.
Brothers and
sisters, I’ll only be your pastor a little while longer
and only for
that same brief time
will you be the
people of my parish.
So let us love
one another - and love others, too.
As you have
loved me as our pastor
so are you
called to love Fr. Silva -
whom you haven’t
yet met.
And as I have
loved you as my parish, so am I called
to love the
people of St. Luke’s and St. Joseph’s in Belmont
- whom I am yet
to meet.
And this is how
you and I will know
- and how others
will know -
that the bond
we’ve shared for 25 years is of God,
that it’s true,
that it’s forged
like steel in the furnace of divine love,
that it’s
guaranteed by our faith in the Risen Jesus
and that it
finds its greatest joy in serving others.
We can and we
will be confident in the bond we share
if our love
reaches out to others
because love is
strengthened, not weakened,
in our giving it
away and sharing it with others -
especially with
those whom we have not yet met.
• What a loss it
would be if our parting found us locked in the past,
unable or
unwilling to carry forward the best of all we’ve
known, shared,
celebrated, enjoyed and prized together.
• What a
waste it would be if in grieving our separation
we were to
forget and leave behind
all we’ve done
and accomplished and become
over a quarter
of a century.
• What a
shame it would be if the sorrow of our parting
left us in a
place of sadness,
and found us
drifting away from this Table
and from the
work of this parish’s life.
Our faith, our
Easter faith, our faith in the Risen Jesus teaches us
that in facing
all things - even in facing death -
we are called to
rise up out of our grief and to embrace what lives
and hold fast to
the love we’ve known and shared
until we know
the sweetness of meeting again.
Forty-six years
ago today
I was ordained to
pray with you at the Lord’s Table.
That’s what I’ve
done, that’s what you’ve done with me,
for 25 years
and that’s what
we’re called to do for the rest of our lives.
May the Lord who
loved us first,
the Lord who
speaks to our minds and hearts,
the Lord who
sets this table and invites us to join him here,
the Lord who
gave himself for us on the Cross
and gives
himself to us yet again today,
his Body broken
for us as bread,
his Blood poured
out for us, as from a cup,
the Lord who has
brought us together as pastor and people:
may this same
Lord teach us to love another as he has loved us
so that all may
know that you and I, we are one, ever one,
bound together,
bonded, in the love of the Risen Jesus.
I received many gifts over this past weekend from folks wishing me well as I leave Concord and that has led me to offer this prayer of thanksgiving for all God's gifts to me...
Good morning, good God!
Help me, this Monday morning, Lord,
help me offer you my thanks and praise
for all I have,
all I've received
and all that I've been given...
Help me remember, Lord,
the history of all your gifts to me
over oh-so-many years...
Help me to focus less
on what I want and need
and more on all the ways
your generous hand has blessed me...
And keep me from being jealous
of whatever others have...
I offer you, Lord, my gratitude
for all the gifts you've offered me,
from the simplest to the greatest...
The week ahead, Lord,
is surely your gift to me:
another week to grow in your love,
in your mercy and your grace...
Make me grateful for the week ahead
and for any gifts, for all the gifts
that you may choose to send me...
Give me a generous heart, Lord,
to share with others what you have given me:
remind me that in sharing my gifts
they are not halved but doubled...
And Lord, show me how to use
the gifts already mine
to make peace with others,
to reach out to those in need,
to make things right and just
in my home, in my neighborhood
and wherever my steps may take me...
All good gifts come from your hand, Lord:
I offer you my thanks and praise
for all you've given me...
Amen.
We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land But it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand. He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.
All good gifts around us Are sent from Heaven above. Then thank the Lord, thank the Lord for all his love.
We thank thee then, O Father, for all things bright and good: The seed time and the harvest, our life our health our food. No gifts have we to offer for all thy love imparts But that which thou desirest, our humble thankful hearts.
All good gifts around us Are sent from Heaven above. Then thank the Lord, thank the Lord for all his love.
I really wanna thank you Lord! All good gifts around us Are sent from Heaven above. Then thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all his love!
Music by Stephen Schwartz; lyrics from a German hymn written by Matthias Claudius, translated by Jane M. Campbell
As the days go by and things settle down a bit, I'll be sharing with you some of the many wonderful moments of my farewell reception on this past Friday night but here are two. My sister and brother-in-law are on a Mediterranean cruise but sent these greetings from the deck of their ship. The second is from Keith Lockhart, director of the Boston Pops Orchestra!
Thank you, Lord,
for the gift of faith:
that strength, that power, that source within, showing me the way,
steadying my step
and offering me the hope I need to make my way
through all my troubles and trials...
Thank you, Lord,
for the gift of Church:
that wounded, rag-tag, joyful lot of saints and sinners
bound in faith together,
seeking out your truth,
growing in the gospel's joy,
reaching out to others' needs -
all brothers and sisters in your love...
Thank you, Lord,
for the people all around me, behind me and before me:
all who've shaped the person I've become;
who've loved me in more ways than I can know,
who've loved me when I've failed to love them in return;
who've pardoned and forgiven me with mercy and with grace;
who've shared with me their sorrows and their joys,
who fill my heart with peace
and who help me trust and know with hope
that you're always by my side...
And thank you, Lord,
for people I've not yet met,
whose paths will cross my own
as your Spirit guides our ways...
Thank you, Lord,
for the mystery of your presence:
in the simplest and most ordinary moments of each day
and in the stillness, in the quiet time
I spend with you in prayer...
Receive my thanks and praise today
for you, Lord, are my God
from whom all blessings flow...
Last night my parish held a farewell reception for me as I prepare, after 25 years of ministry in Concord, to leave here at the end of the month: five beautiful hours of love, tears and laughter!
Greeting more than 550 people, Lord,
I was awash in love, embraced,
over and over again,
by affection and gratitude, held
in the arms of young and old, encircled
by memories and stories of sorrow and joy,
of faith and blessing and grace...
And all of this because you, Lord,
in word and sacrament you have been at the heart of who we are
as people and pastor
this past quarter of a century...
All of this because it was you, Lord,
who brought us together, you who spoke the word
to enlighten and guide us, you who reached out with strength
to mend and heal us, you whose Spirit filled and lifted
our minds and hearts
with grace and blessing and peace...
Last night, Lord, I was awash in love,
embraced over and over again
by affection and gratitude,
held in the arms of young and old
and all of this, Lord, but a hint,
a taste, a clue, a trace, a whisper
of your everlasting love embracing,
encircling and holding each of us,
each and every one of us,
in your grace, in your mercy
and in your peace...
We bless you, O Lord,
we praise you, our God,
from whom all blessings flow...
The best place to start is always one of your local Catholic churches. Drop in some Sunday and see what's going on. Then you might speak to the pastor or someone on the parish staff about how they can help you and respond to your questions.
