The Reason for Our Hope

by Fr. Vin

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone

who asks you for a reason for your hope.”

-- First Letter of St. Peter, 3:15

A Special Series of Columns for This Summer

Our parish faces a new situation, and the departures of Cathy Gillooly, Deacon Peter, and Diane Vella, while important in themselves, are in a deeper sense only a symptom.  Our parish, like many parishes, is on the brink of moving out of one way of “doing church” – having many services supplied to parishioners through paid expert staff – into a new way of “being church” – that is, relying primarily on the Holy Spirit present and active in one another as baptized disciples.  While it’s natural to mourn the loss of a familiar style (as well as the loss of familiar faces), we have to remember that God gives us hope.  God is always offering us new life; even what appear to be setbacks are at root invitations – if we choose to listen for the voice of God in them.

That’s why I’ve titled this series of columns as I have.  Saint Peter tells his people to be ready to give a reason why they hope: and that will be my focus.  I’ll use this page so that you can know some things about the new situation we’re in; about what steps parish leaders are taking to see that vital parish services continue; about issues on which I invite your ideas; and about what we all need to do to ensure the vitality of Our Lady of Grace in the future.

In the past two weeks I wrote about the sense of loss that’s natural when familiar people say goodbye.  It’s appropriate to grieve over losses, and Our Lady of Grace has had a lot of losses over the past five years or so.  There’s a time for mourning, but there’s also a path through it that leads to healing, a path that our faith teaches us.  Saint Peter was writing to people who were being persecuted and suffering a great deal; yet he focused their attention on the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in their midst, and on the confidence they could have based on Christ’s promises.  I want to focus your attention on those two things as well: God’s Holy Spirit has been, is now, and will always be the foundation of our life together – not any individual personality or program.  And we have the guarantee that, if we put the gifts God gives us to work for one another’s benefit, God will see that we succeed – on the terms that matter to God, even if not in the ways we might prefer.

This is going to be a challenging time – and challenge can be a very good thing for our spiritual growth.  As always, feelings of despondency or attitudes of self-protection will have to be faced and grown beyond.  At every Mass the central gesture of Christ is the gift of Himself in order to feed us; and that’s what we’re invited to imitate in our daily Christian life.  We’ll have to be kind and gentle with one another, ready to forgive, and tolerant of missteps as we learn a new way of being church.  And we have to be ready for the excitement that it can bring!

I have some practical things to say about the shape of our parish, but this series had to start with the foundation; and that foundation is in Christ and the gifts Christ’s Spirit gives to us – that’s the foundation of our hope. Until next week, Peace.

(Since parishioners are often on vacation and away from some summer masses, this column will appear twice: July 1 and July 8.  Each subsequent column in this series will also appear for two consecutive weeks.)