Our Parish Mission

"We exist to rescue people from the poverty of an identity outside of Jesus”

At all the masses this past weekend I introduced our parish mission statement, which is drawn from the Four Clarity Questions that are at the heart of who we are, what we do, and how we make ministry decisions. 

CLARITY QUESTIONS

Why do we exist? We exist to rescue people from the poverty of an identity outside of Jesus

How do we behave? Authentic accompaniment, Joyful receptivity, Sacrificial generosity

What do we do? We are a community that worships, builds and sends disciples, serves the poor, and extends the Kingdom of God. 

How will we succeed? Reliance on the Holy Spirit, Availability, Real-time accompaniment (person-to-person)



This weekend I would like to reflect on the first of the Four Clarity Questions: Why do we exist? This is a fundamental question. It asks the raison d’etre for our existence. What is that which is so urgent such that if we did not do it would signal failure in accomplishing the task Christ has given us? 



In answering this question, we ask why our parish exists, what purpose it serves, what is the primary mission at the heart of our existence toward which every other activity of our parish is oriented? We acknowledge the humble beginnings of our parish and the desire of our forebears for our parish to be at the service of the poor. We have continued in this spirit for many decades. Although these objectives are very important, we recognize that they are secondary. The reason the Church exists is to evangelize, and be a prolongation, in time, of the mission of Jesus Christ. 



Our Lord Jesus, before his ascension into heaven, gave his disciples the mandate to “Go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations…” They are to do this through their preaching and baptism. This is the universal mission of the Church. It is a mission of gathering everyone from the corners of the world into the one family of God’s people. Over the centuries, the church has carried out this mission by preaching repentance and forgiveness, the administration of the sacraments and her works of charity. She calls people who are lost in worldly pursuit and sin into a loving relationship with Jesus and into the Kingdom of God. Through the preaching of the message of repentance and forgiveness in Jesus, she actively rescues people who have been held captive under the reign and control of the evil one. 



Our parish mission flows from this universal mandate which Christ has given to the Church. We are called to be Christ’s foot soldiers in the world, carrying out the work of rescuing people from the claws of our arch-enemy, the Devil. We proclaim that Christ has made us adopted sons and daughters of God through our baptism. And every other identity which the world imposes upon us is only secondary to our true identity as children of God. Whatever titles we assume in the world, whether husbands, wives, parents, or even our educational and professional titles such as professors, doctors, engineers, contractors, and so on… do not define who we really are. In fact, these titles tend to blur our appreciation of our true identities. They make us forget who we are and whose we are. The more we cling to these ways of identifying ourselves, the more we disclose our poverty. No matter what we have accomplished or the status we have attained, we believe that life outside of Jesus is wretchedness… For cut off from me you can do nothing (John 15:5). An identity outside of Jesus leaves one longing for more because it does not give true meaning or lasting satisfaction. 



Our rescue mission has a telos, to make the peoples of our community and the world into a people of God, which the Dogmatic Constitution, Lumen Gentium, of the Second Vatican Council describes as the church. We have a mission to bring people back to Jesus and to deepen their relationship with him. We will do this through reverent celebration of the Eucharist, fervent proclamation of the Kerygma, ministry of charity within our community, and the witness of our lives. The Second Vatican Council identifies the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life. This means, everything the church does flow from and find their culmination in the Eucharist. And the Eucharist is Jesus truly present under the appearance of bread and wine. The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ, given to us as food for our bodies and our souls. It nourishes us while on our pilgrimage on earth until we reach our heavenly homeland. Therefore, we can never dismiss the centrality of the Eucharist to the identity and mission of the church. We are a Eucharistic people, who make the Eucharist and who are made by the Eucharist. The church, through the ordained ministry, in union with the common priesthood of the laity, confects the Eucharist, and is in turn gathered into the Body of Christ by means of the Eucharist. This therefore means that without the church there can be no Eucharist. In the same way, without the Eucharist, there is no church. 


May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!