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From the Pastor&
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? - Poet Mary Oliver
The day after Easter I went down to Orlando for a few days of rest and relaxation. I didn't realize how tired I was until I tried to wake up the first morning I was there. It took me three days to unwind, as they say. Or, maybe, as Bonnie Prudden wrote: You can't turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again! We all need days of rest in order to wind up ourselves for life.
I was able to leave the parish for five days and not worry because I am one of the few pastors in this archdiocese with an associate pastor, Fr. Michael. I could get on an airplane and go away because I work with three good Deacons, a good Parish Administrator, and a staff that works hard for St. John's, that is for you.
But what
happens when St. John's has only one priest? Not,
if but when! Recently the American bishops conducted a survey of the laity in the U.S. and found that 75% of folks like you and yours have not yet been affected by the reduced number of priests. Twenty years ago when I was here as an associate pastor, there were three priests doing the same amount of work that two priests are doing in 2001. How can that be? The answer is rather simple: priests are working hard to keep things as they were. The priesthood is changing only as we are being forced to change. In the process, fewer and older priests are doing what many younger priests did a few decades ago. Priests are trying to accomplish a difficult and impossible task: fewer ordained clergy trying to serve a larger number of Catholics. If we keep trying to live this way we'll kill ourselves.
What is God trying to tell the Church? When I was ordained in 1972, there were twenty-four ordained from my class. This year, the archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis is ordaining a class of four to the priesthood. How many priests will retire or die? How do we keep our hope alive? Our God is certainly a God of surprises! Since all of us belong to the church by our baptism, all of us must face this issue together. We need to have hope and optimism.
Several hundred years ago John Wesley wrote: No one can be a Christian alone! It's true that we need each other. When people tell me that they don't need the church to be a Christian, I'm amazed and somewhat hurt. To be connected to Christ means to be connected to other members of his body (the church). There is a wonderful song that we don't sing often enough; it's called The Servant Song and in it there is the phrase:
We are travelers on a journey
Fellow pilgrims on the road;
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.
I am a believer. I need you in my life as I journey to God as a disciple of Christ. No one can be a "rugged individualist" and live the Christian life. Priests and people need each other to remind ourselves of the truth. And the truth is this: surely, God is with us (Emmanuel). When God seems hidden, God is often most near. Don't let me forget that as I try to be a priest to you.
As the Appalachian saying goes: Always have your bags packed; you never know where life's journey is going to take you!
How true it is!
Fr. Bill
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