Today, I would
like to simply give you several examples of how this gospel has been lived out
in my experience and those I have ministered to and those with whom I have
ministered!
First of all, I had
to look no further than right here in this place. A pious French woman, Jeanne
Jugan, having felt the need to care for the many impoverished elderly who lined
the street of French towns and cities, established this Congregation to care
for the elderly in 1839. Now, her Sisters are serving the elderly all over the
world, especially those who can never re-pay them. The gospel calls these
Sisters and the people who serve with them “Blessed.”
I have always had
a heart for the marginalized and the left out. Let me tell you about how I have
personally tried to follow the challenge in today’s gospel.
When I was pastor
of the Cathedral, I received an elderly woman into the Church. She had an
estranged son who lived far away and a couple of relatives who lived locally
but paid very little attention to her. On Mother’s Day, since my own mother had
died a few years earlier, instead of going to one of my sister’s houses down in
Meade County, I would cook a delicious meal for her, go pick her up and treat
her like she had won a place on the old TV show “Queen for a Day!” I did that
for years until she died!
Before I moved to
Louisville as pastor of the Cathedral, I was pastor of Holy Name of Mary Church
in the center of the state in the little village of Calvary. For the years I
was there, every year on February 14 I would host a Valentine’s Party for Seniors
at the rectory rather than accept invitations from other people. I tried to
“smother” them with love and appreciation, especially those who were widows and
widowers. I even got High School kids to come and dance with them one year. We
played BINGO for little prizes to take home and provided the type of food I
knew they would enjoy with enough left over to take some home for supper if
they lived alone.
After I left the
Cathedral and started working as a staff member at St. Meinrad Seminary, I was
especially attentive to the foreign-born seminarians. I bought coats on sale
and made them available to the guys who arrived in the US in the summer from
hot climates. When the weather turned cold, they had no coats and no extra
money to buy them. I would have as many as 15-25 coats of various sizes in my
office to give away that I had bought on sale last spring when people quit
buying coats.
Instead of going
to my own family and gorging myself on fine food, I invited the foreign-born
seminarians without families in this country to come to my condo for a
Thanksgiving meal. I went all out. I did the cooking myself for several years,
but as the group grew, a nice restaurant here in town helped me out and cooked
the food for me. All I had to do is set the table, supply the drinks, go pick
it up and meet them at the door. Tongue-in-cheek, I called it my Thanksgiving
Dinner for the Left-Behind!
As pastor of the
Cathedral that had dwindled down to 110 elderly members, I was appointed by
Archbishop Kelly to “revitalize” the congregation. I knew it would be almost
impossible to convert enough people to Catholicism to fill the rolls. I knew
that it was not kosher to build the roles by stealing Catholics out of other
parishes. I decided to go after marginalized Catholics, non-practicing
Catholics and Catholics who had been hurt or rejected in other parishes. We
gained several nicknames and mottos. We use to say openly. that “We’ll take
anybody!” Being the “mother church of the diocese,” we would proudly say, “You
can always come home to Mother!” We were called the “Island of Misfit Toys”
from the children’s TV special ‘Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” The “Island of
Misfit Toys” was that special place where broke toys could go to be repaired so
they, too, could be part of Christmas! We welcomed hundreds of “fallen away
Catholics” back to church.
When I was one of
the Campus Ministry Chaplains at Bellarmine University, I started a special
Mass for the grieving every Christmas eve for many years. No one else was doing
it. I called it my annual “Blue
Christmas Mass.” It was very popular because it met a very specific need. We
always advertised that it was for the grieving only. It was for people who had
lost children, spouses and family members from suicide, heart attacks,
automobile accidents, murders, old age and whatever. Most people told me that
they had always dreaded going to Mass on Christmas because they could not bring
themselves to attend a “happy Christmas Mass” that only reminded them of their
losses. The homily was always directed at consoling them. Instead of singing JOY
TO THE WORLD, we sang softer music like SILENT NIGHT and AWAY IN A MANGER. They
left consoled instead of depressed about those they had lost! We always gave
them a small gift to help remind them of those special Masses throughout the
coming year: a blue star, a pregnant Mary statue, a Sleeping St. Joseph Statue,
a Mended Broken Heart artwork.
I am sure you have
similar experiences of times you have ignored your own needs to meet the needs
of the “poor, crippled, lame and blind” as the gospel puts it today! If you
have, you know what it’s like to have that feeling of being “blessed indeed!”
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