St. Mary’s in Vancouver lauded for evangelism, outreach

This is an excerpt from Archbishop Miller's homily Oct. 20 at St. Mary's Parish in Vancouver. For more information about parish visits, click here.

This past Thursday evening I began a formal visit of your vibrant parish family. This is the 18th such visit in a program which, to visit the 78 parishes of the Archdiocese, will take several more years to complete.

Long known as a dynamic community, I have come to appreciate that St. Mary’s is becoming ever more deeply committed to Jesus and to the mission of evangelization which you have received from him. It was inspiring to witness first-hand what your parish family – under the wise and zealous guidance of your pastor, Father Guy – is accomplishing for the Lord: a harvest of spiritual gifts and of good works which are building up the Body of Christ.

For me, this experience of meeting so many people who are engaged in the life of your parish family, including your wonderful school, a concrete witness to the flourishing of your community, has been very encouraging. I had the pleasure of visiting with many of your parish committees, groups, associations and ministries. Because they are so numerous – over 70 I am told – I couldn’t cover them all in just two full days. But I came to know enough of them that I can express very honestly my admiration for your community.

The number of spiritual gifts and talents present among you and manifested in such a wide variety of ways – which is very evident in the Ministry Fair downstairs – is a sign to me that the Holy Spirit is active among you. 

While there are hundreds of you involved in the many ministries, I urge those who are not yet so engaged to find a ministry where they can put their gifts at the service of the parish in one or more activities or organizations – from those primarily spiritual to those dedicated to the service of justice. Continue to build on your successes, inviting ever more parishioners to share in your many ministries, especially those who are younger and not yet as fully integrated and involved as those who have found a home here for many years. Welcoming new members to our organizations and planning on succession are necessary for a community to flourish as the good Lord wishes.

A Parish Visit always includes Mass with the school students, a visit of the school and some of the classrooms, a meeting with the principal and a chance to interact with the teachers and staff. I must say that you are truly blessed to have such an outstanding school as an essential ministry within your parish. 

Your school is flourishing because of the extraordinary way in which it is carrying out its mission as an evangelizing community which is intentional in fostering in the students a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a Catholic world view, and a way of life patterned on the Gospel. We all owe the principal, the teachers, educational assistants and staff a great deal of thanks.

I know that you have taken to heart the archdiocesan directive that your school, like every one of our schools, be seismically safe for our children. Various committees have been working very hard to see this come about – and not without challenges. It is my hope that the planning for a new school will continue and that creative ways for financing it will fall into place. This is a huge undertaking, and I especially wish to thank those who have been so selfless, dedicated and persevering in this initiative.

Lastly, I would like to share with you an observation from Pope Francis when he describes his expectations of what a parish should be concentrating on today. Allow me to cite from The Joy of the Gospel, where he describes the 21st century parish in a way which stresses the importance of this family being both a community of disciples who live the Gospel and a community of missionaries. Here’s what he wrote:

“In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its members to be evangelizers. It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach.”

As I see it, St. Mary’s is well on its way to becoming a parish of disciples of Jesus who share the Good News with others; that is, you are becoming a parish of missionary disciples.

Now to a word on today’s readings from Holy Scripture.

Prayer

In all religions, prayer – communicating with God – plays an essential role. For us Christians, we can have a relationship that is one of friendship, as he told us at the Last Supper (cf. Jn. 15:15): “I no longer call you servants but friends.” Friends sustain and deepen their relationship with one another through conversation, and so it is with God. And, if he can be listened to and spoken to in return, he can also surely be implored or petitioned.

We all readily understand our need to pray to God in adoration, thanksgiving, and asking for forgiveness, but today’s readings from Scripture focus on our prayers of petition: asking God for favours, for his help.

While some people disparage the prayer of petition, because they think it encourages an immature and childish attitude to God, this is not at all the case. The prayer of petition brings our desires into the open before the Lord. If we don’t bring those desires before him honestly, we exclude him from our concerns, keeping him out of that intimate dimension of our lives. But that is precisely where he wants to be.

Our readings today tell us something about why we should have confidence that God listens to our prayers and how we should ask him for things: “to pray always and not to lose heart” (Lk. 18:1).

Gospel persistence

As he often does, in today’s Gospel Jesus takes the realities of our world as his point of departure to tell us a truth of his Kingdom. His parable begins with the stark contrast between two people: a heartless judge and a stubborn widow.

The corrupt judge “who neither feared God nor had respect for any human being” (Lk. 18:2) is not a model for us. To the widow seeking the justice denied her, the judge is complacent and sees in her only a bothersome woman unworthy of his attention.

The widow, on the other hand, is a sad instance of a person on the margins. She makes us think of so many upright people who suffer because of abuse, the deprivation of rights and those who feel powerless in the face of injustice and are tempted to despair. Yet she stands up bravely and does not give when she is ignored. The widow gets her hearing because she never lost heart.

That woman is who we are to imitate.

The lesson drawn by Jesus is crystal clear. If the unprincipled judge gives in to the poor widow, how much more likely will the most just of all judges, our Father in heaven, listen to our requests when we plead before him!

Badgering complemented by confidence

Now, I don’t for a moment want to suggest that prayers of petition are a sure fire technique for getting all the things we might desire: winning lottery tickets, going on holidays in Spain, or receiving good grades or a promotion with a fat salary increase. God is not some cosmic bellhop who jumps because we ring the bell.

Our Heavenly Father, who is faithful and powerful, who desires only his children’s good, answers our prayers in his own time. “Faith assures us that God hears our prayers and grants them at the appropriate moment, although our daily experience seems to deny this certainty.” We don’t know “God’s time,” but we are assured by his love that he does not, indeed cannot, turn a deaf ear to our pleading.

The surprising point of Jesus’ parable is that it is good for us to be persistent in prayer, never losing heart.

God wants us, his people, to place our needs before him, those that are personal, those of our family, but also those of our parish community.