Fifth Sunday of Easter - Year A
Offer Yourself!
Rev. James A. Wickersham

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his mercy endures forever.

Over the past two years, my role has been changing. When I was asked to become Vocation Director, I felt the weight of it. The weight was not mainly the meetings or the schedule. It was fear. What if I fail at this? What if no men come forward?

But, you know, fear is not a plan. I knew I had to rethink how I used my time, what I could say yes to, and what I had to say no to. Even handing over my calendar to Kim was part of that. And it has helped a lot.

Now, beginning this summer, my responsibility shifts again. I will be working directly with our seminarians, almost 30 of them, and serving as a bridge between them, their seminaries, and Archbishop Coakley. And I had the same feeling again: What if I fail?

That brought me to the Acts of the Apostles today. The apostles face a great dilemma and say, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.” They know their limits. They cannot do everything. I have had to face that again too. I suspect many of you feel the same way. Life comes at us full throttle, and there is always one more thing waiting to be done.

Over the years, I have learned that discovering our limits is not failure. It is the beginning of wisdom. When we admit we cannot fix everything and do everything, we can stop trying to be everything. Then we can do what God has actually put before us in our own vocation.

When the apostles realize that, the Church does not explode. It becomes stronger. Responsibility is shared, and the life of the Church deepens.

Over the past two years, both of our church buildings have been renovated. St. Margaret Mary with her beautiful, noble simplicity. And St. Mary, there is a richness to her, almost like stepping into a garden where nature and the divine meet. Both our churches are finished, but that was never the end. If all we do now is keep them running, we will miss what God is asking of us next.

St. Peter reminds us, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.” You all, not just the clergy, but all of us. The life of these parishes cannot depend on me doing more and more. It depends on you becoming who you are in Christ for your family and for your parish.

My challenge to you all is this. When you come here to Mass, you do not just attend. You are not just a pew sitter. You offer. The bread and wine come forward from your lives, and along with them, you place your own life on the altar, your work, your family, your struggles, and your sacrifices. If that offering is not there, then something is lacking. Yes, the Mass is still celebrated, but your life is not being drawn into it the way it should be.

In the months ahead, my schedule will be tighter, and the way I meet with people will be more focused. This is not a step back, but a way of being more faithful, just like the apostles in the first reading.

It is also time for our parish to focus on the essentials. St. Mary and St. Margaret Mary are really one parish. They are united in one pastor, and so they make one pastoral unit. They have one mission. There is one call to live the Gospel here. We need to live more as one parish in how we gather, pray, and know one another.

In a world where everything is always shifting, there is something very important about having a parish home, a place where people know you, where you are present week after week, not just floating parish to parish, but truly belonging. Do not our hearts long for that belonging? Is that not what our world is missing most today?

That is why I will be working in the months ahead to establish a new unified parish pastoral council with representation from both parishes. This is not a board, not a group that runs things, not a group concerned with budgets and spreadsheets, but people who help me see where God is leading us: how we worship and come together socially, how we help the poor, and how we hand on the gift of our one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic faith to the next generation.

This can only happen if each of us takes up the part God has given us. You are not here to watch the life of the Church happen; you are part of that life.

We have spent the last two years renovating our church buildings. They are ready, and they are finished.

Now is the time for us to be made ready.