A Letter for the Parishioners of St. James Cathedral
 

St. James Cathedral
September, 2004

Dear Friends,

    This past spring we had the opportunity to host a film crew from South Bend, Indiana, who came to St. James to put together a television documentary on the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA), the process by which adults are received into the Catholic Church. The film crew made several trips to Seattle. They wanted to be able to track and follow our large group of catechumens at several important moments along their journey to baptism at the Easter Vigil. Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Catholic bishops, the documentary will be presented on national TV on Easter Sunday of 2005. A proud moment for St. James Cathedral!

    During their visits to St. James, the members of the film crew quickly became ‘hooked’ on St. James. They were inspired by the prayerful beauty of the Sunday 10:00 Mass (the one they regularly attended), fascinated by the rich diversity of the parish, and impressed by the number and quality of people seeking membership in the Catholic Church. Time and again, they remarked about the large number of people who come to the cathedral each Sunday, some from long distances, in order to worship God as part of this community. And just as often they remarked to me about the incredible beauty and vitality of the liturgy (including, of course, the music) as people celebrate it in St. James Cathedral.

    From my admittedly biased point of view, I can’t say I disagree with any of their observations! I, too, am deeply moved by you, the people of St. James Cathedral parish: by the depth of your faith, by the power of your prayer, by your involvement in a dizzying array of outreach ministries to the poor and needy, and by your generous financial support of the cathedral. Almost every day I remind myself that I am the luckiest pastor around!

A Concern

    I wouldn’t be true to myself or my calling, however, if I were not to share with you a concern that I have. Let me put it in context. Over the past few years, several national surveys have arrived at the same disconcerting conclusion: on any given Sunday only about one-third of all Catholics attend Mass! And I have had to come to the conclusion that, outstanding as our parish is in many respects, in this particular respect we are not appreciably different from Catholics across the country.

    Surprisingly, from informal conversations I have become aware that some people actually think that the Church long ago abandoned the old precept that obligated Catholics to participate in Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. It didn’t, of course – any more than it abandoned the third Commandment of the Decalogue (“Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day”)! Nonetheless, a good number of people seem to have developed a fairly relaxed approach to this whole matter.

    But I personally don’t find it helpful to approach this matter from the point of view of obligation. I find it much more persuasive to get people to think about the privilege that is ours to be able to celebrate Mass together each Sunday. After all, whenever we gather to offer Mass, we celebrate and make present the defining events of our Christian faith: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And not only that: in the liturgy those saving events in the life of Christ actually become the saving events of our lives or, to borrow an expression from the Second Vatican Council, they become the “source and summit” of our lives. There is nothing more central to our faith life, nothing more important that we do as a community than the celebration of the Eucharist. It is not at all overstating the matter to say that if we do not celebrate the Eucharist we are not really living!

    And it is not overstating things to say that the annual unfolding of the Church’s liturgical year from Advent to Pentecost and into Ordinary Time is something we need in order to make sense of our lives. The gentle rhythms, the ebbs and flows of each liturgical year make present the rhythms of Jesus’ own life even as they reflect the rhythms of our own lives, and they have power to shape our thinking, to color our outlook, and to make sense of our sorrows as well as of our joys. The liturgical year is a journey we make each year in the company of our fellow believers, and we also make it in the company of Jesus who was the first to travel the journey from Advent to Christmas, through Lent to Easter. Each year Jesus sends his Spirit on us as we travel in the same steps he did. And if we do not join our community in making the journey, or if, like parachute artists, we only drop into the journey from time to time, we are losing out on God’s greatest gifts and depriving ourselves of the opportunity to connect the disparate ‘dots’ of our lives with the steady, grace-filled path that Jesus once walked alone but now walks together with us!

    My reference to “community” deserves a little development. Community is all-important in our Christian faith. We are not isolated individuals who come to church because we happen to have a relationship with God, and it is not true to say “my faith is between God and me.” No, like the Chosen People of old, God saves us in community, and for Catholics that community is our parish. That is why our presence in our parish church Sunday after Sunday is something the entire community not only expects but actually depends on. And rightly so! When people take the attitude of “I go to Mass when I can,” or “I go fairly often,” or “I go when I feel the need,” or “I go on the important days,” or “I go when it’s convenient,” or “I go when nothing else competes with my time,” they are striking a blow at the very heart of what it means to belong to a community of faith. The lifeline of any parish community is the Sunday Eucharist and not to celebrate the Eucharist is not only to deny one’s self the single most important Source for personal spiritual growth, it is also to diminish the very life and health of the community itself.
    Visitors to the cathedral often remark to me about what a vibrant community we have at St. James – and they are right, but I cannot help but wonder what we would be if everyone was even more conscientious about church attendance. Our community would undoubtedly be even better than it is, and stronger – a better witness to Jesus Christ whose gospel we live and preach, and a stronger presence to the poor and needy as we serve them in His name. There’s absolutely no telling what we would be and what we could do if all of us were totally committed to regular, weekly participation in the Eucharist.

    I also believe that we need to be aware of the messages we give to our children in this matter. Children will learn the importance of the weekly celebration of the Eucharist only if it is important to their parents—and children are, as you know, very quick to pick up on priorities. If Sunday Mass is an occasional thing only, or something the family does when there are no other competing events (athletics, family visits, picnics, shopping, housework, yard work, homework), they are very unlikely to grow up with an understanding of the centrality of their faith. I realize that getting children ready for church on Sundays can be a daunting task, and so can keeping them engaged during an hour-long Mass, but these are efforts that will pay rich dividends in the long run. Over the past few years the cathedral has worked hard—and we will continue to work hard—to involve children in the Sunday liturgies as well as in the Sunday School religious education program. There are opportunities for nearly every child in this parish to become actively involved at Sunday Mass whether as a server, a chorister, a reader, or a youth usher. These youth ministries are wonderful ways for instilling in our young people an appreciation for the beauty and the importance of Sunday Mass. They are also ideal ways for them to learn to understand the Mass and to love it.

    There are, of course, legitimate reasons that keep people from being at Mass. Some have work schedules that preclude weekend Mass attendance, and travel can sometimes be a justifiable excuse, and, of course, illness is always a legitimate reason for missing Mass. But the norm—and the need—is weekly Eucharist. For those whose weekend work schedules make attendance at Mass impossible, I recommend trying to come to one of the three Masses celebrated each weekday in the cathedral; and in the case of those who are ill or homebound, I urge you to call the parish office so we can arrange to have Holy Communion brought to you at home or in the hospital. This is a wonderful way to strengthen and encourage you in your illness and to connect you with your parish community.

    St. James is a bit unique in that some of our parishioners are registered in two parishes: their neighborhood parish as well as the cathedral. This may work in some situations, but I would argue that it is better, as a rule, to make a primary commitment to the life of one community. The very nature of a community would seem to require that. And it is certainly never appropriate to float from church to church in order simply to find the most convenient (or the shortest!) Mass. A parish church is not a service station or a “fast food joint.” A parish is, by definition, a community of faith, worship, and service. All three are important. All three require a commitment to the ongoing life of the parish, not just casual or occasional stopping-by or dropping-in.

    Like many parishes today, St. James has a certain number of people who are seasonal parishioners (“snow birds,” to use the popular phrase); other parishioners are blessed to have weekend cabins in the mountains or at the beach. To these parishioners I express my sincere gratitude for the ways they stay connected to St. James even when they are away for weeks or months at a time. It cannot be easy to support two parishes but many of these people do just that and their generosity makes a big difference.

    I think it is also important for me to say a word about regular Sunday attendance at a chapel such as the Josephinum Residence in downtown Seattle or the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University. I can certainly understand why people might, on occasion, chose to attend Mass at one or another of these chapels but it is important to understand that they have a different role from that of a parish church. For example, the Chapel of St. Ignatius is part of the campus ministry of Seattle University and exists for the benefit of the students and others who are part of the university community. The sacraments they celebrate, including baptisms and weddings, are for the university community. Quite properly, they do not offer baptismal preparation programs, Sunday School for children, or baby-sitting services. Parishes do that. And their faith-formation, service and outreach programs, and social events—while numerous—are for the students of the university. A parish by its very nature provides all those services and more and it is by participating in them that people grow in their faith. If I may paraphrase the current wisdom, it takes a parish to raise a Catholic, and to opt out of the life of a parish is to lose out on important opportunities for spiritual growth as well as to diminish the life of the parish.

    Let me expand a little on this latter point. Parishes exist for one reason only: they exist in order to do what Jesus did. The gospels tell us that Jesus prayed to his Father, preached the Good News, and reached out to people in loving service. And that is precisely what parishes do. All three of them, not just—as in the case of a downtown or institutional chapel—one or the other. This is why parishes not only gather people for the celebration of Mass (any church or chapel can do that); parishes also gather people for the preaching of the gospel which takes place during Mass, of course, but also in all the religious education and faith formation programs that a parish typically offers, including children’s religious education, sacramental preparation programs, adult faith formation programs, the RCIA, etc.). Parishes also gather people together so they can reach out in loving service in the name of Christ. At the cathedral that’s a big part of what we do. Think, for instance, of our various outreach ministries to the homeless, including the overnight winter shelter and Operation Nightwatch; think of the Catholic Worker Family Kitchen, of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, of the ESL program, the Emmaus Companions, and the various programs for the elderly and homebound, including volunteer chore services. Every one of the things listed above, and others I haven’t mentioned, are part of the way our parish does those three things Jesus did (prayer, preaching of the gospel, service). All of them together are what make a parish a parish. A person who simply goes someplace for Mass on Sunday is getting only a part of the picture or, better, participating very partially in the ministry and life of Jesus. Parishes exist for a reason. Without them, the ministry of Jesus Christ gets badly shortchanged.

    We find ourselves on the threshold of our parish’s Centennial. On November 13 (the date of the establishment of our parish) we will begin a three-year long celebration of faith here at St. James Cathedral. It will culminate on December 22, 2007, the date of the dedication of the cathedral itself. It is both humbling and exciting for me to realize that, as part of the community of St. James Cathedral, I am part of a great and long procession of people who have come to St. James Cathedral for one-hundred years now, a great procession of people who, in coming to pray here, have built a marvelous community of faith. Over the years this community has made an enormous difference in the life of our city and of this region. This is true today in even more exciting and visible ways, I think, than in times past. I trust you share my sense of excitement and gratitude at being part of this unique, milestone moment.

    One of the aspects of our centennial celebrations will be a full year devoted to spiritual renewal. That will be the focus of the year 2006. But it is not too early to start that process of renewal now. And what better way to do so than to renew our commitment to being a regular and active member of the cathedral parish?

    This letter is considerably longer than I ever intended when I began! Thank you for staying with me. I am not so naïve as to believe that letters are the things that change people’s lives. I know that only God’s grace can do that. And so I conclude with an invitation. It is God’s invitation, not mine. The doors of St. James Cathedral are many and wide and there is a place for everyone, a welcome for everyone. Those who have been away for whatever period of time are as welcome as those who are present Sunday after Sunday. In God’s gracious plan we all need each other and we will never reach our full potential as a parish – or fulfill our God-given mission – until we all join together around the altar in praise and worship of the God who, on the day of our baptism, made us part of a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” and called us “out of darkness into marvelous light!”

Father Michael G. Ryan
Cathedral Pastor

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