Full disclosure.
My heart sank when I read over the readings for today’s Mass! I
knew this was the second Sacrificial Giving weekend and I was hoping I’d
get a little help from the readings. Maybe, if I was lucky, the
story of the widow’s mite, or of the rich young man, or of the camel and
the eye of the needle. But no, instead, we get readings from the
Book of Maccabees and Luke’s Gospel that, at first blush at least,
aren’t very helpful. They’re enough to make a preacher run for cover!
How are those brave Maccabees brothers who held fast to their religious
convictions - refusing to break God’s Law and defile themselves by
eating pork - ever going to help you think about your Sunday giving and
your involvement in the parish! And the same goes for those testy
Sadducees in the gospel who tried to trap Jesus on a contentious point
of religious doctrine.
But the light came on for me when I realized that both those readings
have to do with resurrection - belief or unbelief in the resurrection of
the dead, belief or unbelief in a life after this one – which, of
course, raises questions about how we are to view and value this life.
In a word, does the fact that there is a life after this one
significantly affect the way I live my life now? And, if so, how?
Our Christian faith rises or falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. Simple as that. His resurrection - and our baptism into
his death and resurrection – literally charge our lives with grace and
glory. And in the end we, along with Christ, will be totally transformed
from glory into glory, to use St. Paul’s beautiful words. We
affirm this every time we say the Creed, professing our belief in the
resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. But the
question is, do we live our lives in light of this?
I don’t find it easy to
do this. Do you? We can live our lives with very little
awareness of how God has graced and blessed us and with very little
awareness of the fullness of grace and glory that God has in store for
us. And yet, those are the realities that should be front and center in
our daily awareness: they should color the way we live, the way we look
at everything. In a word, they should help us to put God and faith first
in our lives which, of course changes everything.
At this time, I would
like to invite to the pulpit one of your fellow parishioners whose faith
is clearly front and center in her life and in the life of her family.
She has an important message for all of us. Will you please join me in
welcoming a long-time, super-involved parishioner, mother of three
beautiful little girls, and the principal of Holy Rosary School in West
Seattle, Anna Horton?
Father Michael G. Ryan
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I am honored to speak with you today. There’s a good chance you
have seen me around over the years with my husband David, trying to keep
our three girls attentive and quiet during Mass! Any of you
parents of young children know what I’m talking about! But while
we’re busy during Mass trying to keep our kids focused, my husband and
I are also focusing on how we help our children grow into people who
give of themselves--to minister to those in need and to understand the
importance of financially supporting our parish community. I
wanted to share with you a bit today about my own faith journey, why we
are committed to raising our children in the Church, and why we make it
a priority to financially support St. James Cathedral through
Sacrificial Giving.
My understanding of what it means to minister has changed over the
years. I joined this community almost 20 years ago when I was
baptized at the Great Easter Vigil. I was in a different time in my
life- in graduate school with no husband or children, and I was focused
on trying to live my new life as a new Catholic as best I could. I
got myself involved in a lot of ministries--ushering, winter shelter,
young adults, operation nightwatch, the parish picnic. Sister Anne
Herkenrath, who we will have a chance to celebrate today, was an
integral part of my early time ushering. I will forever be
grateful for that! Like many of you who are involved in parish
ministries, that’s where I found my community at St. James. In fact,
that’s eventually where I met my husband David, when we both volunteered
at the Winter Shelter!
As a new Catholic, I also made it a priority to support the parish
financially, and it wasn’t easy. I was a young teacher living on my own
barely making enough to pay my bills. But it seemed like the right
thing to do, and I thought- it was what everyone did, and so I did it
too. To be honest, I didn’t have the understanding of any of this
that I have today, but I was going through the motions, and you have to
start somewhere!
Fast forward to today. I am still involved in some
of the ministries I started with nearly twenty years ago--but I have
also grown into a mother, a teacher, a school administrator, and now I
am a principal at one of the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese.
Now, I am not only responsible for helping my own children grow in their
faith, but I am trusted to help the 500 children who attend our school
also grow as disciples. Being a mother and a Catholic school
principal has changed my view of ministry and giving from something that
we just “do” to something that is at the heart of our faith.
As members of the baptized, as God’s chosen people, we are not just
members of the church- and we have heard Father Ryan say this before- We
are the church! We are supposed to be the living, breathing
embodiment of Christ’s ministry.
And what was Christ’s ministry like? His model of ministry
wasn’t one of squeezing in time or giving what we had left over. It was
one of making ministry the priority, and then making time for everything
else. What I’ve come to understand, is that if I fail to do this,
then I am failing myself in growing as a disciple of Christ and in
growing in my personal relationship with Him.
And if you’re wondering right now, how could I possibly make it work,
how could I give more, how could I find more time--you’re not alone!
Trust me--as a family with two parents working full time and three busy
young children, I get that. But I guess what I’d ask, as a fellow
parishioner, is for you to prayerfully consider where you are on your
own journey as a disciple of Christ and whether ministry and giving is
an afterthought or a forethought in your daily life.
This will look different for each of us. Maybe it is time to
re-examine your giving; because without our giving, none of the
ministries in this parish would exist. Maybe it’s time to try out
a new ministry--and you will have the opportunity to hear about a number
of ministries this morning at the ministries fair. Or maybe it’s
time to be more intentional in your own prayer life, and pray that
Christ will help you discern the next steps for you and your family.
Rest assured--no one expects any of us to have it all figured out.
Even Christ’s model of ministry was a bit messy at times, like our lives
can be. But Saint John Paul II once said that “man finds himself only
when he makes himself a gift to others.”
This year my family and I
are taking a fresh look at how we share our gifts with our parish
community. I know you care deeply about St. James and this
community--will you join me in doing the same?
Anna Horton
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