If you’re up-to-date on your emails,
you are aware that we’re at a new moment as a parish. On July 1, St.
James Cathedral is going to have a new pastor. Archbishop Etienne has
appointed Father Gary Lazzeroni – known to many of you - to succeed me.
I couldn’t be happier with his choice. Father Gary is a wonderful priest
and my good friend. If the choice had been mine to make, he is the one I
would have chosen.
Even
so, what I think about all this is not quite the same is how I feel
about it. But this much is clear: it had to happen sometime! Nothing in
this life is forever. I’ve had the privilege – the unprecedented
privilege – of serving as pastor of this Cathedral – your pastor – for
37 years. That’s well over half of my fifty-nine years as a priest and
it’s nearly half my life! That’s another way of saying that the
Cathedral has been my life, you have been my life, and a blessed and
happy life it has been. I stand in awe of all the ways God has blessed
me – blessed us - over so many years in this amazing and holy place,
and, as I do, I am filled with gratitude. Overcome with gratitude. And
those feelings of gratitude are more important that any sadness I may be
feeling at this moment.
The
coming days will give me an opportunity to say more about all of this,
and I will. Today, I think it’s enough for me to simply acknowledge this
new moment in the life of our parish and in my own life. And I want you
to know that I see it as a promising moment and a hopeful moment, a very
hopeful moment. I do. And, my friends, I hope you will look at it in the
same way. We can do this together. That’s what we have always done.
And now to the gospel which speaks powerfully to me of this moment.
Will you travel in spirit with me for a few moments to the Lake of
Galilee? It’s early morning and the dawn’s first light is playing on the
waters. We are in a fishing boat not far out from shore. We’ve been hard
at it all night long but the fish have outsmarted us. And then we hear a
voice calling out to us from the shore asking us if we’ve caught
anything. The voice is vaguely familiar but not the face which is hard
to make out through the morning mist. We call back to him, telling him
‘No,’ and he tells us to try again: to cast the nets over the right side
of the boat. We are skeptical, but we do it. The results nearly sink our
boat, so abundant is the catch.
My
friends, I want us to see Jesus standing on the shore calling out to us
this morning. We may be taken aback by what we hear him say: his message
may not be what we’re prepared to hear or to receive, but hear it we
must.
And
the message? The message is this: it’s time for something new. “Cast
your nets over the right side of the boat,” Jesus calls out to us. And I
do believe – even though, in all honesty, it’s not easy to believe –
that if we listen to his words and answer his call, we are going to be
not only surprised, but happily surprised - filled with amazement, even
- at what takes place! And, my friends, those are not just nice words
and this is not just me putting the best face on something that is
personally very challenging. No, I’m expressing my hope - and not just
my hope, my belief, my firm conviction. Your new pastor, Father Gary
Lazzeroni, is a wonderful priest, a gifted, caring, and experienced
priest. He is also my friend of many years. He once sat in these very
pews as a parishioner and offered his First Mass as a priest right here.
He loves this place and, trust me, as he comes to know you, he will come
to love it even more. And as you come to know him, you will love him.
You will!
In
today’s gospel, the exchange that took place between Jesus and Peter
after the breakfast on the shore of the lake has long been an important
one for me. The question Jesus put to Peter – not once, but three times
– “Do you love me?” – is one I have done my best to answer many times
over long years of priestly ministry. Sometimes I have answered it well
and sometimes maybe not so well. To be honest, it was easy enough to
answer with words, but words don’t really count when responding to that
pointed and probing question Jesus poses. Only actions count. Only
actions. For the times I settled for words only, I can only ask
forgiveness; for the times I answered with loving action and gave all I
had to feed the lambs and to tend the sheep, I can only be grateful. And
give God the glory. Which I do.
My
friends, this is not good-bye. We’ve still got a couple more months
together, and even after July 1 when Father Lazzeroni becomes your
pastor, I will - thanks to his gracious invitation - continue to be
involved in ministry here. That’s after I take a few months of
sabbatical to press the reset button and re-charge!
Let me
bring this to a close by taking you back to some other words of today’s
gospel. Not the touching ones Jesus spoke to Peter about all he could do
when he was young and what would happen to him when he grew old. There
is a certain aptness and timeliness to those words for sure! But the
words I’m thinking of at the moment are the last ones Jesus spoke to
Peter. They were just two: “Follow me.”
My friends, that’s what I
have always tried to do, and it’s what I must do now. And with God’s
grace – and your help – I will!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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