{"id":183,"date":"2009-09-12T14:29:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-12T14:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/what-is-a-parish.html"},"modified":"2009-09-12T14:29:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-12T14:29:00","slug":"what-is-a-parish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/what-is-a-parish.html","title":{"rendered":"What is a parish?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Homily for September 13, 2009 – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Tuesday September 15th marks the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which my parish<\/a> celebrates as the parish feast day for Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. In years past, I’ve preached on the history of the parish<\/a> and on Mary<\/a>. This year, at the pastor’s suggestion, I’m taking a different approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Last fall, I got a phone call from someone at the Prayer Channel \u2013 now, The NET \u2013 asking me to take part in a series they were doing about churches in Brooklyn and Queens. They wanted to profile Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. So I met with the producer and cameraman one morning in October and spent most of the day giving them a tour of the church, talking about the altars and the shrines and the stained glass windows. And they filmed all that and went on their way.<\/p>\n

If you saw it, the program turned out pretty well \u2013 in spite of me. (You can see the results here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until later that I realized that something was missing. I couldn\u2019t really put my finger on it, until last weekend, when I started thinking about what I would talk about today, to mark our parish feast day.<\/p>\n

The producer and cameraman filmed the church, yes. But they missed the real story. And that\u2019s<\/span> the story I want to tell you this morning.<\/p>\n

Every year around this time, we mark our parish feast day, and take note of the remarkable history that has unfolded on this block, within these walls, in these pews. This church has been a blessed sanctuary for so many, across decades — through wars and recessions and crises of all kinds.<\/p>\n

But the story of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs can\u2019t really be told in brick and glass and marble.<\/p>\n

It more than just an address, or a building. It\u2019s more than geography.<\/p>\n

What tells the story of a parish\u2026are its people. Because in the people we discover nothing less than the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s people who feel called to be here, in this place \u2013 to pray, to worship, to encounter the living God.<\/p>\n

This is the real story of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the young father out of work, who comes here to light a candle, and spends his last dollar on a rose to leave on Our Lady\u2019s altar.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the couple with a sick newborn, taking turns going to different masses, so that one of them can stay home with the baby.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the widow who stops by in the afternoons to pray the rosary, and the janitor coming to mass every morning before going to work, and the woman who works at the bank running down Queens Boulevard for noon mass on her lunch hour.<\/p>\n

That<\/span> is Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.<\/p>\n

It is the gathering of believers every Sunday to proclaim what we believe \u2013 and then to live it.<\/p>\n

Many do it through some of the two dozen ministries and organizations we have. It is the lector reading God\u2019s word. It\u2019s the minister of Holy Communion, taking the Eucharist to an elderly woman who has a broken hip.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the usher who holds open the door, and the singer who leads us in song.<\/p>\n

It is the choir that fills this space with something so transcendent that it could only be called a prayer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the altar server who comes running in at 8:30 on a Sunday morning, wearing sneakers and shorts, and he throws on a tattered black cassock that\u2019s two sizes too big because being here, on this altar, is absolutely the coolest thing in the world.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the amazing part: there are 90 others just like him.<\/p>\n

That is Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s only the beginning.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the guy at the Easter Vigil, who spent his whole life searching, looking for something, and finally found it, here. And so, on a springtime evening he stands before hundreds of people with baptismal water dripping from his face, mingling with his tears, and he just can\u2019t stop grinning. He is now a Catholic. He is a part of us. And we are a part of him.<\/p>\n

And that, too, is Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the faithful who turn out, week after week, for novenas, celebrations, devotions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the dozens who come every Thursday to behold Christ, in the monstrance, at Adoration.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the hundreds who come, year after year, to walk the Stations of the Cross on a cold Friday night with Mary, the Mother of Jesus. I don\u2019t know any other parish in the diocese \u2013 or in the city of New York, for that matter \u2013 that gets that <\/span>kind of turnout.<\/p>\n

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs is the baby being baptized, the little girl receiving her first communion, the teenager being confirmed, the bride getting married. It is the sacramental life of God\u2019s church, being reborn, again and again and again, in every anointing, in every prayer, in every confession, in every sign of the cross.<\/p>\n

And, of course: it is our priests, who make possible the ongoing miracle of the mass.<\/p>\n

That is our parish. That is our story.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it is a love story. The story of our love for God \u2013 and His for us. It is a story of how we live that love in ways large and small.<\/p>\n

The reading from St. James today says that faith without works is dead.<\/p>\n

Well, faith with<\/span> works is vibrantly, brilliantly alive. And the works of this parish are a beautiful testament to a living faith. A faith that grows, and spreads, and touches others. There is a reason we have one of the largest RCIA programs in the diocese. There is something about what we do here that calls out to people: come and see. And they do.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the building, or the location. It\u2019s the spirit of the place, and the spirit of the people.<\/p>\n

And: I should add, it\u2019s also the spirit of the pastor.<\/p>\n

As I like to tell people: Monsignor Funaro never met a devotion he didn\u2019t like. But that\u2019s just part of it. In a time when more and more pastors are \u201cMonsignor No,\u201d \u2013 no we can\u2019t do that, we don\u2019t have the time, we don\u2019t have the people, we don\u2019t have the resources — we have \u201cMonsignor Yes.\u201d In his view, even during the toughest of times, the chalice isn\u2019t half-empty. It\u2019s half-full. Or, as we are reminded so often: nothing is impossible with God. His presence here at this altar, every Sunday, at every mass, bears witness to that. You\u2019d be hard-pressed to find another pastor in this diocese who does that with such diligence, and such faith.<\/p>\n

And faith<\/span><\/u> is where it all begins. But as James tells us: faith without works is dead. We are a parish of astounding works, and abiding faith. And we are wonderfully alive.<\/p>\n

That is the real<\/span> story of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. You won\u2019t see it on TV. But look around you. You will<\/i><\/u>
\nsee it being lived, every day.<\/p>\n

And on this feast, we celebrate that. We thank Our Lady, full of grace, for watching over us. And we ask that God\u2019s grace will continue to sustain us, and enrich us — that we may continue to be a people of faith, and a people of works.<\/p>\n

And so we pray, with joy, and gratitude, and hope:<\/p>\n

Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs: Pray for us!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homily for September 13, 2009 – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Tuesday September 15th marks the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which my parish celebrates as the parish feast day for Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. In years past, I’ve preached on the history of the parish and on Mary. 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