Two weeks off preaching

I have a couple of weekends (this and next) without any preaching commitments, as I transition to Notre Dame.  In July, I have parish assistance gigs lined up for three of the Sundays and come late August, I'll be regularly preaching in one of the women's residence halls on campus.

God gives surprising growth – Mark 4:26-34, Ezek 17:22-24

11th Sunday of Ordinary Time; last Masses at Holy Cross and St. Stanislaus parishes!

For some reason that right now escapes me, I thought it would work fine to have this past week be my last at the parish, and then move to Notre Dame and start summer school on Monday.  So, the past week has been an odd mix of packing, moving and unpacking, physically as well as trying to wrap up projects or at least package them neatly enough that they could be handed over, to another member of our pastoral team, a parishioner, or just offered up to God.  Apart from my formal teaching in the school, which wrapped up nicely, so many of my ‘projects’ here are in fact people’s lives, and lives don’t wrap up into nice neat little packages.  As I’ve been praying this week with these scriptures, it strikes me that I’m leaving here with a lot of seeds still in the ground.  I say that about these two parish communities, I say that about many of the individuals and families who I’ve been privileged to serve in their more fragile, transparent moments, and I say that about myself: my priesthood, my discipleship.

God joins Himself to us – Exod 24:3-8, Mark 14:12-26

Corpus Christi, Year B; Holy Cross parish.

I have a confession to make: over the Easter season, I really enjoyed sprinkling all the water around on all of you at the start of Mass each Sunday.  On the somewhat rare occasions we have incense, I also enjoy wafting that vaporized medium of blessing towards the altar and giving it to a server to receive that same blessing myself before sharing it with you.  I’m not sure, however, quite how I’d do with all of this sprinkling of blood Moses was doing in the rite that made up our first reading.  I’m not sure how well we’d do at retaining sacristans and cleaners either, if we did all of that.  If the priesthood of the new covenant had inherited from the old the need to sacrifice young bulls… well, I don’t think I’d do very well at that either.  Praying with these readings, preparing to preach today, the first thought that came to my mind was: well, that’s not the question, “how good are you at sacrificing bulls?”  The question is, “How good are you at sacrificing yourself.”  And the first answer that floated to my mind was: “honestly, not very.”  But, then I heard a deeper answer resounding: “but Christ is.”