Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe: Our Parish Feast Day! (34.C)

A friend was driving in the States recently. He spied a church where he thought he might be able to attend Sunday Mass. Sure enough, one was about to start with a priest who introduced himself as a visitor.

He then announced, “Mass this morning will be two hours long.” The congregation was still laughing when he said “No, I’m serious. Mass is going to be two hours long.”

My friend told me that the priest, an imposing African American, preached for one hour and fifteen minutes. I said, “That’s just awful!”

“No!” said my friend; “I didn’t want him to stop.”

Turns out that the priest had quite a story to tell. He’d been a successful accountant who was considering the priesthood. But he couldn’t decide. One day he was sitting in an empty church, and asked God out loud what he should do. An old Black woman sitting some distance away heard him and came over with her walker. 

She said to him, “He’s calling you, boy. You go runnin’!”

So he quit his job to enter the seminary. He went up to his old office to say goodbye to his colleagues. 

Ten days later a plane crashed into that floor of the World Trade Center, and all his co-workers died.

What would it take for parish life to be as compelling as that homily?

That’s the question God is asking each of us on our parish feast day.

And now I’m going to preach for two hours. No, I’m not.

But I could. Because there is a lot to say on this solemn celebration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. And there’s a lot to say about our parish as it grows and adapts to meet the challenges of a changed universe.

Today we are given a vision of Christ: the King, the shepherd, the ruler—“the image of the invisible God.”

And from that vision comes a vision of Christ the Redeemer Parish.

Father Zidago and I have just got back from the annual Priests’ Study Week. And what a week it was: speaker after speaker told us, “God is calling, boys: you go runnin’.”

What the speakers were calling us to was a new vision of parish life—a vision of the future of our parish that would hold our attention even better than the most powerful preacher at a two-hour Mass.

What is a vision? A vision is a God-inspired picture of the future that produces passion.

What’s not a vision? A plan to get absent parishioners back to Mass. As one wise pastor said “Bringing people back isn’t vision; moving people forward is.”

From the Cross, where Christ seems weakest, he is calling his people to share a vision of a new world, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love, and peace. Those are words from the Preface of today’s Mass, which begins “lift up your hearts.” But to lift up our hearts the vision has to take hold of us; it must inspire passion.

And a God-given vision must answer the question ‘what’s most important?’ We know the answer: the second reading tells us that Jesus Christ is “the head of the body, the Church.” And it is Jesus Christ who is the head and cornerstone of our parish.

Only he can renew our community, only he can attract new members, only he offers a relationship that answers every longing and heals every wound.

Over the summer, members of the parish core team and others sweated over a vision for Christ the Redeemer Parish. Well, we didn’t actually sweat, since there was air conditioning, but we did suffer from Langley’s mosquitoes. It was hard work, and it took five full days.

At the end of the process, we had a remarkable set of ideas and commitments that I’ll be sharing with you down the road. But it all boiled down to one daring goal: To become an irresistible parish.

Not to become irresistible to increase our numbers or collection, but because Jesus is irresistible. We cannot keep Jesus a secret: we are called to make him known and loved by making people feel loved and known.

We want to be a community of disciples who attract others because of the joy, purpose, and generosity that stems from a personal relationship with Jesus.

Is the idea of an irresistible parish an impossible dream? I asked myself that while writing this homily. But the Holy Spirit answered the question for me. A long-time parishioner almost tackled me in the parking lot yesterday. Out of the blue, she said, with undisguised enthusiasm, “How I love my parish! What a difference it makes in my life, and what a joy it is to serve here.”

And that’s just a quick summary of a conversation that was bursting with passion.

I’m holding here the latest edition of our parish magazine. The table of contents alone is better than any two-hour sermon I could ever preach.

My own contribution shares some thoughts about creating a culture of encounter as a way of navigating our changed world. We want our parish to be a place of encounter—with one another and with Jesus. And we want to meet Jesus in our weakness, like the good thief on the cross, sharing not only our successes but failures as well.

Listen to the titles of some of the other articles: “An antidote to loneliness in a cup of coffee,” “The oasis at Water in the Desert,” “Youth Ministry: a safe place to talk about faith.”

Of course, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think the joy-filled photographs alone can inspire tremendous hope for the future.

And, no surprise, there’s an article called “Becoming an Irresistible Parish.” It describes what an irresistible parish could look like; but much more important it tells us in three words how we’ll get there: pray, lead, invite.

We must pray because only fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit can bring about this kind of growth. We must lead because we need everyone if we are going to fulfill our God-given vision. You can’t create an irresistible parish without irresistible parishioners.

Thirdly we must invite. “As we begin to build an irresistible parish, others will naturally be attracted to our joy, but first they must be invited.”

When we asked members of the Parish Pastoral Council what they loved about CTR they highlighted connection, belonging, and beauty. When we asked what drives them nuts about the parish they mentioned pedestrians, people who walk in and walk out quickly but don’t engage.

And when we asked them to imagine walking into the parish three years from now, they had a vision of being known as a place where—Catholic or not—you can come and sit in peace, talk to someone if you’re down, and find people who care about you.

Each of you has a vision of what would make this parish as irresistible to you as it is to the buoyant and fulfilled woman who spoke to me in the parking lot.

You’re in church today—something is drawing you here. What is it? Do you want more of it? Do you want to be part of the irresistible parish? Think about it and pray about it this week; come back next week.

You can find the answers in a deeper relationship with Jesus, Christ our King, Christ our Redeemer.

He’s calling us, people! Let’s go running.