Fifth Anniversary Mass of Christ Our Hope

The mission statement of Christ Our Hope Catholic Church reads like a page from Pope Francis: it speaks of a diverse community praying and celebrating; it reaches out beyond the doors of a church building to the larger downtown community; it sees its mission accomplished by shared parish leadership developing and contributing their gifts.  Our parish mission statement sees its mission not in pious terms, but in building justice and peace in our city and beyond.  Social justice issues, frequently complex and sensitive, have been an important part of the fabric of this parish in its first five years.

Our gospel story today begins with the note that when Jesus walked into the dining room, “they observed him closely.”  There was good reason for the Pharisees to observe Jesus so closely.  He already had a reputation for ignoring church manners.  There had been those two previous meals where he shocked the guests.  There was that meal where he allowed a sinner to perfume his feet.  There was also the meal where he began eating without ceremoniously washing his hands.  And now there was this meal at which they were busy scrambling to get a good seat at the head table.

What they failed to recognize was that Jesus, the guest, was really the host, inviting all to God’s eternal banquet.  After two thousand years, the church is still struggling to embrace the vulnerable, the poor, the “unclean,” the “sinner” in our midst.  But something new is happening here.  We don’t have the capacity nor the luxury to ignore those who for so long have been overlooked.  They are standing around us and they will not go away.  They are demanding we see them and hear them and welcome them as sisters and brothers.  The gospel reminds us that before we can love like Jesus, we must learn to see him in those around us.

It is indeed the Mass that shapes our community as nothing else can.  It is here that Archbishop Brunett opened the doors of Christ Our Hope Church five years ago.  The walls of the church are anointed at four places to mark this room as a house of Christian worship.  Here the risen Christ is present as we gather together in his name.  It is Christ who speaks to us at the ambo.  At the altar Jesus says, “This is my body and blood given for you.”  Beneath the altar are the relics of Saints Victor and Zeno, martyrs who died in 303.  Here each Sunday we go back into the world to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to welcome the stranger, to clothe the naked and to care for the sick.

Of course, there are still too many Christians who think that there are two worlds: the spiritual and the temporal.  They begin to squirm when church leaders preach about such things as ecology, affordable housing, cutbacks in federal assistance to the poor, capital punishment, immigration, racism and the old order of bombing countries in order to win the peace.  “Don’t bring the world into the pulpit.  Talk to us about religion.”  But the central message of Catholic social teaching is that the church will not stay locked up inside this room.  We look through our stained-glass windows into the needs of the world.

Let this parish of Christ Our Hope continue to live up to its mission.  Let’s continue to be a vibrant Christian community.  God’s Spirit blows where it wills.  Something new is happening in our time and place.  Happy Fifth Anniversary to all!

Paul A. Magnano

Pastor