Thank you, Father Paul, and thanks to everyone for your warm welcome on this Gaudete Sunday---the feast of joyful and hopeful expectation, ready made for a parish named Christ Our Hope! It’s a privilege to reflect on the scriptures and the mission of CCS with you and the ways in which we find both comfort… and challenge to be signs of hope in a world anxious with so much suffering, be it in Aleppo, on the cold streets and corners of this booming city, or in our own families and hearts.
Our Gospel today begins in a Galilean jail, with the anxious questions of an innocent man. John the Baptizer is doomed to die for calling the powers and principalities to task, and for announcing the imminent arrival of a Messiah who will turn the world right side up in justice. Today we find John captive not only of Herod, but of his own self- doubts, desolation, disorientation. He is starting to doubt his own judgement about Jesus, whose message seemed a little heavy on mercy and a very light on wrath. Had he misread the signs? To get some assurance he sends out his disciples to Jesus with a piercing painful question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” “Did I get it wrong?” How does Jesus answer? Not directly, for sure. Good rabbi that he is, he reorients them in the roots of JTB’s mission—the messianic promises of Isaiah (which we heard today) and the psalm (which we heard today)--. He has them consider the evidence: what have YOU seen and heard? Do the blind see? The deaf hear? Are the dead raised? Are poor people finding new dignity and hope? Who do the psalms praise as the only One who can bring about this healing restoration? Then…Go back! Give JTB your evidence! May he not find in me a stumbling block!
On this Sunday and every Sunday, COH and communities of faith all over this city and our local Church return to the table of Word and Sacrament to reorient and remember who we are… In this Eucharist we bring ourselves as we are, like JTB and his disciples, a bit fragmented and disoriented by our weeks. Yes, we bring our hopes and dreams, our successes, but also our needs and doubts, our brokenness–our parched spirits, emptiness in our hearts, voices that sometimes have stayed mute when we needed to speak up, hands which seemed too feeble to reach out in forgiveness, weak knees that failed to stand up for what is right. At this table of Word and Sacrament, like captives of old, we hear “Here is your God, who comes to save you!” It is here we entrust all of ourselves to God’s healing, onrushing power and nurture and transformation and are re-membered again more fully into our baptismal selves—the Body of Christ—Christ Our Hope, certainly for ourselves, but sent forth each to those seeking a sign of God’s restorative presence in our midst.
Those who are imprisoned in fear, who are lost, frail, unhoused, broken in spirit, mind and body watch us Christians and approach us with anxious hope as the Body of Christ on earth with John’s piercing painful question : “Are you indeed the Christ who lives among us ? Or shall we look elsewhere?” Are you for real? In you will we find God at work mending the world? Will we find shelter? Encouragement? Safety? Will you recognize the dignity living beyond my great need? In you will I find cause for rejoicing? How do we respond? What do they see and hear?
From what we have seen and heard about COH, we know live up to your name, and try to answer those questions with compassion every day. The Church of WW and those in need have much to rejoice in your ministry here—of hospitality and presence, accompaniment, outreach and advocacy, not just to the residents of this sacred building, but to downtown Seattle.. CCS is so proud to call you partners with us in our work as Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Seattle. You know, as we do, it is not easy work, it is messy and noisy, often without easy answers, and requires the patient attention referred to in today’s second reading. Yet together we work to mend the torn fabric of our world and in it we find cause for our hearts’ deep rejoicing.
For nearly 100 years, CCS has partnered with the Church of WW parishes to respond to and advocate with those who suffer so unjustly the scandal of poverty and to embody the restorative presence of Christ our Hope and Messiah. We pray that they will not have to look elsewhere for hope.
I have the privilege of working in an office right at the epicenter—23rd and Yesler at our HQ. In order to get to my office everyday I get to pass through our main vestibule and meet those seeking hope. They re-member me daily in my own mission. Who are they?….they are veterans, the elderly and frail, families with small children who have been sleeping in their cars, immigrants and refugees from every country, parents of children addicted to drugs, women in crisis pregnancies, and those struggling with mental illness. And once in a while there is a mayor or a legislator there seeking advice! Often most have no where else to turn.
Because of your individual generosity and the generosity of COH, we were able to respond with concrete evidence of compassion and advocacy to 111,000 men, women, and children in WW this past year.
The CCS Appeal for the Poor funds basic and emergency needs right here in King County (at the Josephinum) and across WW. What will those who look to us for help experience because of your gifts this year?
Right now I ask you: Will you join with 10s of 1000 s of other Catholics to create a clear response and an even stronger network of hope across KC and WW to the needs of those seeking home, healing, and security?
Please consider a gift to our Appeal for the Poor. Every gift is precious and appreciated, and that 92% of every dollar goes directly to services. If you have already made a gift we are most grateful. When you entered you received an envelope. Please bring the envelope forward with in the offertory procession today as a sign that you are willing to be part of the answer to today’s Gospel question.
In closing, I ask you to pray for all of those whom we are privileged to accompany and serve, and all our work and partnerships with parishes like COH.
In this season of giving, pray that we can continue to respond as the Body of Christ Our Hope, with eyes open to the dignity of our brothers and sisters, ears open to hear their deepest needs, arms outstretched to welcome and to embrace, and knees ready to stand up for God’s vision of hope and justice.
Pray that God’s most vulnerable people not find a stumbling block in us! God bless you!
Patty Repikoff
Pastoral Advocate for Mission, Catholic Community Services