Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Sisters and Brothers, today we have cause for celebration. We celebrate that six years ago today, Archbishop Brunett consecrated this place as a House of God, and equally importantly, as a House of Community and Communion, as a place for us to gather in the heart of a great and troubled city.

From the very beginning, the Christian community has gathered to celebrate the Lord’s day, to be nourished by word and sacrament and fellowship. First they met in private homes, or sometimes in rented halls. As the community emerged from its first three centuries of persecution, it began to build its own houses of worship. And what builders we have proven to be. Bathhouses became octagonal baptisteries. Roman buildings became great and solemn basilicas to house gatherings of the faithful. We take pride in our heritage, in what we have built, from the Vatican hill all the way to the corner of Second and Stewart.

On this day of anniversary celebration, we take pride in our parish, in its steady growth, in its unique location here in the Josephinum, in its generous outreach, in the magnanimous imagination of its founders, in the goodness and boundless energy of our pastor, Fr. Paul. We take pride, and so we should.  This place makes us proud to be Catholic Christians, to be Church together: and so we should be proud.

When we say the word “Church,” we know that that word evokes many levels of meaning, and that’s okay. Church is this place, a building; church is an organizational structure, a hierarchy, rules and regulations; church is the People of God gathered in the nave, trying to row the boat home to Christ who is our Hope.

For this community named for Christ our Hope, this building is a symbol, a sacramental sign that means more than what it says, an outward sign, a manifestation of God’s saving grace at work in the heart of our city. We share this building with the residents of the Josephinum, with the Womens’ Shelter, with sisters and brothers whom many in our society look away from, flee from. They share their home with us, and their presence reminds us of whom we should be as community.

Walk by here, drive by here at night, and recognize that this community, you, built a lantern on the corner of Second and Stewart, next to the Moore Theater and the Night Cap Bar, in the middle of a growing forest of sky scrapers, a block away Seattle’s strip clubs and tourist attractions. It is a sign of what we hope to be: light and hope for the world.  You have recently adorned its façade with powerful images of the evangelists, of those who told and continue to tell good news. They are signs of our determination to live that good news, to speak it with our lips and with our lives in the heart of the city.

Coincidentally, even serendipitously, today’s scriptures speak to the complex reality of what the church is, and what it ought to be. The Letter to the Hebrews describes where we are going—“to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, to the spirits of the just made perfect, to God, to Jesus, the mediator of a new and everlasting covenant.”  It is a picture of glory already begun but not yet attained by us; it is a goal that invites us, spurs us on, challenges us.

Today’s Gospel reminds us that the way to reach that promised land is way of humility, the way of simple and generous service. We learn that from the example of Jesus himself, who humbled himself in service to us, who set the table with his own body and blood, who obediently accepted even death, death on the cross. We learn that from the struggles of our own lives, and from the struggles of those with whom we share this house of the community here at the Josephinum.

We are truly and rightly proud of this parish community, and should be on this day of celebration; we are truly and rightly humble when we face our community’s challenges and hear again and again the invitation of its Saving Lord to give ourselves in loving service, and to make all men and women home here. “When you hold a banquet, rather, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; blessed will you be because of their inability to repay you.”  The Eucharist begins here, and moves into the lobby with coffee and donuts, and onto the streets, and into the heart of the city.

Ten years ago, this parish was a dream; today it is a vibrant reality, a sacramental reality. What it will become depends on all of us working, praying, suffering, and rejoicing together, united in Christ our Hope.

Fr. Tom Lucas, S.J.