Saint Joachim Parish
Eucharistic Celebration for the
One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Parish
Homily
[Baruch 5:1-9; Psalm 126; Philippians 1:3-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6]
What a joy for us to gather this morning to celebrate the 125th anniversary of our beloved St. Joachim parish! This is the home of the first Roman Catholic Church in Edmonton, and the mother church of our francophone Catholic community. With you all, the entire Archdiocese is justly proud of this parish, and deeply grateful both to the pioneers who established it and the many generations of parishioners who have participated in its growth throughout the years. St. Joachim church is our greatly treasured gem.
In preparation for this day, you have been sending multiple messages announcing significant moments in the life of the parish. Photos and memories have been shared, recounting principal milestones in its very rich history. Importantly, your messaging speaks of St. Joachim as our “spiritual home”. This signals your awareness that we do not view our history as a simple passage of time. No, our anniversary is a celebration of God’s many interventions in the time we have shared since the beginning of the parish. From the perspective of our Christian faith, history is not a meaningless succession of days, weeks, months and years. We speak rather of salvation history, of time as the space in which God directly intervenes at precise moments in exact locations to bring about salvation for His people.
Notice how Saint Luke makes this point as he recalls with great precision when the Word of God entered history to address St. John the Baptist. It happened “[in] the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas…” This decisive action of God unleashed the subsequent events that prepared the way for the saving ministry of Jesus Christ. Following the death and resurrection of our Lord and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, God has continued to intervene at moments of His choosing to shape history in accordance with His purpose.
From this perspective of faith, we can say that in the third year of the mandate of Sr. Wilfrid Laurier as Prime Minister of Canada, when Matthew McCauley was the first mayor of Edmonton, and six years prior to the founding of the province of Alberta, during the episcopacy of Vital Grandin and in the days of such great Oblate missionaries as Henri Grandin, Valentin Vegreville, Léon Fouquet, and Albert Lacombe, God intervened and inspired the founding in 1899 of St. Joachim parish. Our subsequent local history has been shaped by the countless parishioners who cooperated with the extraordinary grace of God by building this beautiful church for their encounter with Jesus Christ in the sacraments, above all in the celebration of the Eucharist. The men and women who contributed to the life of this parish at great personal sacrifice are too numerous to mention in a brief homily, but I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge today the particular contribution of Madame Thérèse Desjardins, at 106 years of age the oldest parishioner, who died peacefully on December 3rd. May God grant her eternal rest.
Thérèse’s death, so near this anniversary, contains for us an important message: while we justifiably look with pride on our past, we must also, and more importantly, look to our future in hope. As are members of every parish, we are pilgrims, following Christ through this life to the eternal life he promises to those who believe in him. You have captured this in your parish theme: “Honorons le passé, bâtissons l’avenir.” We, who thank God for the pioneers of our past, today receive a new calling from the Lord, at this precise moment in history, to be new forerunners of the parish’s future. The life and death of Thérèse, and of all the parishioners who have gone before us, reminds us that the very heart of both past and future is our fundamental mission to help one another grow in our love for Christ as he leads us to heaven, and to announce him to others.
As now we embark on the task of shaping a new future, our historical moment is an era marked by a lack of societal and familial solidity, with people everywhere looking for solid foundations. There is an urgent need to point to the stable and unchanging love of God, revealed in Christ, as the one sure foundation the world needs. In this respect, allow me to draw your attention to the stunning altar that has stood within this church since its beginning. The altar represents Christ by not only its beauty but also, and above all, its stability. It does not move, and has not shifted since it was consecrated so very long ago. This firmness symbolizes the steadfast love of the Lord and his unchanging fidelity to us. Let us all hold fast to the Lord’s fidelity and draw strength from it ourselves, so that we can in turn invite others to find their true security in Jesus Christ.
May the Blessed Mother be our inspiration and guide. She who was conceived without sin is always praying for us poor sinners, and stands ready to help whenever we turn to her. Mary lived to point the world to her son, and so must we. As in this Eucharist we thank Almighty God for the innumerable blessings He has bestowed upon this community since its founding 125 years ago, let us pray, too, that God grant us all the graces needed to shape a new future built upon the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.
Most Reverend Richard W. Smith
Archbishop of Edmonton
St. Joachim Parish
December 8th, 2024