Introduction
Good evening, everyone, and welcome! I am delighted to have this occasion once again to gather together with you all as members of this exciting and dynamic Archdiocesan family.
I want to express right away my personal thanks to each and every one of you. Thank you for the countless ways you are announcing the Gospel and serving the mission of the Church in our multiple parish ministries, in Catholic education, healthcare, and social services, and in the many quiet, unseen ways you serve daily in your families, in volunteer outreach, or by seeking each day to grow in your personal relationship of knowledge and love with Jesus Christ, the reason and inspiration for all we do. The massive footprint, the very large and positive mark the Catholic Church makes in the province of Alberta, is extraordinary, thanks to you and the many other disciples who comprise the Archdiocese of Edmonton. Thank you!
While the desire to express our gratitude to God and one another animates our every annual gathering, each dinner also has its own particular theme. From the video that has just been shown, together with the many notifications sent out in the lead-up to this evening, we all know this year’s spotlight: the new pastoral priorities that will unfold over the next three years throughout the Archdiocese. This is what I shall reflect upon with you over the next few minutes.
Let me tee this up, first, by providing the context for these priorities, and then calling to mind the immediate background. Why are we doing this, and how did we get here?
The Current Moment
By context, I mean simply the present moment, the current reality we need to name if we are effectively to announce the message of mercy, hope, and peace we call the Gospel. Strange as this may seem, the present moment confronted me not long ago in a rather dramatic and very surprising manner on an airplane.
I was catching a flight from Toronto to Edmonton. During the boarding process, I took my aisle seat, about half-way down the plane. Shortly after I was seated, a woman got on the plane, walked down the aisle, and indicated to me that hers was the window seat in the same row, so I got up to let her in. When she noticed I was dressed in clerics, her response was extraordinary: with a look of despair on her face, she dropped her shoulders in a gesture of frustration, and gave an audible, “Ugh!” Now, I am accustomed to getting that reaction from Father Kavanagh whenever I walk into his office, but I did not expect it from a stranger on a plane. When she saw my surprised expression, she said, “I’m sorry. I have had a very bad day and arrived at the airport really short-tempered. I was not very nice at all to the agent as I boarded the plane, and now that I see you, I know I’m going to hell for sure!”
If we tease out what she said, I believe we have a pretty good summary of our present moment: a bad day, lack of kindness to others, the carrying of guilt, and fear for the future. Many of our contemporaries are dealing with more, far more, than a single bad day, often with little to no sense of how to get ahead of the difficulties. The loss of civility among peoples is widespread and growing. Infliction on others of great suffering is happening both globally and locally. This creates, inescapably, a heavy burden of guilt, which draws people ever more darkly in upon themselves and away from healed and healthy relationships. Worry about the future is more likely to extend not to the next world but next week as individuals and families wonder if the sickness will be cured or the paycheck will stretch to the end of the month. In short, our present moment is one in which the people of our day need a message – a reliable and trustworthy message – of assurance, mercy, peace, and hope.
The Synodal Process
The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has also been watching all this, and has spoken untiringly of the need to announce the joy of the Gospel. This is why he has called the whole Church, from the outset of his pontificate, to a profound missionary renewal. Mission is not new, of course. We all know that Baptism sends us out into the world as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ. What the Pope is asking of us – and this is bringing me to how we arrived at our priorities – is to sit down with one another so as to read clearly the signs of our times and discern together how the Lord Jesus is calling us – now – to new missionary endeavours in his name for the sake of his people.
Obviously, I am referring to the synodal process to which Pope Francis summoned the universal Church, and which has been unfolding over the last few years. When we accepted this challenge here in the Archdiocese, we held, in the course of nearly one year, about 350 listening sessions, which generated over 4000 responses. A rich variety of ideas, concerns, and hopes were voiced. From among them all, one entreaty was made most frequently: the appeal for more formation in the faith, precisely in order to be equipped well for participation in the Church’s mission.
How shall we in the Archdiocese respond to this plea from yourselves and many others among the People of God? Formation is not something new; it is happening all the time in, for example, Bible studies or explorations of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in our parishes, institutions, associations of the lay faithful and so on. In addition to all of this, can we create a framework for an Archdiocesan effort, and designate within it a set of priorities that will give common direction to us all and unite our various initiatives?
The Pastoral Letter: Living in the Word of God
In answer to this need, I’ve written you a letter. More precisely, I have updated a letter that many will remember I wrote to the people of the Archdiocese in 2017. At your places, you have a copy of it. Entitled Living in the Word of God, it develops briefly and simply the two fundamental conditions for following Jesus Christ: listening to the Word of God and putting it into practice. Hear God and obey; listen to Jesus and respond to him and his teaching. That is the Christian life in its essence. But of course, we need to spell that out somewhat, so the letter also recalls that the Church’s response to the teachings of Christ has always been threefold through worship, witness, and service. Here we have the framework for our formation efforts. For the next three years, our parishes will follow locally developed programmes to help parishioners grow in their knowledge of our beautiful Catholic faith. Uniting all our efforts will be the common commitment to formation with respect to the three pillars of our Catholic life – worship, witness, and service – in accord with a specific focus I am designating for each of them. For the remainder of this presentation, I shall develop this with you.
OUR PASTORAL PRIORITIES
Formation for Eucharistic Worship
With respect to worship, I have asked that our formation give particular attention to the mystery of the Eucharist. This is the heart of our Catholic life, our very breath. In this period of formation, we can, and should, ask ourselves how we are doing in the actual celebration of the mass in our parishes, and what might be done to celebrate even more worthily and well. For example: do we understand the meanings of the rituals and gestures that form the liturgical action? Are we familiar with the history behind the majestic prayers and acclamations the Church has used in the mass for centuries? Does the sacred music we offer truly raise the heart and mind to God? How do we prepare ahead of time for mass?
In particular, though, I pray that we all ponder carefully and reflect prayerfully upon the mystery of the Real Presence, the wondrous truth that the simple gifts of bread and wine are fully transformed into the true body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. In our churches there is a crucifix near the altar as mass is celebrated. A grade-five catechism teacher once asked her class if they could describe the difference between Jesus on the cross and Jesus on the altar. After a few minutes, one of the children said: “Well, on the cross I can see him, but I know he’s not there; on the altar I know he’s there, but I can’t see him.” This is the mystery of faith: the Lord Jesus truly present in our midst.
A while back, I was on a small shuttle bus. Seated across from me was a young couple with their infant child, a girl about one year old. The little one was upset and crying. I was quite taken with the way the parents calmed the child. The mother lifted the baby up on her lap, while the father positioned himself so that the infant could see him. The child settled down right away, and tears were quickly replaced by a smile. Once the little girl could feel the embrace and see those who would take care of her, the anxiety vanished.
This is precisely the promise of the Eucharist. In this wondrous sacrament, Jesus, who loves us even to the point of giving his life, renders himself present in the transformed gifts of bread and wine. The embrace of love, signified by his outstretched arms on the Cross, reaches and enfolds us each time we celebrate the mass, reminiscent of the mother holding and calming her child. What is more, like the father on the bus, Jesus in the Eucharist “positions himself”, as it were, so that we can see him and thus have the assurance that he is with us.
My prayer is that our formation around the Eucharist will help us to embrace ever more deeply, and be embraced ever more securely by this wondrous truth that encounters us every time we celebrate the mass.
Formation for Confident Witness
We cannot keep our faith to ourselves. Touched by the love of Christ we are naturally moved to share this good news with others. This is what we mean by witness.
Formation for witness will have as its aim the development of confidence. We need to be confident in our grasp of the truths of our faith, and convinced of the beauty and hope our faith offers the world. On this need for confident witness, tonight I would like to make simply two fundamental points.
First, the developing of confidence will mean taking time to identify and articulate the often challenging questions of the day – those of our contemporaries as well as our own – and understand well the response that arises from the Word of God and Tradition of the Church. Very often I have heard comments like: “We know we are supposed to give witness to our faith in Jesus, but we don’t feel equipped to do so; we don’t know the answers faith gives to today’s difficult questions; we often feel our own awareness of the faith is too weak for us to defend it.” So, I ask that, in each parish, you identify those questions that are foremost in your minds, bring them forward to your pastor or to the parish formation leaders he has designated for these priorities, and then discuss together how you can address them and discover the beauty and rightness of the answers our faith proposes.
These questions, and the manner by which they are approached, will likely differ from parish to parish. One particular issue, though, remains of immediate common concern, and I ask that we continue to address it together. I am speaking here of the spread of euthanasia across our country at what is a truly alarming rate. It shouldn’t be happening at all, of course, but it is, and with this comes a number of questions troubling our people. So, tonight I’d like to remind us all of the Archdiocesan initiative entitled Hope and Dignity, which clearly and thoroughly outlines the Catholic response to euthanasia and assisted suicide. If your parish has not already done so, please make this a cornerstone of your formation efforts aimed at developing confident witnesses.
My second fundamental point is this: let’s keep always in mind that Christian confidence is not simply a matter of having sufficient intellectual knowledge. It arises from something much deeper than that. I was reminded of this by a piece of art produced by a young student from our Francophone Catholic school district, le Conseil Centre-Nord. The context for its creation was a school art project. Students from our ten school divisions were invited to share their God-given talents in order to give “witness through art”. Back in May, during Catholic Education Week, over 150 students, parents, and educators gathered at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Centre to showcase their masterpieces. The works are now on loan to the Archdiocese and currently adorn the walls of our assembly hall. Every piece is beautiful – especially so to me, for whom the drawing of a stick-man is a significant accomplishment – but one in particular caught my attention that day.
The painting depicts the Cross of Christ radiating light, like an explosion. Already we have a profound truth expressed here: in the very person of Jesus Christ, especially in his death and resurrection, the love of God, victorious over sin and death and source of life and hope, has burst into human history. I learned that the young artist, who could not be present that day, is with autism spectrum disorder and non-verbal. What this tells me is that the child’s knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ has developed within a silent interiority. What that says to us all is that confidence for witness is much more than knowledge of the Catechism; it must spring from deep within the silence of our hearts, from our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. My prayer is that the next three years will form a privileged moment for each of us to grow both in the knowledge and love of Jesus, and in zeal to proclaim him publicly as the Christ, the light of the world.
Enzo is a Grade 1 student.. He, his parents and his brother are here with us tonight. I ask that they stand and be recognized. Let’s give them a warm welcome!
Formation for Service to Marriage and Family
Regarding our third pastoral priority, formation for service, we know there are many avenues for the expression of Christian charity. This Archdiocese has, in fact, a noble history of service in the name of Christ. A recent and telling example is your response to the needs of the people of Jasper. We established an Archdiocesan fund to assist the nearly ninety families of Our Lady of Lourdes parish, who, because of the massive fire, have lost everything. Thank you all for your generous support of this effort. And tonight, allow me to single out our brothers and sisters in Hinton, whose parish is represented among us. You have gone above and beyond to welcome and assist the people in need who have reached out to you. On behalf of us all, I express to Fathers Narisetty and Udumala, to Deacon Ed Meding and his wife, Gwen, to Mary Lou Lafrance and all the parishioners, our heartfelt thanks and pledge of ongoing support.
I ask that members of the Our Lady of Lourdes parish community stand and be recognized.
From among the many avenues along which formation for service could be pursued in our parishes, I have asked that we give particular attention to the care of marriage and family. These are under great strain, and our faith equips us well to give the needed accompaniment.
We can all name many negative consequences today of family decline. What I see as the most devastating impact in our time is the loss of true identity and sense of belonging. This is leaving many people, especially the young, feeling alone, isolated, and floundering. We see among both the young and adults a retreat into themselves, evidenced by the omnipresent ear buds and headphones. Society is not only fracturing; it is also increasingly atomized. What is going on?
Family is linked inseparably with identity and belonging. We all know this from our own experience. Personally, I have found this very tellingly illustrated over the years as I watched my nieces and nephews grow up. In gatherings at the home of my parents, they would often be distracted by toys, smartphones, or videogames, until their grandparents began to recount family stories. At that point, they would willingly and eagerly put all those things aside. As they listened to episodes of past family adventures or tales about growing up, difficult moments, happy moments, funny moments and so on, they were absolutely riveted. They still are, in fact, even now as young adults, when stories continue to be shared with them. They miss nothing of what is said, drinking it all in, and then light up when we begin to tell stories about them growing up. The joy that they feel, it seems to me, is twofold: it is the joy of belonging, of being a part of something bigger than themselves, part of a network of relationships, and at the same time the joy of being noticed, of having a part, of mattering. They are not just a member of the group; they are, within their family, a someone whose very existence is celebrated and who matters just because they exist.
It is easy to see how devastating a tear in these foundational and determinative relationships would be. I call such rupture an “original wound”, a break within the nexus of relationships that gives and sustains life from its origins. This leaves one suffering from such a hurt with a weakened or lost sense of identity, unsure where they “fit”. These wounds are the deepest and most painful and are being felt more often than we care to admit. No need to wonder, then, about the source of widespread isolation and loneliness and the harm it engenders, not least in youth homelessness or the growing pervasiveness of addiction to increasingly lethal drugs.
Given this reality, what focus shall we give to our formation for service? It seems to me that we have to “get back to basics” to re-discover and re-appropriate the truth and beauty of Christian marriage. The life-long marital bond between husband and wife, is, after all, the wellspring and mainstay of the family. So, let’s examine carefully and gratefully what Jesus himself teaches about marriage. Let’s explore why the marital bond is a sacrament, and how we invite its grace to flow into the home to enliven, heal, and strengthen family life. In light of the Church’s rich tradition regarding the sacrament of matrimony, we shall also review our marriage formation programmes, and ask how we can better accompany the newly married. I pray that we all be formed deeply in the Church’s rich teaching on marriage and family in order to serve well this vital cell of our Church and world.
Conclusion
We undertake these priorities, calling upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, our ever-present companion and guide. The Spirit reveals Jesus to us, unites us ever more deeply to him, and empowers us for mission in his name. Only by the Holy Spirit can we penetrate the mysteries of our faith.
Let us rely, too, upon the help of the Blessed Mother, whose image features prominently in our room this evening. It depicts the Virgin Mary under her title Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is an exact digital laser replica of the famous Marian image, reproduced directly from Saint Juan Diego’s tilma, where it miraculously appeared in 1531 and is preserved to this day at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City. This reproduction was entrusted to Christine Foisy-Erikson of St. Thomas More parish in 2001 by the rector of that Basilica as a gift to the Canadian people, and has travelled across Canada since that time. As of last spring, the home for Our Lady is this Archdiocese. We have designated Our Lady under this particular title as the patroness of our pastoral priorities. She is, after all, the perfect exemplar of putting the Word of God into practice. She who said, “be it done unto me according to thy word”; she who told the servants at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you,” now will help us by her prayers, protection, and guidance to give our own fiat to God, to say, with her, “Be it done!” to the call from our Lord to do his Word through joyful worship, confident witness, and loving service.
I would like to thank Christine Foisy-Erickson and her husband Ted Erickson who have cared for Our Lady since 2001 as well as Lucy Tettamente who has been involved in her transfer to different locations across Canada. All three are present with us. I ask that they stand and be recognized (APPLAUSE)
The mission to proclaim Jesus Christ is the most challenging and exciting venture there is, and we have to be well prepared for it. Thank you for all that you are doing in service of the Church’s mission, and thank you for embracing these new pastoral priorities. Knowing that our Blessed Mother is with us and praying for us, I am excited by the many graces that will surely flow throughout the Archdiocese as we delve together into the wondrous treasures of our beautiful Catholic faith.
God bless you all!