Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were

harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” I wonder if that’s how

the Lord looks on the parish and my ministry here – “they were harassed and

helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”. Hopefully not. But today we are

joined by Br Christopher Okonkwo. He has spent some time with the

Carmelites in Oxford, and will be shadowing me at weekends, seeing one

example of what the life of a diocesan priest is really like. Hopefully I won’t

put him off. Please keep him in your prayers as he discerns what the Lord’s

will for him is, and I’m sure you’ll make him welcome as he settles into the

parish over the coming weeks and months.

We also have another dimension to today’s Gospel. In the bulletin this

weekend there are a few words from Canon Paul Fitzpatrick about the proposed

changes to how the deanery and parishes will work as we get closer to the

deanery visitation. A bit of a spoiler alert – he says that over the next 5-7 years,

the number of priests in the diocese will halve, with ten or more priests retiring

each year.

So part of the proposed plan is to reduce the admin load on the priests of the

deanery by keeping all the churches open, but converting the deanery into one

parish. Clearly there are lots of practical issues to think through first. The idea

is that all the priests remain parish priests of their existing churches, and they

stay in their current presbyteries, but they are relieved of the burden of Health

and Safety matters, parish accounting, organising repairs etc. Actually in this

parish quite a few of these things are already being done by the finance

committee and by Deborah, our parish administrator, freeing me up to do more

of the “priestly” side of things, celebrating the sacraments, going out visiting

and so on.

When Christ asked people to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out

labourers into His harvest, His reference was not just to the Apostles, the first

Pope and bishops of the Church, neither was it just in reference to the clergy

and religious. There is the role of the laity as well. The first thing He says to

do is to pray. Without prayer, we can do all the clever planning we like, but the

Church is built on the grace of God; it is not a secular project. But having said

that, there is the need for action as well, to cooperate with that grace. Once the

foundations are laid, then the building needs to be built as well. The

Archbishop has asked for all parishes to have a Parish Pastoral Council. It’s

been phrased more as a “you will” rather than “I would like you to think about

it”. This is also a way in which the parish works collaboratively on the “bigger

tasks” of the pastoral outreach of the parish. What are we doing well? What

can we do better? What do we need to do less of? What is a drain on resources

or even flogging a dead horse? Which new avenues can we explore? How do

we care for our existing members? What kind of outreach do we have with the

local community, both in terms of helping those in need, and communicating

the Gospel? Having the whole deanery as one parish means joining up the

different PPCs to make one PPC for the whole new large parish, but once

again, the practicalities need fleshing out, as we currently have parishes that are

different in various ways and don’t know each other. Ideas need to be shared

and good practice strengthened for all of the churches in the parish.

Lastly, of course, though, Christ’s call for us to pray for more labourers to the

harvest does indeed include more clergy. Without the priesthood, there is no

Mass, and without the Mass there is no Church. There are stories of missionary

territories where the faith has survived after the priests have been made to leave

or have been martyred, but that is the exception, not the norm. In each church

building, the altar is central, whilst the lectern is to the side. Architecturally the

message is that the preaching of the Word of God is important, but that each

community that gathers in the church is a Eucharistic community, in which

Christ, working through the priest, leads His People in His worship of the

Father, sanctifying His People in the process. We can’t do without priests. For

many years we have had to deal with the phenomenon of shrinking

congregations in many parishes, although some are in fact growing, in part due

to immigration, but we also now seem to be seeing more converts. Among

both those categories may also be future priests and religious. We live in

interesting times. What we do know, is that the Lord has not abandoned us, and

that we can find new ways of outreach, organisation and also pruning to yield

new growth and new life.

Change isn’t always easy. We can be forced into it by circumstances. It can

also lead us to leave behind approaches that are holding us back. The Church,

in her structures, in the way things have been organised, have changed over the

centuries, and from country to country, depending on the practical reality on the

ground. But in it all, the Lord is not phased by the task, and He is with us now

as He was two thousand years ago. Let us pray earnestly to the Lord of the

harvest, that He send out labourers into his harvest.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk