Epiphany

In my thirty-one and one half years of being a priest I have never had an assignment as diverse as these three parishes of St. James, St. Ambrose, and St. Ignatius. You all are remarkable in how different you are from any other group of Catholics that I know of. We have every economic range represented in our parishes. I cannot imagine a parish or cluster of parishes with folks from all of the nationalities that you represent, from all of the professions that you hold, from your political stances that you take, and from the cultural backgrounds that you come from.


Also, you all enjoy your Catholic Christian faith with a love beyond words. You express it and take pride in it in ways that inspire and teach me. It is an exciting and humbling role that I have to be the pastor of folks who are so plain and so complicated. I enjoy witnessing how you get along with one another though you all know how very different you are. What you have taught me is that there are many ways to be CHURCH and that there are many ways to be Catholic. I am learning from you that we can be different from one another in deep and diverse ways; but at the same time we can be respectful and even loving toward each other despite (or possibly because of) our differences.

On this Feast of the Epiphany we celebrate that God is our Father and Jesus is our Savior and Brother no matter who we are, no matter where we are from, no matter what we own or fail to own, no matter that none of us are worthy of such great Love.

Peace,
Fr. Chuck