Homily

When we sing vespers on the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God we find the idea, mentioned more than once in the services, that Mary of Nazareth was chosen from the beginning of creation to be the Mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ. This was part of God’s plan for our salvation, and it was God’s plan for Mary, and she accepted that plan for her without question. Why this young woman from a family of modest means and a town of no importance? God had a plan that is beyond our understanding, beyond the understanding even of Mary. But she was totally willing to accept that plan for her, however God desired.

Our parish, first as a mission and then a regular parish, has been in this area actually for a little over 40 years. Somebody asked me about how many sacraments have been celebrated in our church these past decades, so I looked it up. Roughly about 245 baptisms, 116 chrismations apart from baptism, 60 marriages and 14 confessions. But why are we here? If you were mostly of Ukrainian background that would explain it. Years ago we did have many more Ukrainians, so that made sense, but not many today. So why are we here? We are not in a huge metropolitan area. We’re in a state where even the total Catholic population is very small. Apart from that we have faced a number of very difficult times in our past. The most difficult of all happened before this church was built, when we belonged to the newly formed Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys, California (which is now the Eparchy of Phoenix, AZ)

The first bishop of that tiny eparchy wanted to buy a very expensive building that reflected the importance of his status and his person, to serve as a chancery office. To do that, he went raiding his parishes for cash. One day I received a notice from this bishop that I was to appear before him on a certain date and that if I failed to do so he would suspend me. Because of what was happening to some other churches I was sure that I knew what this meant for us. The next day I called Bishop Innocent of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago and asked if I could see him, and he agreed…never even asking why I wanted to talk with him. The day after that, armed with facts and figures, I left for Chicago. I explained to this prayerful and kindly bishop what I believed was going to happen to our parish. Since we had a good number of Ukrainians in our membership, would he please take us into his eparchy. He agreed.

The day came for me to appear in Van Nuys, and, as expected, that bishop told me he was going to close our parish, take our savings and sell the property. As he later put in writing, “Nativity church is in a poor, rural area and has no future.” I said nothing at that meeting with him. A few days later Bishop Innocent called him to see about a transfer of the parish into his eparchy.. Our own bishop was not going to let the cash slip out of his hands, and Bishop Innocent was not willing to allow our people and our parish to be shut down. The struggle between bishops and eparchies lasted over one and a half years, and finally Rome decided that the Bishop of Van Nuys was required to turn the parish over to Chicago, without seizing any of our assets. And here we are. Why? God has a plan for this parish, and we, and so many wonderful, faithful, dedicated people who have gone before us, we continue to try our best to follow the Lord’s plan as we see it. As I was looking over the sacramental records and counting them up I was reminded once again of the great faith, generosity, and dedication of so many people, which continues on until today.

There are other Catholic parishes here, much, much larger, more money, more facilities, many, many more people, operating more efficiently per capita than we possibly can. Why are we here? Even counting in the faithfulness of the parishioners, it is still truly beyond my understanding why we are here except for the thought that God has a plan for us. Will this parish always be here? I don’t know. But right now, today, God has a plan for us and if we are open to His calling we can fulfill that plan, which involves me and every one of you.

He had a plan for the Mother of God, He had, and He has a plan for this parish dedicated to the Mother of God, and, so very importantly, He also has a plan for each one of us. We are not just a part of the crowd of humanity. We are, each of us, just as important to the Lord as Mary, although we are unworthy. And, just as He did for her, just as He has done for this parish, He has a plan for each of us because He loves us all despite our faults and failings. Our job and our blessing, is to continually try to do our best to be open to His will for us, as we say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

I saw a TV program on the History Channel yesterday, about St. Ignatius of Antioch who wrote seven letters to Christian churches as he traveled in chains from Antioch to Rome to be killed by lions in the Colosseum, in the year 108. The commentators stressed that Ignatius would not allow members of the Church to try and free him, because He said that his coming martyrdom was a part of God’s will for him, and he would not turn away from it. It was God’s plan that he should be killed in the Colosseum? This is not a plan that I would be enthusiastic to endorse if I were him. And yet Ignatius wrote: “I seek Him Who died for us; I desire Him Who rose for our salvation... In me, my desire has been nailed to the cross, and no flame of material longing is left. Only the living water speaks within me, saying, ‘Hurry to the Father.’”

God’s plan for us will give us the best possible life that we can have and lead us into life eternal. Our natural desire is to think that our own plans are the best. And yet how many times have our own plans failed to produce good for us and for others. Granted, it is not always easy to know God’s will for us. He is probably not asking us to be martyrs like Ignatius, but certainly to be martyrs, witnesses, in other ways. If we ask Him, daily, to let us know what we should do, to guide us in our ways, to help us be faithful, and not pretend we always know what is best for us, we will not end up with the easiest of lives, but we will end up with the best of lives.

We are most important to the Lord. He desires only what is good for us. Let us think about this loving care and place ourselves under His protection. Help us O Lord, to do as You wish us to do, and live as you desire. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.