Letting Christ Live in Us
Fr. David Barnes • October 18, 2023
Dear Friends in Christ,
This week my mind is still thinking about the Gospel from last Sunday, the Parable of the Wedding Feast. As you recall, the parable concludes with the king entering the banquet hall and seeing a man not dressed in the proper wedding garment. The king then banishes him from the wedding banquet.
Each Sunday at Mass, we participate in the wedding feast of the King’s Son. The Liturgy itself offers us an image of what our whole life should be. Before Mass, the priest puts on vestments. In putting on these garments, the priest is, in a sense, meant to disappear, to fade into the background. This is so Christ himself becomes more visible. It is why the priest doesn’t make things up according to his own preferences during the Mass. His role–and the role of all the ministers–is to humbly place themselves at the service of the Sacred Liturgy. They do this by adhering to the liturgical texts and norms that the Church herself gives to them. The words the ministers speak, their postures, the manner in which they are to close or extend their hands, their movements etc. are all prescribed in the various liturgical books. In a sense, this is so that the Liturgy is saved from the personality of the individual.
There are times in the Liturgy when there are options. For instance, the priest can opt to chant or to speak certain parts of the Mass. There are several Eucharistic Prayers and Prefaces from which the priest can choose Or, at the end of Mass, the deacon has four options from which to conclude the Mass: “Go forth, the Mass is ended.” “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” “Go in peace.” But, even with all of these options, the ministers are required to adhere to them. The priest cannot add things to the Eucharistic Prayers or mix them together. In vesting before Mass, the priest is reminded that it is Christ himself who now presides over the Mass. The priest is meant to “put on Christ” the Head, Shepherd, and Bridegroom of the Church.
This is all a model for us in the Christian life. More and more, we are meant to put on Christ. We are meant to put on that wedding garment and become more configured to Jesus Christ. The “old man” is meant to die and the “new man” who is Christ Jesus is meant to live more and more in us. At the funeral Mass, when they place the pall over the casket, it is a reminder of what we want for all of us. We want the King to look and see us completely clothed in the wedding garment, completely clothed in Christ Jesus.
In all of us, there is a fear and a resistance to letting our old selves die and to allowing Christ to live in us. We have a hidden fear that somehow, we will lose something if we allow ourselves to die to self so that Christ can live in us. We think that we know better. This is where the Sacred Liturgy can teach us. It teaches us to submit ourselves to something bigger than ourselves. It teaches us that if we clothe ourselves in Christ, we lose nothing, and we experience an incredible and previously unknown freedom. To clothe ourselves in Christ enables us to bring joy to the Heart of the King, to the Heart of our Heavenly Father. When the King comes into the banquet hall, what will bring him the greatest joy is if he sees us clothed completely in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Both in the Sacred Liturgy and in life itself, may we all strive to die to self so that when the King arrives, he sees the happiest of all sights–all of us clothed completely in Christ.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. David Barnes
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A few weeks ago, before Mass, a young man in his twenties approached me and asked, “Can I sit anywhere?” The unusual question confused me for a moment, and then he added, “This is my first time here.” After Mass, he explained that he was baptized but was never raised in the Faith. Now, he was searching for a relationship with God. His story is not an isolated one. Last year at the Easter Vigil, we baptized and welcomed into the Church many men and women who were longing for closeness with the Lord. Already this year, we are preparing a whole new group of men and women–so many of them in their late teens, twenties, and thirties–to receive the Sacraments at Easter. It is incredibly exciting to witness the Holy Spirit at work in the life of our parish community. One of the great things I have come to appreciate about St. Patrick Parish is that the people here actually want new people! Sometimes parishes settle into a “We always did it this way” mentality that wants only to keep the status quo and is never looking to grow and welcome others. I see a true missionary spirit in the people here. There are so many opportunities in this parish for parishioners to deepen their Faith, but also for those who are perhaps on the peripheries of Faith to test the waters. The people here have a genuine desire to help others to experience the joy that only comes from closeness to the Lord. It brings me such great joy to see not only all of the things that are happening in this parish, but also to see how many people are responding to them. We are really blessed as a parish. If you look at the weekly parish bulletin, you will see that we have abundant opportunities to encounter the Lord and to be part of a true faith community. As a parish priest, it is really a source of deep joy to see the Lord at work and to be surprised by what He is doing. It is also my responsibility, along with the Parish Finance Council, to oversee the financial health of the parish. We are a big parish. Our buildings and grounds are in constant need of repairs, improvements, and replacements. In addition to the urgent need to replace most of our HVAC units, we still need to address ongoing issues with the frames of our stained-glass windows and do extensive work on the steeple and facade of the church’s old main entrance. Together, these projects will likely cost well over $1,000,000. All of this must be done while we continue our regular parish operations, including salaries and benefits, regular maintenance, utilities, and all our ministries. Without the added expenses of those major ticket items, our operating budget is around $ 1.5 million. We can do a lot as a parish because our parishioners are not consumers or spectators. You don’t sit back and expect others to provide for the parish's needs. You are generous with both your financial support and your time. People who are searching for a new relationship or a deeper relationship with the Lord are able to come here and be spiritually fed because of your generosity. While the parish facilities will always require our attention, I hope our focus will increasingly shift toward providing an even more robust missionary outreach to those who are not here. Jesus wants us to preach the Gospel to everyone. That is our mission. A major portion of our income arises from the Grand Annual Collection. I ask that all of you please make a generous commitment to this collection. It would be great if every registered family, if they can afford it, could donate $500 toward the Grand Annual Collection. If you can give more, all the better. If you cannot afford that much, any gift is needed and is absolutely appreciated. I have already made my contribution, so I am not asking you to do anything that I have not done myself! The Lord is doing something beautiful in this parish. Let us all do our part! Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes
Many years ago while living in San Diego for a happy summer of Navy Reserve duty, I attended several boot camp graduations of Sailors and Marines. Those ceremonies were filled with fanfare, exactness, and solemnity. What struck me about them in a particular way is that each week, they were exactly the same. They didn’t ask the recruits to come up with their own ceremonies. Instead, the recruits were inserted into a long, unbroken tradition experienced by every other Sailor and Marine. The greatness of the event, in a sense, was that they were being inserted into something greater than themselves. The ceremony was not the self-expression of numerous individuals. Even if you were on the sidelines watching, you nonetheless sensed that you were part of something bigger. One of the beautiful things about a Catholic Funeral Mass is that basically everybody gets the same funeral. Whether you are the pope or a pauper matters not. In that moment, you are a son or daughter of the Church and the Church is entrusting you to the mercy of God. Each of us needs the mercy of God. I think in recent years an unfortunate shift has happened to funerals. I’m not exactly sure what to call it, but for lack of a better term, it has become “individualized.” Now, of course, we are mourning and grieving over the death of a particular individual and the people who are mourning are a particular and individual family. In this way, there is something deeply personal that cannot (and should not) be dismissed. But my mind goes back to those boot camp graduations. The greatness of the moment was that the individual was now part of something greater than himself. Each graduate wore the same uniform, marched in the same direction, and performed the same rituals as all of those who preceded them and those who would follow them. The Funeral Mass is not about canonizing the deceased and declaring that they are now in Heaven. (That’s the pope’s job, not ours!) We are certainly there to thank the Lord for the life of this individual, to thank God for all the good that He worked in that individual, and to build up our Christian Hope. What exactly gives us hope in eternal life? It is that this person was inserted into something bigger than himself or herself. Their hope (and ours) is that when they were baptized, they were baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. It is because Christ died and rose from the dead that we have any hope of eternal life. None of us can give ourselves eternal life. We depend entirely upon Christ. At the Funeral Mass, we are there primarily to pray for the one who has died. We pray–as members of Christ’s Body–that the Lord will show his mercy on the one who has died. When we lose sight of this, we are reduced to empty platitudes. Our prayers at a Funeral Mass actually do something. They assist the one who has died and, by the power of the Mass, they purify that person so as to help them on their way to the beatific vision. I mention all of this because I am struck by how secularized funerals have become. Sadly, many Catholics forgo Funeral Masses now. When faith in the absolute necessity of Christ’s Death and Resurrection dwindles, so too does faith in the power of the Mass. And of course, if a funeral is merely a “celebration of life,” why not have it at the funeral home, the reserved room at a restaurant, or the beach? What makes the Catholic Funeral so magnificent is that it is transcendent. It lifts us up beyond mere sentimentality and inserts us (and the one who has died) into the saving event of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. On my list of things to do is to find a way to help us as a parish to plan Funeral Masses better. At present, we basically have people fill out a sheet where twenty songs are presented and they pick four or five and check off the readings they want. It’s not a good process. I think there is a better way and I hope to work toward finding it and shaping the process. On a related note, I am beyond happy that during the past couple of years there have been so many adults entering the Church through our parish. Both last year and again this year, we have had great-sized groups seeking to become Catholic, receive Baptism, Confirmation, and First Eucharist. I keep praying to the Lord asking for more! How are these related? It is through the Sacraments that we are inserted into the new life that ONLY Christ can give. When we die, the Church doesn’t tell God in its prayers for the deceased, “Hey Lord, Charlie was such a great guy.” Instead, the Church basically says, “Father, look upon your son (daughter) who because of baptism was united to your Only-Begotten Son and became a member of His body. Grant that this person, by virtue of his (her) union with Christ, may have his (her) sins cleansed, may enter into Heaven, and may share one day in the resurrection.” I guess a good thing for all of us to think about, not only when it comes time to plan a funeral, but also all the time, is the absolute centrality of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is our participation in that event that makes us Christians. It–and it alone–is what saves us and is our only hope. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes
