I stand before you today as one who has taken up anew the command of Christ which we have just heard in our Gospel for this Sunday. I do not come with another to accompany me, which I guess shows either great confidence on the part of the bishop or overconfidence on his part. Either way, I stand before you as the priest given charge over this parish as the new administrator, as the new pastor. But what does that mean for us?
We receive a hint about this when we hear St. Mark tell us that the Twelve went off and preached repentance. The pastor is not a businessman, though he must be involved with finances. He is not a janitor, though he does take care of buildings. The pastor is, above all these things, a shepherd, as the prophet Amos hints at in our first reading. That is the reason he is called a pastor, from the Latin word for shepherd. He is meant to call the one flock of Christ together and minister to them. He is charged with the duty of preaching the same repentance that the Twelve first preached as we hear today and which has been continually declared by the Church since the day of Pentecost.
But in what does this repentance consist? Saint Paul provides some clues to this repentance in our second reading. It all begins with God the Father calling us, from before anything even existed, to Himself towards holiness. God desires all of humanity to be clean, without any blemish or sin, and has willed that for all of us. Yet we have sinned; first through our parents in the garden of Eden, then in our own sins which compound the filth upon ourselves. However, God did not leave us in this state of filth and brokenness. In the fullness of time, God sent His Son, Christ our Lord, to win for us “redemption by His blood, the forgiveness of transgressions” (1:7).
This is the foundation of the message of repentance Christ desired His apostles to proclaim: that God is willing not only to forgive us of every sin, but is even willing to make us His children, which Saint Paul reiterates when he says that “in love [God] destined us for adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ” (1:5). If we abandon everything that separates us from God, if we repent of our sins, then we can truly be what He has desired us to be since the first moment of time, and even before that. Saint Paul even declares to the Christians in Ephesus and to us that this is already happening to those of us who have received the gospel of salvation, have believed in Him, and have been sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit.
All of this is what the pastor is meant to nourish and encourage within those entrusted to his care. Nothing else matters except the salvation of souls. Whether buildings are raised up or torn down, whether communities grow or diminish, whether there is peace or discord, the pastor must concern himself primarily with stirring up the people towards living out this message of repentance so that the same people can gain the prize of eternal life. And that is what I promise to do for you for as long as I am here.
I make no other promise than this: that while I am here, I will do everything I can to bring to fullness the message of repentance which you have already received. I cannot promise anything more, but that will hopefully be more than enough. Every decision I make must be bound up in this task of your sanctification. Already, I have made some changes to help better facilitate this through our participation in the Mass. And you will probably notice other changes or differences from what Fr. Barth has done for you. I do not critique anything he has done; he has done what he thought was best for you, and now I must do the same in my own way.
I ask of you now, as we begin our time together in the Lord, for a few things. First and foremost: I ask for your prayers and support: we must all pray to God for understanding and guidance in all this. If we do not do what God wills for us, then it is all for nothing. Second, I ask that you please have patience with me. This is my first time being in charge of a parish, my first great duty as a priest. I will move slow in some things and quick in others. Be patient with me as I begin to grow in my duties. Finally, I ask for you to help me come to better understand you along with our parish. Feel free to speak to me, to tell me your issues and concerns, your joys and your delight in our parish. I, on my part, will do what I can to come to know you better. I hope to meet every one of you both here and outside of here so that I am not a stranger to you nor are you a stranger to me.
Let us pray to our Lady assumed into Heaven that our parish may be strengthened by her intercession so as to hear and receive the message of repentance. Let us pray to Saint Matthew, the patron of this church, that we will not only hear the Gospel but that we may also live it out faithfully. Let us be resolved to be counted not among those whose dust is shaken from the feet of the apostles, but are numbered among God’s possession, to the praise of his glory which awaits us for all eternity in Heaven.
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