A several months ago I went to present a weekend with Worldwide Marriage Encounter. Working with married couples we present a weekend to other couples seeking to make the Sacrament of Marriage a renewed gifts of love. In truth, when I go, I have many things on my mind, especially leaving the parish and when I return I am physically and emotionally exhausted by the work being done. But I also am spiritually uplifted in ways I cannot begin to describe. I have a spring in my spiritual step that propels me forward with a greater joy and blessing.
When I was called to become a pastor of a parish a friend and mentor gave me a copy of The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community to help me to understand the new role I was assuming as not just a priest but a Pastor and Leader of a community of faith. He also gave me the Canon Law citations is should read, pray and study over in the coming months. While this academic study was wonderful, and I truly did spend time in prayer over the “assignments” given to read, it wasn’t until I began to understand, through Marriage Encounter, the unity of Marriage and Holy Orders that I began to fully integrate the teachings and traditions of the Church into my ministry.

“To the extent that priests are living signs and servants of ecclesial communion they become part of the living unity of the Church in time, that is, of Sacred Tradition of which the Magisterium is the custodian and guarantor. Reference to Tradition invests the ministry of priests with a solid basis and an objectivity of testimony to the Truth, which came in Christ and was revealed in history. Such helps to avoid a prurience with regard to novelty which injures communion and evacuates the depth and credibility of the priestly ministry.” (#16)

To “become part of a living unity of the Church in time” is to enter into relationships fully alive with joy and blessing, with conflict and hurt and hope filled healing and conversion to life, peace and love. Trusting in this peace it was a reminder, a pastor is called to care for all souls, all the children of God within the parish boundaries. Like a parent, we, as priests, are called to seek to unite all people together. The Church once more teaches us, “The parish priest is called to be a patient builder of communion between his own parish and the local Church, and the universal Church. He should be a model of adherence to the perennial Magisterium of the Church and to its discipline.” (#16)

This loving obedience to the wisdom and truth of the Catholic Church helps to moderate and gather us together where as a “builder of communion” both near and far, we learn to heal and not simply tolerate the differences that divide us.
And of course, when you talk to any married couple, any mother and father or for that matter any member of the family you discover that to be a “builder of communion” is necessary and a movement to a unity of grace filled love. The United States Bishops in their document, “Love Is or Mission: The Family Fully Alive”, the Bishops talk about the need of encounter with the person of Jesus in an invitation in and through a greater community. It is a priority of being united around a common table where differences are acknowledged and at the same time the call to a unity of love is also recognized and worked for as a family caring for one another. The Bishops write, “In the Church, the first priority is to bring people to an encounter with the Divine Physician. Any encounter with Christ brings healing to fallen humanity, and the Holy Spirit can always be invited into our hearts to enable repentance and conversion. In the words of Pope Francis: “I invite all Christians everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least and openness to letting him encounter them; I asked all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord.” (#155)
The “personal encounter with Jesus” as Pope Francis teaches is an encounter of family and a call to choosing to gather and share life and love. It is through these relationships, just as the relationship within the family of the Church, as members of the one family of God, we learn to love and grow in hope. My work as a “father of a parish family”, works towards this goal…as bumpy and difficult as it can be.

“The Church is a family of families, constantly enriched by the lives of all those domestic churches. “In virtue of the sacrament of matrimony, every family becomes, in effect, a good for the Church. From this standpoint, reflecting on the interplay between the family and the Church will prove a precious gift for the Church in our time. The Church is good for the family, and the family is good for the Church. The safeguarding of the Lord’s gift in the sacrament of matrimony is a concern not only of individual families but of the entire Christian community”.” (Amoris Laetitia #87)
I have been working on this way to long….3 months, so I will end this in reminding me, my parish and all of God’s holy people…that we are a family of faith and the responsibility of parenting the family is always modeled on God’s will…the call to follow him with our whole heart, our whole life, our whole being. To be a pastor, a parent, a mentor is the call to lead others, as brothers and sisters in Christ to the heavenly throne of the Father…nothing less.

Thanks for your patience.
God Bless
Fr. Mark.