When we had our St. Joseph Feast Day celebration about a week ago, Mass was a little different than our usual Sunday Masses. Most of the people I’ve talked to said that it was a beautiful Mass, unlike anything they’d really seen before. Any time, though, that we experience something different at Mass or any time our worship is different, it causes discomfort. I wanted to take this Sunday and the next Sunday or two to talk about a few of these differences in the liturgy and how they fit into our bishop’s vision for the future of the diocese and St. Joseph Parish.

Today, let’s talk about change and about the future, starting with a brief detour to the past. Bishop Kemme, back in 2018, published a pastoral plan for our diocese. It has three focuses. First: Form our faithful to spread the Gospel to all people. Second: Renew the stewardship way of life. Third: Renew parish and family life by reclaiming Sunday as the Lord’s Day. At St. Joseph, what does this look like? How do we get there? How do we fit in?

The way I see this future for St. Joseph is one where our life revolves around Sunday and our other special days, where no matter what Mass you attend, the focus is on giving good and holy worship to God. It’s one where the homily equips you to have not only a deeper relationship with God and a better understanding of the scriptures, but also that leads you more deeply into the mystery of the Eucharist, which is at the heart of the Mass. It’s a future where we take care of each other in our parish, and from the gifts God has given us go forward to share the wealth: both the wealth of the Good News of the Gospel and more material things with our brothers and sisters in need. It’s a parish where we are one family, not two, united together in our love of Christ and under the patronage of St. Joseph.

To get to this future, we as individuals all must commit ourselves to living the Gospel. This means that we take time to dust off our Bibles at home and study them so we know what’s in there. It means that we challenge ourselves to live all the beatitudes, not just the ones we like. It means that we work to learn why we do certain things at Mass so that we can give better worship to God. When we do these things, we will inevitably come across things we don’t like. Perhaps we will find that a piece of music we like is not actually good for Mass, because the text of the hymn is contrary to Catholic teaching or to scripture. Perhaps we will recognize that feeding the poor doesn’t mean just giving money to the pantry, but spending time at the Lord’s Diner and spending some actual time with these children of God who, admittedly, might smell bad or have major mental struggles. Perhaps we will discover that God really means it when he asks “Could you not spend one hour with me?” Everyone will find something our Church teaches that challenges us. Perhaps what I think it means to be Catholic is shaken, perhaps my sense of control is destroyed, perhaps the future looks completely different than it did five minutes ago. No matter what loss this challenge inflicts on us, it is at that point where we have to ask ourselves: “How am I going to respond to this?”

Our response will make all the difference. We can choose to hold on to the past, to try and bring back the old. We can choose to try and focus on a different, easier part of our faith, and ignore what God called us to work on. But when it comes to our faith, are these really options? We have to move forward to follow Christ. So what are our options? We can choose to redesign how we see our future or we can choose to let go of our attachments that keep us from making the change we’ve been called to. These, of course, are the harder options. They require faith in God and they require trust in the people around us. I want you all to know something: you are not alone in this challenge. Not only is our entire parish struggling to be closer to God, but we are still working to be one, united parish. And while I admit my calendar is terribly full, and I’m pretty slow at email, you can always come talk to me. I’m willing to listen.

To get to this future as a parish, though, this means that we have to have times where we come together as one. This includes times where we can come together and worship as one. Most especially, we should all be united on the highest feasts and celebrations of our faith (Christmas, the Triduum, Easter, and Pentecost) and the high feasts of our parish (St. Joseph’s Day on March 19 and the Feast of our Church’s Dedication on July 16). On those days, our main liturgies and Masses will be a little more formal, and we’ll incorporate traditions from both sides of our parish into the Mass as is permitted in the Roman Missal.

There will be some discomfort as this happens, but remember the goal: We are striving to be one parish, united in our love of God, who shares the Gospel with those around us so that they, too, can come to know our great God, and join him in Heaven forever!

Next week, I’ll talk a little more about the specific changes we saw on St. Joseph’s Feast Day, and what we will see going forward.