Homily for Closing Mass for St. Agnes Parish, Flint, August 17, 2008

St. Agnes Parish was founded in 1928 with a first Mass said on a board laid across two sawhorses and with 15 people present at the Flint Amusement Park. This was to serve the ever expanding Catholic population in this area of Flint especially due to GM’s development of Chevrolet City. This was the beginning of a rich, booming, vibrant, and glorious history of service to the faith in this area of Flint, peaking at 1400 families in the 1950s. We celebrate that past today and give thanks to God for his many blessings on us over these 80 years. I thank all of you who have lived and promoted our holy faith in this area of Flint. I am also grateful for the gift to the Diocese of Lansing which you, the parish of St. Agnes, have made with vocations. I am also mindful of the pastorate of the future bishop of Kalamazoo, Paul Donovan, and that of Fr. John Klein, Fr. James Eisele, Fr. John Rocus, and now of Fr. Steven Makranyi. I am also mindful of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth who taught in your school from 1942 to 1971. Fr. Olk, in the early 1950s, planned on building a new 10 room school when a diocesan official called him, worried that the Korean War limitations would hurt this project. He asked Fr. Olk if he had started the project and when the pastor said no, “the reply came, ‘then, start at once, and I mean within the hour.’” Fr. Olk called the cement company to make an immediate delivery; at 2 in the morning a yard of concrete was dumped next to the hall and thus the building was begun. We are also mindful of the presence here of Donovan North Middle School, Maurice Olk Grade School and Dukette Catholic Elementary School. Also we are grateful for the feeding of the hungry which takes place here. Fr. Firestone tells me that over 500 families are being fed in the North Flint area by the Catholic Church and that he will continue to support that ministry. Finally, I am very grateful to your new pastor Fr. Tom Firestone and to the parish community which is opening its arms to all of you.

But today is not just a day of thanks for the past. It is also a day to pledge to God our faith and the witness of that faith in the present and the future. And we make such a pledge relying on the mercy of God even as did the Canaanite woman in today’s gospel.

It is very strange of Christ to call someone “dog.” Yet, that is how the Jews viewed their neighbors in Canaan—they were dogs because they did not believe in the One God. Jesus voices that disparaging view and it will be the occasion of a great change.

Notice that our Gospel today is set between the two stories of the multiplication of the loaves. You may recall that after the feeding of the multitudes of the House of Israel in each of these miracles, there were several baskets of crumbs left over. Between these two miracles in the Gospel of Matthew, then, we find this account of Jesus offering of these crumbs from the master’s table to the dogs, that is, to the pagans. He does so, ultimately, because they believed, as did the woman in today’s gospel. Thus it is faith that unites the pagans and the Jews in the eating of the bread, in sharing the banquet together.

Here the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. Isaiah had predicted that someday the Gentiles too would keep the law and fear God, that they would worship God with the Israelites, that God’s house would become a house of prayer for all peoples.

There are so many things that divide us, that pull us apart. Too often we shrink away from those who are different. But it is our common faith which pulls us together. It is the woman crying out, Lord, help me; it is St. Peter crying out as he was sinking in the waves, Lord, help me; it is each one us crying out, Lord, help me, which unites us all. We all are crying out in faith to the one Lord and God of us all. It is out of our need and our acknowledgment of sinfulness that we are open in faith to God’s help. This faith makes us brothers and sisters.

Paul is dealing with this issue in today’s second reading. He recognizes that the Gentiles have turned to Christ and have been accepted into the Church. He laments that his brother Jews, to whom Jesus came, did not accept Jesus and so cut themselves off from the banquet. Even in that dire scenario, Paul prays that faith will win the day and bring Jew and Gentile together. All must see themselves as disobedient, as sinners, as in need of a savior—then faith will take over and Jesus will feed us with the finest of wheat—no one will get just crumbs anymore.

The closing of this parish is a painful event; our memories here are deep and our love of one another in community is strong. It is very good that we have these strong attachments. But now we are being asked to rely in faith only on Christ, to seek union with a new community, that at St. John Vianney Parish. This is a journey of faith, but at the end is the bread of life for which we yearn, which, in our sinfulness, we know we all need.

My brothers and sisters, today we remember and celebrate our past, but today we also pledge anew our faith in God, seeking no other task than to be one with Christ and thus with one another.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL