Hi everyone! I want to take a brief break from our look at the Mass to talk about vision. Over the last 2 weeks, we have heard in our gospel of an encounter between Jesus & His disciples. This encounter has centered around the question posed last weekend, “Who do you say that I am?” Last week, Jesus posed the question & this week we see what it really means to say that Jesus is Christ & Lord, it means taking up our cross & following Him.

  But this is not just a question that Jesus posed to THEM, it’s a question that Jesus poses to you & I today, both as individuals & as a parish family. Who do you say that Jesus is? And, if we flip it around, we could also reflect on who Jesus says that we are? Both questions have a deep impact on our life of faith as a parish. These questions are questions that aren’t just asked at one moment in time of one group of people, they’re asked constantly & at this point in our parish history, they’re being asked to & of you & me. Over the course of history there have been many different ways that that question has been answered. Many of us likely remember when perhaps our Mass schedule was a bit more robust, or there were a number of different activities going on at various times of the day, or when the campus was bustling with children going to school. All those have been important parts of our parish history & they were able to happen because of those who, at that time, had a great vision for who we could be with & in Christ.

  I believe that we stand here today with that question now being posed to you & I, & we are being called to take where we’ve been, look at where we are now, & embrace & envision our future. We may not be able to return completely to where we were years ago, but we can’t sit back & do nothing either. We may not be able to be a parish like we were 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. I believe we are being called to look at & embrace a new way of being parish. That will involve some changes, changes to how & where we do things, changes to who does certain things, changes to our expectations, & perhaps others. What exactly that looks like is not for me to determine on my own. I’ve been praying with & about that question & some of the new vision that we might be being called to embrace. As we enter into this new parish year, I have some thoughts that I plan to share with our Parish Pastoral Council as we begin our meetings & then, also, in various ways, with all of you.

  Who is Jesus calling us to be? May I, may you, may we not be afraid to ask the question & then truly listen with open ears for the answer.