January 24, 2022
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre prepared this homily for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle on January 23, 2022, at St. Austin Parish in Austin, TX. The homily is based on a combination of readings for the feast and for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C: Acts 22:3-16; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; and Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21.
Wow! There’s so much to celebrate today! For the past three years, Pope Francis has designated the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time as a day to focus on the Word of God. It feels especially appropriate to do as we hear the four introductory verses of Luke’s gospel before jumping to his account of Jesus beginning his public ministry in Nazareth by reading from the scroll of Isaiah.
This Sunday is closest to the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, so we celebrate that today, too. We have chosen our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, when Paul is arrested in Jerusalem. He is being taken up the steps into “the compound” by Roman soldiers, when he asks to speak to the Jewish crowd. The place where Paul speaks is likely the very spot where Jesus was standing 30 years before when he was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate.
Our second reading is Paul’s analogy of the Church as a living, breathing body. It is a great analogy for us to use today, as we Paulists make our annual appeal, asking for your financial support to address our ongoing expenses for such things as the care of our senior brothers and the education of our seminarians.
As we once again hear God’s message of mercy, may we trust that, as it was 2000 years ago for the people in Nazareth, the message will be fulfilled in our hearing!
In St. Paul’s time, people were familiar with the metaphor of many parts making up one body. Menenius Agrippa had written a fable about the hands, the mouth, and the teeth of a body deciding to go on strike to stop procuring food for the belly. Of course, as the belly starves, the hands, the mouth, and the teeth suffer. The moral was a classic principle of Stoic philosophy: accept the hand that is dealt to you. Some people are superior to others. Shut up and do your job. Paul takes this analogy and turns it upside down. All the parts of the body are important, says Paul. All of us are interdependent on one another.
Recent circumstances have made us more aware of our interdependence. Right now, we’re engaged in this synodal process, becoming more aware of the gifts we have to enrich each other. The pandemic and the diocesan priests now serving at the University Catholic Center have prompted a lot of us to ask what is the “special sauce” that makes a Paulist parish different. And less than two months ago, the Paulists themselves concluded that we need to find new ways to express our charism. (Charism is the fancy Church word for “special sauce.”)
What is the Paulist charism, or charisms? For decades, we’ve expressed it as evangelization, reconciliation, ecumenism, and interreligious dialogue. That’s at the heart of what we do, but those aren’t the first words people use to describe the gifts we Paulists offer to the rest of the Body of Christ. Nationally, people speak about our communications and young adult ministries. Locally, people cite relevant preaching and the sense of welcome.
Some Paulists are questioning if our public communications need to highlight our discipleship in Jesus Christ and our devotion to the Holy Spirit. Maybe it’s my contrary nature, or maybe it’s because of my engineering background, but I’d like to express it more pragmatically. To me, Paulists are fully dedicated to the entirety of Catholic teaching even while welcoming those who question it. The Paulist confidence in the Catholic tradition is robust enough that we can bring legitimate concerns out into the open without becoming overly rigid or defensive. I cannot tell you how many good and holy people seek counsel from the Paulists after being rejected by their local parishes for asking questions. After we talk with them and assure them that they have done nothing to place themselves outside the Catholic communion, they report that we have renewed their faith in God and in the Church! We have restored honor and dignity to a part of Christ’s body that has previously felt rejected or neglected.
That is a gift we Paulists offer to the wider Church. But this weekend, we celebrate our interdependence with all of you.
This weekend, all around the country, is the Annual Paulist Appeal. Please consider supporting us not just here at the local level, but at the national level. If any part of the Paulist network suffers, the people of St. Austin suffer, too. If any part of the family thrives, we all share in its joy.
What can you do to support the Paulist Fathers? Let’s break the possibilities into two categories: those actions that everyone can take, and those that only a subset of people can take. The number one thing that everyone can do is to pray for us and with us. It makes more of a difference than any of us will fully appreciate in this lifetime! Secondly, everyone can learn more about the Paulist charisms and how to implement them into your every day. Third of all, we invite you to join the Paulist Associates, a network of women and men around the world who devote themselves to the Paulist charisms. Here is Austin, you can ask Fr. Paolo how to get involved.
There are three subsets of people who can support the entire Paulist body in very specific ways. And these aren’t meant to sound exclusive, but they’re going to sound that way. The first group, who can make the biggest difference of all, are you single men between the ages of 18 and 40: become a Paulist Father! It’s a wonderful life! (I’m sorry for my friend Kim, who really wants to be a Paulist. We don’t write the rules on how the Church ordains priests. I’m sorry.) The second group are those of you who know single men who can join us. Encourage your sons, brothers, friends, and colleagues. They won’t regret it, and neither will you! The third group are all of you with disposable income. This weekend, please prayerfully consider giving generously to our annual second collection for the Paulists’ ongoing needs. About half of the Paulists are in ministries that bring in income; we have to raise the funds to support the other half. First, we have our wonderfully talented students. We invest $50,000 per person per year for the education and formation of them. Second, we cover the healthcare costs of our retired brothers. (Imagine the monthly bill for a family in which dozens of the people are over 70 years old!) Lastly, we subsidize the expenses of the brothers whose ministries do not generate a steady income (including our ministries for vocations, artists, evangelization, reconciliation, ecumenism, and young adult ministry).
Please give as generously as you can, but please be aware that we will be coming to you this spring with a much bigger ask. In the past two years, most other Paulist foundations have engaged in a comprehensive capital campaign to build our new seminary building, repair our home for senior Paulists, and shore up our retirement fund. We’ve postponed that campaign at St. Austin to combine it with a local campaign connected to our own property development. So, today, please be as generous as you possibly can, but also consider what you can give to our much larger upcoming campaign.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your continued generosity. It is truly humbling that you willingly sustain this community to which I’ve given my life! The Spirit of the Lord is upon us all, because the Spirit has anointed us all. May the Scripture passages be fulfilled in our hearing them today. Amen!