I Live Here

Seeing the church as our primary residence

10/26/2021

Lk 13:18-21 Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” Again he said, To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

When family or friends come to visit me here at Immaculate Conception, they inevitably ask, “Where do you live?” And I smile and say, “I live in the white house!” Then I point out the two-story white residence across Rogers Avenue from the church. People are always curious to know what the priest’s house, which Roman Catholics call a “rectory” and Protestants a “parsonage,” looks like. But I rarely take people inside because of how super-sensitive (perhaps paranoid?) we have become in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal. So, the rectory remains a mystery to most curious Catholics.

In fact, after Sunday Mass one morning, an inquisitive child looked toward the sacristy (the room where the priests prepare for Mass), and asked, “Do you have a bed in there?” In that little lad’s mind the priest must magically appear from that room and just as mysteriously disappear back into it, so he must have a bed in there to sleep. He wasn’t far from the truth. I do consider the church more my home than the rectory. Why?

Well because what we do here in church – celebrate the Mass and other sacraments (like baptisms, weddings and funerals), read and reflect on the Sunday Scriptures, pray for each other, and praise our Heavenly Father together – all that will last a lot longer than what I do in the white house, the rectory. In other words, this church is my real home, and the rectory is just where I sleep, shower and shave. To the question, “Where do you live?” my answer would be, “I live here.”

In the gospel today, Jesus presents a couple of his kingdom parables. In a sense, the kingdom parables are Jesus’ own answer to the question, “Where do you live?” Notice in these two parables in Luke 13, Jesus wants to highlight that the kingdom is both huge but also hidden. Like a small mustard seed that grows to be a home for all the birds of the sky, the kingdom is huge. But also like a little leaven that quietly raises the whole batch of dough, the kingdom is hidden.

Those two qualities of the Kingdom of God are also characteristics of the Church. The Catholic Church spreads her branches to the four corners of the earth for every bird to find a home, and she also grows quietly like the leaven of faith in the hearts of believers, like the people going through RCIA every year. To the question, “Where do you live?” Jesus would point to the Church – the people of God united in Word and sacrament – and say, “I live here.” But Jesus would also add, “And you should live here, too.” In other words, make the Kingdom of God  your primary residence.

My friends, we all love our own homes and try to make each one a little heaven on earth. I love to visit people in their homes and bless their homes so they will experience both peace and prosperity there. But do you know what will eventually happened to that home? You will leave it in someone else’s hands. When I arrived here in 2013, I visited Eddie and Betty Christian in their home on Park Avenue.

Since then I celebrated both their funerals and today, Bill and Karen Hollenbeck live in that house. And one day, they too will leave that house on Park Avenue in someone else’s hands. In a spiritual sense, that home on Park is where the Hollenbecks sleep, shower and shave. But it is here, inside these four walls of the church, where they experience real living, with Word and sacrament, prayer and praise, love and laughter.

I always ask young couples preparing for marriage, “Where is your spiritual home?” That is, where do you go to church? Sometimes, that is a hard question for them to answer because they may not go regularly to Mass anywhere. But over the years, and perhaps after shedding many tears, they, too, will learn where they merely sleep, shower and shave, and where they, too, might answer, “I live here.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!