make no small plans

+ Hail Mary…

I was reminded recently of something a priest mentor of mine used to say. He died a few years ago - God rest him. He was an architect before becoming a priest, and he liked to quote another accomplished architect from Chicago. He would say, “Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood.”

It was a kick in the pants for me when I was reminded of that, and I hope it will serve as a reminder to you that the Lord has no small plans for you. He has no small plans for your life, no small plans for your family, no small plans for this parish, no small plans for this city. 

He has great plans! And how neglectful of us and sad when we dream too small, when we set our sights too low, when we lack vision or lack courage, when we make small plans and so place limits on what we allow God to do with us. The Lord has great plans for us! 

But, of course, in order for those plans to come to fruition, we need to cooperate with the work the Lord is doing in us and the work he wants to do through us. This then becomes a great examination for us of how authentically we are living the Christian life, both as individuals and as a parish community. How is God drawing me closer to himself, and how is God putting me to work? 

God is always calling man to himself, and God is always sending man out. This has been his modus operandi, his M.O. since the beginning of time. Study the lives of the prophets, study the lives of the saints, and you will see the Lord doing this over and over again. The Lord calls us close to him and he sends us out. 
And so it is a great examination for us to do regularly:
How is God calling me to grow closer to him… and how am I responding?
How is God sending me out, calling me to serve, setting me on mission… and how am I responding?

The particularities of those things will, of course, differ somewhat for each of us as individuals, and so we need to discern that, which requires prayer, attention, listening, even imagination and dreaming. And again, don’t think too small, don’t hamper the work of the Holy Spirit by setting your sights too low. God is God, and he can do big things in the hearts and lives of those who give themselves to him; he means to do big things in you and through you. 

We, likewise, can and should make this same examination and do this same discernment as a parish. What does the Lord want to do within us? And what does the Lord want to do through us?

In regards to God’s calling us toward himself as a parish, the Lord wants nothing less than that we all become saints, rendered perfect in Christ, made holy as he is holy, living and loving here on earth as the angels and saints do in heaven. And so we need to gear our parish efforts and activities towards that. Producing saints must be a programmatic goal for our parish. 

In regards to the Lord working through the parish, our mission is, no doubt, the salvation of each and every soul in Coffee and Geneva counties, which comprise our parish. Fostering new disciples of Christ and demonstrating the love and goodness of God to all must be a programmatic goal for our parish. 

We must be attentive to both of these things. If we focus exclusively on the work of the Lord within us, we can easily become a church caught up with itself that forgets that the Church is essentially missionary in nature. If we focus solely on the work of the Lord through us, we can easily fall into a sort of lived liberation theology focusing almost entirely on social justice initiatives and the concerns of this world to the neglect of the spiritual and eternal. We must be discerning and give attention to both of these ways in which the Lord wants to work and do big things. 

And we’ve got plenty of work to do on both fronts.
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not all saints yet. Not all yet rendered perfect in Jesus Christ. 
In case you haven’t noticed, not everyone in Enterprise/Geneva belongs to God yet, not every soldier at Ft. Novosel is a disciple of Christ, not every student at Enterprise/Geneva High School has given their heart and life to him. Not every person and family knows the peace that God alone gives, the mercy he desires to bestow, the strength and power and fullness of life we can have in him who has risen from the dead. 

Making these things happen is first and foremost the work of God, but, again, one in which we must cooperate, clergy and laity alike. God can speak, but if we don’t listen, we won’t hear him. The Lord can offer his grace in abundance, but if we don’t receive it then we will not be transformed and renewed by it. 
I can sit in the confessional for hours, but if you don’t come, you will not receive the pardon and peace offered there. We can have Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every day, but you must decide to come and place yourself in his presence, and so be purified and sanctified and made strong by his grace. 
Similarly, I may not ever have a chance to talk to your friend who you sits next to in home room or the soldier you work out with or your coworker in the next office over.

If we focus on these things both individually and as a parish, though, which is to say: if we allow God to move in us and to move us, if we listen to him and then speak, if we receive from him and then give to others, if we draw close to God and then strive to lead others to him, the reign of God will grow and be made manifest in our hearts and in the world in which we live. His plans for us and for all, his great plans, will take root and bear their fruit for our salvation and sanctification, and for the salvation and sanctification of all the world. 

The Catholic Church made Christianity the largest religion in the world; it is and historically has been the largest charitable organization in the world. The Church gave the foundation and framework for the modern university system and the modern hospital system; the Church made countless important scientific discoveries and produced the scientific method itself. The Catholic Church built western civilization as we know it, not by thinking small but by discerning the will of God and responding to his plans. The Gospel was not carried to the ends of the earth by cowards and small thinkers but by men and women willing to have their heads cut off for Christ’s sake, willing to give their lives to the Lord and follow him with courage. The Lord has worked in and through the Church powerfully and desires to continue to work in and through the Church powerfully. 

As a parish, we are here to strengthen each other, and support each other, and, as iron sharpens iron, to help each other to become and live as the men and women God has made us and called us to be: a community of believers, a band of brothers, a fraternity and sorority of disciples, drawn together to unity, to oneness in Christ as his church, and sent out as a team of evangelists to evangelize the world.

Now, with these goals, these great plans of God, laid out before us, we still need to discern how best to accomplish these goals. I’ve spoken several times before about my Pastoral Plan for the parish. That has been the fruit of my prayer and discernment as pastor about the particular ways God wants to work in us and through us in order to bring about these good things, these supremely good things, he desires for us. 

It is clear to me that we’ve made a lot of really good progress on the aspects of that plan that I’ve laid out before: 
strengthening our foundations such that we know our faith and are able to share it effectively, 
building a Catholic culture that helps to sustain us in faithful discipleship, 
celebrating in a worthy manner the sacred mysteries of true worship, 
allowing the sacramental life of the Church to have it’s proper place in our lives, 
placing the Eucharistic at the center of all that we do so that it may truly be the source and summit of our Christian life and activity,
focusing on things that matter and knowing why we do what we do,
becoming a people of communion, communion with God and with one another,
and learning how to lead others to that share in that same communion. 

I’ve seen a beautiful and amazing transformation and renewal taking place in our parish. I hope you have seen it too - a great revitalization, authentic growth, a more fully lived Christian life, a response to God’s call to communion, and greater focus on fostering and nourishing discipleship of Jesus Christ. 

Now it’s time to really lean in to what God is doing here. We can’t grow slack or slide back or fall into the trap of being comfortable with mediocrity. We want to continue working toward our vision of being a parish that programmatically forms us into saints and calls others to join in our Christian life and mission. 

So, to that end, over the next several months, we will be relaunching our discipleship groups - and, again, I encourage everyone to join one, we’ll be advertising the many different opportunities for prayer and faith formation and growing in our relationship with the Lord that we have here as well as the many different ministries and service and outreach opportunities we have. 

In addition to the opportunities for adoration we already have, we’ll begin having a daily holy hour of adoration before each of the masses, like we did this past Advent, except we will do so year round. I spoke about the importance of a daily holy hour in my homily last week. Again, the Eucharist is and must be the source and summit of our Christian life. There we find strength and inspiration for all the good that we do, there we are all drawn to find in our Eucharistic Lord the fulfillment of our hearts’ desire. 

We will also continue to introduce and establish the Liturgy of the Hours, which is the official prayer of the Church, as a practice of common prayer for us as a parish. We introduced that also this past Advent but will likewise make that something we do year round. 

There will be a number of other initiatives and projects that we’ll start or "beef up" to likewise help us keep our momentum in allowing the Lord to move and work powerfully here. I’ll speak more about these things in the coming months, as we continue to strive as a parish to order our parish activity so to form us into saints and win new disciples for Christ. That we may become a beacon of light that offers hope to the lost, a resounding bell that summons the wandering in the Wiregrass to come and find refuge in the Lord, a communion that calls to communion, a pilgrim people that beckons others to travel with us and so arrive safely at the blessed destination of eternal life with God.

Again, I encourage us all to discern how the Lord wants to work in us and how he wants to work through us. He has great plans for us! So let us, too, make no small plans.

Glory be… +