St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

3rd Sunday of Advent December 16, 2018

A Wildman named John came from the desert.

He preached like a prophet, calling people to repentance before God’s judgment fell upon them.

“What then shall we do?” is repeated by the crowd, by tax collectors, and by Jewish men who served Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee.

 

“What shall we do?” indicates their eagerness for salvation.

John’s response is unusual.

He doesn’t tell them to make sacrifices in the temple, or to fast or wear sackcloth and ashes.

He doesn’t tell them to flee to the desert and eat locusts and honey.

Instead, John preaches caring for one’s neighbor.  

Sharing essentials like food and clothing with the poor.

In the 25^thchapter of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus will echo this teaching.

There he foretells his return in judgment when he will say to those who gave shelter to the homeless, fed the hungry and clothed the naked, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world… for whatever you did for one of these least brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me.”

St. John the Baptist tells both the tax collectors and soldiers to not be greedy and to not use their power to extort their neighbors.

 

St. John preaches the coming judgment together with the necessity of genuine faith to be expressed through the way we live.

And all three ways of reforming have to do with possessions and money.

St. Luke intends the Baptist’s recommendations to be for us, as well.   

 

The desire for money is powerful, since it can give us a certain measure of security, a nice home and car, a good education for our kids and more.

Many of you and your families came to this country in search of the better life that good wages and less corruption can offer.

But do you hear St. Paul’s exhortation in our second reading?

“Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.”

Has money reduced your anxiety?

Do you confidently place your concerns in God’s hands in prayer, trusting that He is near?

Are you thankful for all our Father in heaven has given you, his child?

 

I wonder.  You may have noticed in the bulletin that every week our collection is less than what is needed for running the parish.

We get some additional money through donations for weddings, funerals, baptisms, car and house blessings, and visits to the hospital.

Yes, when you give a Dominican a $20 bill for blessing your car and say, “this is for you, Father”, it goes to the parish, not the friar.

It’s part of our parish work.

But we have had a deficit every year I’ve been here.

So let me share some of our financial realities with you.

The top 100 donors provide 40% of the collection.

That means roughly 3000 families and individuals provide, on average, about $3.40 a week to the collection.

That won’t buy a grande café latte at Starbucks or halo halo at Jollibee.

Typically, we deposit around 1,800 $1 bills each Monday, which is over 10% of our collection.

It seems many of you are making a presidential decision when the collection basket appears.

“Do I say good-bye to Mr. Jefferson, Lincoln, or Mr. Washington.” Bye, George!

If giving isn’t planned, it isn’t important.  

I contribute online automatically each month.

 

The collection is one way we express our gratitude for God for redeeming us and forgiving our sins.

And the price of redemption was the life of Jesus.

The collection also is a way we acknowledge that everythingwe have – even life – is fromGod and belongs to God.

The command to tithe in the Old Testament meant giving the first10% of one’s income or crops to God to acknowledge that it was His.

Did you know our parish tithes to the Archdiocese?

We send the Archdiocese 10% of our collection - almost $100,000 every year!  

That means almost every George in our collection goes directly to the Archdiocese.

Last year we also paid $116,000 for insurance, $83,000 for utilities, and $159,000 for other operating expenses.

Our biggest expenditure is for salaries and benefits, and the state mandated increase in minimum wage has affected us.

I eliminated one staff position and another staff member resigned.

Neither will be replaced to reduce costs.

And still our weekly contributions fall short of our expenses.

 

You may know that seven Dominican priests live in the priory.

“Only” 3 are on the staff and paid by the parish.  We’re priest rich!

The retired priests, Fr. Denis, Fr. Cassian, and Fr. Donald, give talks, help with confessions, offer counseling, say Mass, and preach as volunteers.

They serve you out of their generosity.

The four priests who are not on staff pay room and board to the parish.  

The Dominican community receives a subsidy from our Province to support them, or else they could not live here.

 

Our capital campaign hovers at 82% of our goal.

If you’re wondering why we aren’t doing any work on the building, it is because we cannot until we have 60% of our goal in cash, which comes to $1.1 million of our $1.855 million goal.

Then we can apply for a “bridge loan” so we can pay for the construction until the rest of our pledges are collected.

But so far, only one third of the parish has made a gift or pledge, and of the $1.5 million pledged, we’ve collected about $540,000.

 

We need the community center to be a focal point for evangelization – which is the mission of the church and each one of us.

Evangelization is helping people meet Jesus, who transforms lives.

I hear you lament that your children, siblings and friends are no longer part of the Church.

I hear you worry there are so few families and youth in our parish. 

I hear people wonder why Christian Assembly keeps growing.

We don’t have to keep lamenting and wondering; we can dosomething.

I worked for seven years training people to bring others to Jesus.

I want the community center to be a training ground for evangelization and a place where the unchurched can come for movies, Alpha Courses, and other events that introduce them to Jesus and His Church.

 

We have a wonderful parish because you’re wonderful.

We can be amazing, and we can make a real difference in the lives of people who don’t know Jesus.

We can make a difference in the lives of our youth and children, and their families – your families.

I hope we all ask God, “What should I do?” because that means we’re interested in salvation – for ourselves and for others.