One Foot in Front of the Other

With September behind us, life moves forward here at Christ the Redeemer. At this time of year in ministry, I adjust my attitude with the advice of a parishioner given to me about life in the Church. In response to my moving to a new assignment, the woman told me that the laypeople were left to “put one foot in front of the other." Since that time, I’ve taken the advice not so much for laypeople, but for me as a priest about “keep on keeping on” in the words of an Afro-American hymn.

As I begin my eighteenth year in the parish, I have annually penned a few thoughts about “keeping on” and “putting one foot in front of the other." The thoughts are, of course, helpful to me, and I hope they are helpful to the parish community to be responsible and accountable for the ministry and parish life we share. One might think rather routinely about just keeping on, but there’s more to working for the Kingdom than continuance, although that’s part of the call.

Each year has brought a sense of God’s continuing revelation of his Kingdom. It may look the same and it may sound and play out the same, but there seems to be something new each year. Anthropologists speak about “kairos” and “chronos” in describing time and space. “Kairos” is the living in a broad sweep of time and the being part of an age or epoch. “Chronos,” on the other hand, is the keeping of time in the process and in the efficiency of accomplishment.

The Kingdom of God is kairetic rather than chronical. The Kingdom is revelatory of God among us and constantly invites us to new relationship with Him and consequently to each other. The Kingdom happens. There is something dynamic and mystical about the experience. As a participant, one is taken up into the mystery.

Moments Within the Kingdom

Within our call to search out the Kingdom, or better, to be searched out by the revelatory presence of God,there are “moments” of the new age which we note and into which we are drawn. Church life is one dimension of the Kingdom. Within that experience we are gathered to worship our Father in Christ. From that experience of discovery of the divine, we are called

to preach and teach and invite others to the Kingdom. The discovery leads us to action and the works of the Kingdom.

As I begin my eighteenth year, my life is shaped by the moments of the Kingdom. The three dimensions of my ministry are the same as at the beginning of my time at Christ the Redeemer. The focus of the parish is still threefold: worship, proclamation, and service. We as a community and I as your priest/pastor are engaged in these phases of Kingdom ministry.

Often people will say that it’s a long time to be in one place. The physical place is more or less geographically the same. The parish has certainly changed: enormous growth, new buildings, new friars’ residence, a bilingual and multi-ethnic make-up to our community of faith. In those eighteen years, many people have presented their children for baptism, we have confirmed young people and adults, we have celebrated marriage for others. Original, day-one parishioners have begun to move away to other places in their retirement. We have buried many people through the years. God has shown himself in the midst of it all.

Dynamic Life

Programs and committees continue, but parish life’s challenge is about the depth and intensity of experience of God with us. One seemingly does the same thing, but with greater awareness of how God operates mysteriously among us in Christ. The dynamism and energy of the Spirit allows us to bear fruit in prayer, in worship, in sharing the faith, and in serving the needs of the Kingdom among our brothers and sisters.

At the beginning of my time, in good part, parish life seemed too organizational and programmatic. Now, having shared life with other believers, there is something more which holds us together. We have named it “community." We have named it “hospitality." With great diversity and great enthusiasm, my eighteenth year begins at CTR. Thirty-three years as a priest, forty-one as a friar, Church and parish is about call and response. A changed world, a changed Church still allows for God’s fidelity to embrace us and for the Spirit to move us to new things.

CDH