LEADERSHIP IN THE CHURCH

August 29, 1999

Dear Parishioners,

Leadership in the Church comes from all directions and with many gifts: bishops and parents, teachers and pastors, women in ministry and prophetic figures in the market place. When it comes to episcopal leadership, outstanding Church leaders are a precious and surprisingly rare commodity. Two such figures whom we have lost and whom I have personally mourned in recent years have been Bishop Michael Kenny of Juneau (d. 1995) and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago (d. 1996). This summer, death came to another truly outstanding religious leader, Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, England. Not many weeks before his death he announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer by writing to his clergy and people with typical serenity and cheerfulness, "It is not in its early stages. Above all, no fuss." In a predominantly Anglican culture he cut through the veils of cultural and religious prejudice to present the Catholic faith as more credible and attractive than it had been viewed in a long time. As one national obituary put it, "He was always listened to, rarely wrong." On two occasions the U.S. Bishops invited him to spend a week with them as principal speaker and retreat master. At the end of the first visit he left our bishops with the advice to do their job and to stop constantly looking over their shoulders at the Vatican! His second address to them came this June via a BBC produced video which they viewed the day after his death. He urged them to a collaborative style of leadership that echoed Cardinal Bernardin's call for "common ground." "I am constantly being urged to suppress this group or that, drive out of the Church this lot or that. I do not believe this is right. I believe that as a bishop I have to try to lead people from where they are to where they've never dreamt they might go." More of Cardinal Hume's words are in today's fold-out. Pray for the repose of his soul; give thanks for his leadership; pray for more high quality leaders in the Church at every level.

Your Pastor,

Brian T. Joyce

THERE is a gentle breeze if we can but catch it, which blows all the time to help us on our journey through life to our final destination. That breeze is the Holy Spirit. But the wind cannot be caught or used unless the sail is hoisted, and the hoisting is our task. We must be on the watch, ready to recognize it and play our part. God does hold us, and will lead us, if we want it; but we must want it.

ALWAYS think of God as your lover. Therefore he wants to be with you, just as a lover always wants to be with the beloved. He wants your attention, as every lover wants the attention of the beloved. He wants to listen to you, as every lover wants to hear the voice of the beloved. If you turn to me and ask, "Are you in love with God?" I would pause, hesitate and say, "I am not certain. But of one thing I am certain -- that he is in love with me".

I REMEMBER something I was told when I was a very small boy . . . In the larder there was a stack of apples. A small boy wanted an apple. He had been told by some grown-up that he must not take things from the larder without permission . . . Why not take one? Nobody would know. It just seemed common sense. Nobody would see him. Was that true? Nobody? One person would. That was God. He sees everything you do, and then punishes you for the wrongdoing, so I was told.

It took me many, many years to recover from that story. Deep in my subconscious was the idea of God as somebody who was always watching us just to see if we were doing anything wrong. He was an authority figure, like a teacher or a policeman or even a bishop.

Now, many year later, I have an idea that God would have said to the small boy, "Take two" . . .

WHAT happens at the end? Quite simply, we shall see God as he is in himself. That will be a moment of ecstasy, the perfect union of our limitless capacity to love with that which is most lovable. The sight of that which is most beautiful will call forth from us a song of endless joy, a song born of wonder and admiration. We shall have achieved that perfection for which we were made: to love God, and all persons in him, and to praise him in his glory for all time.

I NOW have no fear of death. I look forward to this friend leading me to a world where my parents, my brother and other relatives are, and my friends.

I shall see those who fashioned me in my life. I look forward to that.