Once a month, bag upon bag of groceries are brought up to the altar at Ascension Parish, my home parish, under the dome with its mural of the Ascended Christ in Glory. Those grocery bags are then taken over to the food pantry at St. Martin de Porres Parish in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago. Because of the immense generosity of Ascension parishioners, the bags usually fill up a small truck and a large van.
Ascension has regularly given to the St. Martin de Porres food pantry for as long as I can remember. After having done my part to give donations month after month, it was all in good timing to take myself over to St. Martin de Porres for a very special celebration: their Silver Anniversary, on November 3, the Feast Day of St. Martin de Porres.
He was a mixed race Spanish-African man who sought to do good works for people (and animals) in Spanish colonial Peru. He is regarded today as the Patron Saint of Social Justice and Race Relations. And that's just what this parish has sought to do on the West side of Chicago for the past 25 years. It was formed when three different parishes on the West Side were merged into one; they settled in their present worship space at the former St. Thomas Aquinas Church building. (Father Tom, in his remarks at the end of Mass, said that this church building is considered the Cathedral of Chicago's West Side.)
I saw a note in the Ascension bulletin saying that a group of Ascension parishioners were going to join the celebratory Mass at St. Martin's. I was eager to take advantage of the opportunity to be present at this parish. At dinner the evening before, I mentioned I was headed there, and Dad decided to come along, too.
So we biked (per Dad's suggestion) the approximately 3-mile distance from our house on Sunday morning for the special 10 AM Mass. Upon arriving, I saw a sign out front that made me aware of some details that I had not necessarily picked up from the bulletin, which announced their 25th Anniversary celebration Mass, and welcomed Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago. I was definitely not aware Cardinal George was coming, and it was nice to see him. This would be the fourth time I attended Mass with Cardinal George as the celebrant.
Upon walking in the church, Dad and I looked around at the beautiful artistic work throughout the sanctuary. We were greeted right away by a statue of St. Martin de Porres himself. (In some ways, this sanctuary reminded me of the Cathedral of Holy Angels in Gary, IN, with a similar architectural style, especially the arches, and the large baptismal font placed in the nave, so that the procession up the central aisle had to go around it.)
We met up with the other Ascension parishioners who had come. It was a lively scene leading up to the start of Mass, with the people in the pews, and the throng of people assembling for the procession, including the many altar servers, the celebrants, and the Knights and Ladies of Columbus, all dressed up, with plumes and everything. Everyone and everything was decked up so resplendently--even the cake served at the lunch reception had silverly flower adornments.
The music in the service was definitely upbeat, with the choristers moving back and forth in the rhythm, leading us in offering praises to our great God, with song titles like "Let's Just Praise the Lord", "Hallelujah You're Worthy", and "Every Praise is to our God".
Cardinal George gave the homily, and the one big idea in it that really stuck out to me was about encounters. The Cardinal referred back to last week's Gospel, describing two kinds of encounters. There was the Pharisee, who made much of himself as he prayed before God, but there was not much else to it. Then there was the tax collector, who pleaded for mercy, and it was in that encounter with God that he received it.
In the Gospel reading this weekend, Zacchaeus, chief tax collector, sought to encounter Jesus. In the encounter, Jesus extended mercy to Zacchaeus, and it became new life in him. It was in this new life that Zacchaeus pledged to give of his possessions, as a sign of his commitment to being part of this new community to which Jesus had welcomed him, to which He welcomes all of us. We all walk in the ways of God, building up the Kingdom of God and the Body of Christ here and now on Earth, because we first had an encounter with Jesus, who extended mercy to us, which brought us into new Life. And though the Church extends to many people, nations, and expressions of worship, what unites us is this faith in Christ, by whom God transforms us so gloriously.
So above all the wonderful pageantry and worship expressions at Mass, it was the idea of joining with these people of the same faith that made this Mass a special occasion indeed. Furthermore, in this shared faith, this parish has been engaged in the work of making a positive impact in its local community, just as Ascension parishioners have been in giving to the food pantry to help in making a positive impact. We do this work because God first came to us in Christ, loved us, bestowed mercy on us when we pleaded with him, and gave us new Life.
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