Homily for 15th Anniversary April 12/13, 2008
St. Monica-St. George Parish Newman Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” That perhaps is as clear of a message, a simple and succinct statement of what the Church is commissioned to be and do. Jesus wants us to have life abundant.

This weekend we begin celebrating a year of anniversary, the 15th anniversary of the merger of the Churches of St. George, dating back to 1868, and St. Monica, founded in 1911. An anniversary, whether 25 years of marriage celebrated last year by the Huffman’s and the Metz or Fr. Tom’s 50 years of priesthood or Jim and Betty Schmid’s 50 years of marriage this summer, an anniversary is a time to look back to where it all began, even though it is most important to celebrate who we are now.

So to begin, we look back to where we came from. I would ask those who were originally members of St. George Church to please stand. And those who are original to St. Monica. To get a sense of the flow of life here, how many have been members here for 10-15 years, including those original members? How many have been here about 5-9 years? (I know you have to do some estimating quickly.) How many have been here more than 1,2, less than 5 years? For how many of you is this your first year, or first weeks or months?

We are a forever young, growing, mobile group of disciples, looking for some of that abundance of life.

We have born in a lot of places: I count members from 10 countries of Europe, 7 nations in Africa, 9 countries of Asia, 7 countries in South and Central America. We are from Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and places in the Caribbean, besides of course, the United States. At least 38 nations of the world are listed on our parish roster. The internationality of our community is a great gift to our sense of what it means to be catholic and enriches that sense of abundance.

Only about 50% of our membership lives in this Clifton, Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview neighborhoods and that includes a vast number so many of our UC students. About 4% of our members live in 13 different zip codes in Northern Kentucky. 7% live in Ohio but not in the Cincinnati zip codes, ranging from Harrison to Hamilton, West Chester and Mason. You’ll find our parishioners in Goshen, Batavia, New Richmond, Loveland and Milford. Besides the 50 percent of our membership in the neighborhoods around our church, the other 39% of parishioners live in 40 different zip codes in Cincinnati from downtown to the West side, East side, North and every village and township there is. There are a total of 98 zip codes on our parish roster, including parishioners in Indiana.

Abundance!

There are so many reasons why people from around the world and 98 zip codes make their way to this church. One way of expressing that is to repeat the theme of our year:
We are who we are and we do what we do, BECAUSE WE LOVE GOD. We’ll sing the words of that song today and at intervals throughout the year. And yet the more I think about it, it is not so much that we love God as it is that God loves us. We are who we are and we do what we do because God loves us!

And who are we? We are lot of young, amazing college age people—committed, searching, wondering—in various phases of faith life. We are a predominantly single people, the majority of us between the ages of 18 and 39. Yet we are increasingly a parish with young families and children. We are the marginal in the church, wrestling with church issues and teachings, striving to be faithful and Catholic and conscientious. And some of us are even a little old or moving in that direction! We are a beautiful flock trying to listen to the voice of Jesus, the shepherd.

And what do we do? Wow. For years we have made our common prayer, our Liturgy a great priority. We have exalted in hospitality, a sense that all are welcome. We try to be of service. We are concerned about the Earth, about Justice and Peace. We affirm the dignity and value of each and every life. In recent years we have reached out to those who are without a home—this very week we participate in IHN. We have begun tithing our wealth, sharing it with others and we have entered into that Twinning relationship with sisters and brothers in Jamaica. We engage with one another in the study of our faith and our spirituality. We come together for meals, retreats, dinners, service projects, for meals, for fun. (Did I mention meals?) We minister to the sick. We celebrate an increasing number of weddings and baptisms—Jesus said he came so that we may have life and have it abundantly!

So this weekend we take this time of Eucharist to listen again to the voice of God through the good shepherd calling us by name. We give thanks for this community of faith rooted in the church of St. George, 140 years old, and the church of St. Monica, almost 100 years old. We celebrate the 15 years of being a new and vibrant community. Obviously at 15 we are far from finished, still and forever growing in the Lord. Like that young church described in the Acts of the Apostles, today’s first reading, God is continually adding to our number as people accept Peter’s proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus, entering through the RCIA each year and so many others hearing about our community and coming from near and far.

It is God who loves us. This is such a fundamental, Catholic, Franciscan starting point. God’s love is the Absolute Truth.

And so we are who we are,
We do what we do,
BECAUSE WE LOVE GOD

Fr. Al Hirt, OFM