St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church

Steeped in a rich and vibrant history of service and growth, St. Francis of Assisi has been serving the needs of Catholics for almost 125 years and welcomes young and old from all walks of life into our faith and social community. St. Francis prides itself on being a family-friendly church. We believe that all members of our church community are important to the celebration of the Eucharist.

We invite you to learn more about the parish by exploring this website. Please visit the “Our Parish” section to learn more about the church and its rich traditions. You can also learn how to exercise your stewardship of time and talent in one of the wonderful parish ministries by visiting the “Parish Ministries” section. Some of the many ways that you can become involved include: being an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion or Lector, singing in our choir, serving the needy through the Ministry to the Poor, or by joining our Senior Associates group. For the youngest members of our parish family, opportunities to get involved include serving Mass as altar servers and Children's Ministry, a group which coordinates a variety of activities including weekly Children’s Liturgy of the Word, Christmas Nativity Program, and May Crowning.

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Reverend Michael J. Schneller
Pastor

Uptown Canticle by Father Michael
December 5, 2021

The famous and well-known Trappist monk Thomas Merton once wrote about being invited to contribute to a book on how to become success. Humorously - yet quite seriously – Merton recalled the incident: "I replied indignantly that I was not able to consider myself a success in any terms that had a meaning to me. I swore I had spent my life strenuously avoiding success… If I had a message to my contemporaries, I said, it was surely this: Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards (rascals) of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success."
 
Merton certainly did have success in terms of fame and influence in certain circles at least. But Merton’s point was that worldly success, success equated with celebrity, success that can be measured in terms of wealth or power, fame or influence, was ultimately of no lasting significance. The only success worth having in Merton's terms is to become the person God created you to be and to do the work God created you to do. And there's no guarantee that living this sort of life will coincide with what society considers successful - quite the contrary.
 
Much the same message is found in the opening verses from Luke's Gospel for this Second Sunday of Advent. Luke is the most historically minded of the four evangelists. This list of various political and religious officials of the day, the opening words of the main body of the Gospel, function simply as a way of setting the Jesus story in the context of contemporary events.
 
But these figures do something even more important. They point out that while the movers and shakers, the "successful" leaders of their time, are ruling in Rome and Judea and Galilee and Trachonitis (wherever that may be), the word of God comes not to any of them in their palaces, but to John son of Zechariah in the desert. The Word comes to an insignificant "nobody" living in a place so obscure it doesn't even have a name.
 
Of course, God can speak wherever and to whomever he wishes. But his typical selection of the poor and lowly suggests at least a couple of important points: that people who are not likely to be full of their own importance and preoccupied with the busyness around them are able to be more attentive to the divine word, and that those who listen to such messengers will be less inclined to focus on the messenger instead of on the message.
 
What exactly does all this have to do with Advent? As we anticipate celebration the historical birth of Jesus, his story is not a paradigm for success. The birth of Jesus is a model of self-emptying, servanthood. The Word of God becomes flesh not among the influential and powerful but as a member of the poor and despised common people. His parents cannot even secure a decent room as a place for his birth. His birth is revealed only to "certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay," working people who themselves spend their nights in the open air without shelter. Thus, the story of John in the desert not only looks forward to Jesus' own journey into the wilderness, but back to his human origins. It is a reminder to seek the Christ above all in unexpected places, far from the glare of publicity. It is a reminder that from beginning to end, Jesus' life is not a success according to the usual criteria of success, that in fact it challenges the very basis of such criteria.
 
Another reason for hearing this gospel as we look forward to Christmas is that the word that comes to John is a word addressed to ourselves as well. St. Paul expresses the hope that the Philippians will “learn to value the things that really matter.” Although John the Baptist didn’t use that phrase, “to value the things that really matter,” he was essentially telling people the same thing proclaiming a baptism of repentance that led to the forgiveness of sins.
 
The prophet Baruch proclaims that one of those virtues we are to value is that of justice. Justice is not one of God’s ways, it is all of God’s ways. No one expects to receive a reward for breathing – and justice is as necessary as breathing. All of us are strangers in a world that is becoming exceedingly un-Christian, unjust and lacking in mercy. Justice should be a lens through which we see all of reality, for justice means fidelity to all of our relationships.
 
Advent is precisely the time when we are to "prepare the way of the Lord." This is what really matters – getting our life straightened out. It is a time for examining what obstacles, what mountains, have we placed in the way of Our Lord's entering our lives with his summons to follow him? What are the rough ways beneath the surface of our lives that make it more difficult for us to recognize his advent, his imminent arrival? Have our paths have turned toward a goal of success, of power or prestige or comfort or social acceptability, which may be incompatible with the gospel. What are the things that really matter to you?
 
Mother Teresa and so many of the Lord's friends have repeatedly said that we are not called to be successful but to be faithful. For the past five years my Administrative Assistant, Teresa Miller, has been one of those faithful people. She has served our parish way beyond the expectations of her position description. She has fulfilled her responsibilities beyond what she is really worth in terms of monetary remuneration. The Advent of her last days here at St. Francis of Assisi will arrive in early January 2022. Because Teresa assumed many of the tasks of our former Facilities Manager after his resignation, I am also searching for a part-time facilities manager. I have begun the search for her successor and a new facilities manager. You can read the advertisement in this bulletin, if you know someone who might be interested in not being a success in the eyes of this world, but wants to serve the parishioners of St. Francis of Assisi Parish.