“And how much grass would you say they eat each day?” asked the man.  “Which ones, the white or the black?” responded the shepherd.  “The white ones,” said the man.  “Well, the white ones eat about four pounds of grass each day”, the shepherd replied. “And the black ones?” asked the man. “The black ones also,” replied the shepherd. “And how much wool would you say they give each year?” asked the man.  “Which ones, the white or the black?” the shepherd questioned.  “The white ones,” replied the man. “Well, I’d say the white ones give some six pounds of wool each year at shearing time,” the shepherd responded. “And the black ones?” questioned the man.  “The black ones also,” replied the shepherd.

The passer-by was intrigued. “May I ask you why you have this strange habit of dividing your sheep into white and black each time you answer one of my questions?” asked the passer-by.  “Well,” said the shepherd, “that’s only natural. The white ones are mine, you see.” “Ah!” said the man, “And the black ones?” “The black ones also,” said the shepherd.

What’s the point of this story?   The point is, the human mind makes foolish divisions in what Love sees as One.

Jesus says in the gospel we just heard,

“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.  These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

The power and truth of these words are definitely not lost on me.  On Friday, I had a meeting with the Bishop.  The purpose of this meeting was to bring him up on the situation here at Sacred Heart and Holy Rosary.   As you know, I was appointed by the shepherd of our diocese in 2009 to shepherd in the name of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, these two parishes, with your schools, your offices and residences and your cemeteries.

I shared with him the challenges, the tensions, and yes, the joys of his decision.   I talked about the uneasiness the people are experiencing not knowing the future of their parishes, especially when hearing about what has happened in Fitchburg and now in Athol.   I spoke about the simple truth that we are all aware of about our situation here in these parishes, namely using a business person’s language, currently ‘the overhead far exceeds our resources.’   Or another way of putting it, both Holy Rosary and Sacred Heart have big old buildings and property built when times were different that exceed the ‘manpower’ if you will and/or income to support them.   The deterioration and disrepair over time, as well as the rising costs to maintain the buildings, such as fuel and electricity, have exacerbated the situation.  So much so, we spend much of our resources trying to keep up maintaining the property and not as much on developing and supporting our mission as a Church.

A point of fact at Sacred Heart church is the cost to restore the exterior of our church.  As you know we had contracted with Rhino Shield Co. to paint the church with their new technique that would guarantee not repainting the church for at least 25 years.  The work was to begin last year but a snag in the plans gave us a setback.   The carpentry work on the building would far exceed the budget Rhino Shield allowed to do the work.  Because the shakes on the building are such that they don’t make them anymore in the size they are, as well as, the fact that the shakes have been layered two or three shakes deep, restoring rotted shakes would drive the price astronomically high, possibly another $100,000 on top of the $78,000 agreed upon to Rhino Shield.

Another point of fact at Holy Rosary is the condition of the church bricks.  The bricks are water saturated and are in desperate need to repointing.  We can see evidence of water damage on the interior of the church.  Repointing the bricks on the church would cost an estimated $200,000.

We look at these building and property issues and can feel overwhelmed.   At least I do.  Some have shared with me their reluctance to give because it seems it’s a never ending building repair job.  Somehow, we need to change this.   A way must be created that helps to address the real need of our building and property while not losing sight of our Mission as a church.  The Mission of the Church that is, you and me in the name of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ must collaborate and discuss a direction for both our parishes.  The real nature of the Church is its people held together in community and the whole purpose of our buildings, as beautiful as they are, are meant to support the development and growth of the people’s prayer, sacraments and worship life, learning and sharing, and supporting  the crying needs of its members who are hurting and struggling.   That’s what Jesus meant when on the day of his Ascension into heaven he sent out his disciples to every nation to, as St. Matthew says, “make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Someone once made a truly profound theological statement that I would like us all to ponder and reflect upon.  The statement goes like this, “All are priests, some are priests, only one is a priest.”  On this Good Shepherd Sunday this is a good statement for us to hear.   When we were baptized, while the holy oil called Chrism was being lathered upon our heads, the priest or deacon said over us an ancient prayer, “As Christ was anointed priest, prophet and king, so may you live always as a member of His body, sharing everlasting life.”  By virtue of our baptisms, we are all priests that is to say, we are all mediators of God’s grace in the world.  My ‘ordained’ priesthood reflects only the priesthood that is already here, right now, at this time, in this place.  And all our priesthoods, yours and mine together, whether we belong to Sacred Heart church or Holy Rosary church, of for that matter any Christian church, we are under the care of the One Good Shepherd, the One Good Priest, and, as the Gospel assert today, ‘the One who knows his sheep by name and his sheep know Him .’

In the next few weeks, I will be gathering together the various staff and committees of our parishes to begin a discussion and collaboration on what we can do to meet the challenge of keeping our Mission first, while addressing the challenge of our overhead and resources.   I will be calling all the priests of our communities that is, you and Bishop McManus, Fr. Fred, Deacon Paul and Arthur, Sr. Suzanne and me, to step up in the collaboration.  We will call in prayer upon the grace and wisdom of the Good Shepherd, the Good Priest, Jesus Christ, to guide and inspire us.

I am not claiming I have an answer to the challenges presented to us.  I have some ideas to bandy about though.  But, I am confident that together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we will find our way in these grazing fields that is our lives and faith.  And, I also know that whatever direction we plot out will not be quick or easy.   I know sacrifices of all kinds will be awaiting us.  We will have some setbacks.  We will have some successes.  But, God willing, we will be focused and directed.

I can’t tell you that the Bishop will be merging or closing any parish.  All I know is that from past situations in the diocese, it is a preferred desire by the bishop to allow the parishes to work out how they will meet the challenges of the current times.   Many of us have thoughts about how we should proceed into the future.  I know this because many of you have shared these thoughts with me.   I can only tell you that the thoughts shared with me are not the same thoughts.  In other words, we all have thoughts about how we ought to proceed, they are just not the same thoughts and sometimes they are even contradictory.   We will need to work this out and that will take time.

This year marks the 1,979^th year of the Christian church’s existence on earth.  I get that number based on scholars estimate of the age when Jesus died and rose from the grave and sent the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, which they say was 33.  In these 1,979 years the Church has experienced great moments of triumph and great moments of struggle.  It has seen and experienced many things which have destroyed and obliterated some of the most powerful and influential kinds of institutions, governments and religions.  It has survived and will survive because of the basic truth that is at its heart and mission namely, Love and that Love sees in all those foolish divisions we make only One. “All are priests, some are priests, only one is a priest.”