“Love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back … Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

          To lend expecting nothing back is a contradiction. If you lend without expecting anything back, you are not lending; you are giving. Why, then, does the Lord say to lend expecting nothing back, instead of just saying to give? He wants us to see just how generous our heavenly Father is, the One who is merciful and generous even when it is not deserved.

          Constant giving is the mark of a father and mother, who are constantly giving, giving not only without the expectation of receiving anything back, but giving to those who you know are incapable of giving anything back. This is the real, almost prodigal, generosity that the Lord encourages today.

          What could move us to love like that? Sure, it’s natural for a father and mother to love their children this way, but how can we get to the point where we’re willing to love even strangers so generously?

          What moves someone to love radically is the awareness of having been loved radically. I’ve seen that in the couples I’ve had the privilege of accompanying as they prepare for marriage. In my first meeting with an engaged couple, I ask them why they want to get married to this man, to this woman. How did you know he was “the one”? I had gotten used to mediocre answers to this question: “No one’s ever made me feel the way she does!” “No one makes me laugh like he does.” These are good things. But they aren’t marriage.

          This year, I’ve been delighted to hear some much better answers. One young lady told me: “I know he’ll be a great husband because I’ll always be the second most important relationship in his life.” Wait, huh?!?! The second most important relationship? I heard correctly. And she was spot on. Because a man whose first relationship is with the Lord, who knows that he has been loved lavishly and generously by a Father greater than any human father, can love like no one else. His fiancé put a finer edge on it, but many other young couples from our parish have told me the same thing: She will teach our children how to pray. My relationship with God is stronger because of my relationship with him. She wants to get me to heaven.

          Another joy for me this year has been welcoming recently-married couples into my home for dinner to see how they’re doing, to learn how we helped them in their formation for marriage, and how our parish can continue supporting them. Over half the couples who have taken part are already expecting their first child! That includes couples who haven’t yet graduated from college and haven’t started their career. They have faith in God’s plan for their lives. And they know they’ve been loved – and they’re excited to share that love.

          At one wedding Mass last summer, I particularly encouraged the couple not to give in to fears that they are too young, that they aren’t sufficiently financially secure, or that marriage is too tough. “You were made for this!” Inspired by that message, and by the example of their friends, two of the groomsmen also mustered the courage to propose to their girlfriends within the next month. They were made for it too.

          All the couples have spoken highly of the mentorship-based model of marriage formation we have. They appreciated the rich formation and the chance to witness a Catholic marriage outside their own family. They are more strongly connected to our parish because of that experience. I’m so grateful to the many couples participating in this apostolate, who generously support these couples.

          They and many other young people in our parish are the direct opposite of the “failure to launch” stereotypes that so many people have of their generations. When pundits forecast doom and gloom, looking around at this parish is enough to restore my optimism. We owe this to the fantastic family life at this parish. But what supports and sustains that rich culture of family life? Christ’s grace in the sacraments is the source of it all. His real presence in the Eucharist, His forgiveness in Confession, the formation and teaching we receive at Mass and in many opportunities for Christian formation. The people we meet and the relationships we form.

          A young family recently moved in from out of town. I was thinking about other families to whom I’d like to introduce them. I had one in mind, but I didn’t get the chance, because I looked over at coffee and donuts and saw them already deep in conversation. That’s the way it ought to happen! The couple who moved here were expecting a new child, and that other couple are his godparents.

          This great family culture is sustained by our parish school as well. I am so impressed by the Catholic identity of our school. You can see the effects of the solid Catholic family life on the kids, and you can see how they great formation they are receiving is building up the lives of those families even more. During Catholic Schools Week, rather than doing a bunch of gimmicky things unrelated to Catholic identity, our students lived into their Catholic identity by raising money for Mary’s Meals, which provides meals to children at schools in southern Africa, which is currently experiencing a catastrophic drought. They organized fundraisers instead of just hitting up mom and dad, and raised enough money to feed 30 children for an entire year. But our students excel in even more distinctively Catholic ways too. Our school had the best performance in the whole diocese this year on the Catholic Assessment of Religious Knowledge. And our principal recently spotted some middle school boys who were thrilled to have come early for basketball practice, so that they could take advantage of our Wednesday evening confessions.

          Our parish gives without expecting anything back not only to those people we already know and love, because after all, “For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” Our St. Vincent de Paul society serves many people in need in so many different ways each week. They also work hand in hand with our Walking with Moms in Need apostolate, which witnesses to our pro-life commitments as Catholic by helping moms who want to choose life for their child. This year, Walking with Moms in Need has given without expecting anything back to a mom who had a child in the NICU but couldn’t afford a hotel room to be close to her baby in the hospital. They helped a mother of five fleeing her home because of abuse. That mom was so impressed with the love and care she experienced, that her children are now in Catholic schools. A young woman in college experienced a crisis pregnancy but chose life for her child. Her baby had to spend time in the NICU and needed expensive formula to survive. Walking with Moms in Need helped her so that she could be a mom and finish college. She’s now graduating, getting her own place, and is able to stand on her own.

          It’s clear that our parish is giving a lot without expecting anything in return. But what if we could do even more? What if we could reach more of the many people all around us who don’t know that incredibly generous love of God the Father which inspires us to give in this way? What if we could do even more to sustain the awesome young couples in our parish who need a strong community of faith to support them in living the Gospel of life?

          What if we could also do more to show our faith in Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist and the beauty of the Holy Mass, in the source of all the great things happening here at Our Lady of Good Hope? God has given us the opportunity to make a strategic investment in what the Church described at the Second Vatican Council as “a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art”: “the musical tradition of the universal Church.” As we search for a new Director of Sacred Music, there is a renaissance going on in the world of Catholic sacred music. In our backyard, the University of Notre Dame’s sacred music program is considered the most prestigious in the country. There is a national talent pool of highly skilled and ambitious church musicians, the likes of whom haven’t been seen in our country for multiple generations.

          So far, we have seven talented applicants for this position. My talent scouts tell me that we can expect even more. Our goal with this strategic hire is to continue building up our parish’s great music program to be the very best of any Catholic parish in Northeast Indiana. That is an ambitious goal, but you have an ambitious pastor, and you are a generous parish. With a renewal in your sacrificial generosity, we will be able to attract and retain one of these highly skilled and ambitious church musicians from the national talent pool, and give him or her all the tools and resources needed to succeed.

          This week, all our registered households will receive in the mail an invitation to renew your commitment to sacrificial generosity towards our parish through our Hope in Christ program. Please take the time to talk together as a family and prayerfully discern how God is calling you to sacrificial generosity. Maybe you are currently giving sacrificially to Our Lady of Good Hope, and we are so grateful for that. But maybe there’s been a change to your financial situation, or maybe you hear God calling you to do even more! Maybe you currently give, or have in the past but stopped, and God is calling you to give truly sacrificially. Or maybe you haven’t yet been giving regularly because what you have to give seems so small because you’re young, because you’re just getting started in life, or because you’re still trying to make up your mind whether this is really going to be your spiritual home. This is your chance to get started, to thank the Lord for what He’s given you through your generosity to His Church. If all of us do what we can, great things will happen.

          Or maybe this is your chance to commit to this parish, to say, “I want to be a part of the great things happening here.” We’d be thrilled for that commitment as well.

          “Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing.”  After talking together as a family and praying about your gift, next Sunday will be our Commitment Sunday, when you’ll have the chance to turn in that commitment and celebrate the Lord’s generosity to us together. Thank you so much for your generosity and for your renewed commitment to Our Lady of Good Hope!

The Rev. Royce V. Gregerson

Parish Church of Our Lady of Good Hope, Fort Wayne

VII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXV