By Barb Arland-Fye
Editorial
Southern Baptists and Methodists predominate in the Appalachian region where Catholics from parishes in the Diocese of Davenport spend a week each year serving people who live in poverty in David, Kentucky. “If somebody needs help, you just go out and help them,” says Deacon Ed Kamerick, who with his wife Jane and five of their teen-aged grandchildren participated in this year’s mission trip. They were among 34 youths and adults from three parishes — St. Thomas More-Coralville, St. Patrick Parish-Melrose and St. Mary Parish-Oxford — who engaged in the exhausting work of home repair while building hope and relationships with the people they assisted.
Clergy and lay people from Muscatine County will also be going out on mission — to the Muscatine County Fair in West Liberty (July 19-23). “Our diocese has been focusing on evangelization and now, particularly, ‘Welcoming and Belonging,’” said Deacon Dan Freeman, parish life coordinator for St. Mary Parish-Wilton and interim parish life coordinator for St. Andrew Parish-Blue Grass. “Our purpose is to support our youths exhibiting various projects, to offer a Catholic presence in the public arena and to encourage others to actively practice their faith.”
Both groups, in very different ways, are responding to their mission as the body of Christ. Their commitment to living their faith beyond the walls of the Church call to mind a homily that Bishop Thomas Zinkula gave during this year’s Chrism Mass on April 3:
“In the passage we read from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus gives us, the body of Christ, our mission — to bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free.”
Each of these groups is responding to that mission — one with an emphasis on evangelizing through arduous physical labor and the discomforts that come from addressing the deprivation of the people they serve, such as lack of adequate food and cleaning supplies. The other emphasizes evangelization through word, sacrament and sacramentals.
The commitment of these groups to their mission as the body of Christ requires risk-taking. They must be willing to deal charitably with rejection or outright hostility, accept occasional discomfort due to weather or things that go wrong (a bag of garbage collapsed at the seams and spilled its contents on one mission volunteer in Kentucky). They must carve out time from other activities that tempt them to say, “Not this time, I’m too busy.”
Many other parishes in our diocese are responding to their mission as the body of Christ. But are the participants who respond to that mission the same 10% who always step up to the plate? How often do each of us contemplate the meaning of our mission as the body of Christ and act on it in concrete ways on a regular basis? Each of us has unique talents and skills as well as limitations. How might we lean into our strengths to be the hands and feet of Christ within our abilities?
Deacon Kamerick, who serves the Melrose and Centerville parishes, delivered a homily inspired by the mission trip to Kentucky last month in which he incorporated “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The poem pays homage to the bravery of the British cavalry during the Battle of Balaclava. On the mission trip, the volunteers did battle against the heat and humidity, dilapidated housing and the hunger faced by two youths who became their dinner guests. They gained humility. They left a part of themselves behind, with strangers who became companions on the journey.
Responding to the mission of the body of Christ may take us out of our comfort zone but sharing our faith — by word and by action — provides what Pope Francis calls “oxygen” that “invigorates and purifies” Christian life (USCCB, Jan. 11, 2023).
Barb Arland-Fye, Editor
Arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org
Southern Baptists and Methodists predominate in the Appalachian region where Catholics from parishes in the Diocese of Davenport spend a week each year serving people who live in poverty in David, Kentucky. “If somebody needs help, you just go out and help them,” says Deacon Ed Kamerick, who with his wife Jane and five of their teen-aged grandchildren participated in this year’s mission trip. They were among 34 youths and adults from three parishes — St. Thomas More-Coralville, St. Patrick Parish-Melrose and St. Mary Parish-Oxford — who engaged in the exhausting work of home repair while building hope and relationships with the people they assisted.
Clergy and lay people from Muscatine County will also be going out on mission — to the Muscatine County Fair in West Liberty (July 19-23). “Our diocese has been focusing on evangelization and now, particularly, ‘Welcoming and Belonging,’” said Deacon Dan Freeman, parish life coordinator for St. Mary Parish-Wilton and interim parish life coordinator for St. Andrew Parish-Blue Grass. “Our purpose is to support our youths exhibiting various projects, to offer a Catholic presence in the public arena and to encourage others to actively practice their faith.”
Both groups, in very different ways, are responding to their mission as the body of Christ. Their commitment to living their faith beyond the walls of the Church call to mind a homily that Bishop Thomas Zinkula gave during this year’s Chrism Mass on April 3:
“In the passage we read from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus gives us, the body of Christ, our mission — to bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free.”
Each of these groups is responding to that mission — one with an emphasis on evangelizing through arduous physical labor and the discomforts that come from addressing the deprivation of the people they serve, such as lack of adequate food and cleaning supplies. The other emphasizes evangelization through word, sacrament and sacramentals.
The commitment of these groups to their mission as the body of Christ requires risk-taking. They must be willing to deal charitably with rejection or outright hostility, accept occasional discomfort due to weather or things that go wrong (a bag of garbage collapsed at the seams and spilled its contents on one mission volunteer in Kentucky). They must carve out time from other activities that tempt them to say, “Not this time, I’m too busy.”
Many other parishes in our diocese are responding to their mission as the body of Christ. But are the participants who respond to that mission the same 10% who always step up to the plate? How often do each of us contemplate the meaning of our mission as the body of Christ and act on it in concrete ways on a regular basis? Each of us has unique talents and skills as well as limitations. How might we lean into our strengths to be the hands and feet of Christ within our abilities?
Deacon Kamerick, who serves the Melrose and Centerville parishes, delivered a homily inspired by the mission trip to Kentucky last month in which he incorporated “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The poem pays homage to the bravery of the British cavalry during the Battle of Balaclava. On the mission trip, the volunteers did battle against the heat and humidity, dilapidated housing and the hunger faced by two youths who became their dinner guests. They gained humility. They left a part of themselves behind, with strangers who became companions on the journey.
Responding to the mission of the body of Christ may take us out of our comfort zone but sharing our faith — by word and by action — provides what Pope Francis calls “oxygen” that “invigorates and purifies” Christian life (USCCB, Jan. 11, 2023).
Barb Arland-Fye, Editor
Arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org
