February 7, 2024

Recently, someone in the congregation had a medical emergency during the homily.  The service stopped at that moment to attend to the individual who needed help.  There were so many things happening at the same time, many of which some of us didn't learn about right away.  Rev. Sarah's first image was of a highly trained medical professional leaping over the pews.  She was there almost before anyone knew that anything was going on.  Others with medical training stepped in to help.  Another member of the congregation was an ambulance driver earlier in his life, and he knew the information that the EMT's would want to know when they arrived, including that medical personnel were on the scene.  Another member of the congregation is responsible for meeting medical personnel during emergencies as part of her job, and took on those responsibilities seamlessly.  The rest of the congregation stepped aside and prayed. 


How amazing to watch this church, full of people with gifts from other parts of their lives, and all of them using their gifts to work together so that all things happened as they needed to happen.  During a stressful moment, our church was still a place of prayer, and a place where the Holy Spirit was present.  That is exactly what the Gospel teaches us.  (Mark 1:29-39)  When God is doing God's work, and each of us bring our gifts and works together to use those gifts as a whole, then nothing is impossible.  The Holy Spirit has been in this parish for generations.   It has always been here, and is here now in an especially powerful way through all of the projects on which we have been working in the past couple of years and all that we hope to do in the next few years. 

God is in the midst of this.  Lives are changing and being touched.  All of it is part of God's plan.  Everyone in the parish has gifts they can contribute.  Take a moment to feel the sense of the Holy Spirit at work.  Know that whatever God has designed for you to do, there is work here which will allow you to use those gifts.  If we all bring our gifts in service of God, God will have a big, big smile.
 

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Homily summary by Christine Castellano