It’s very appropriate that today, as we celebrate our parish patron saints, St Peter Chanel and St Joseph the Worker, who stand tall over our parish, protecting us, praying for us and shining as an example to us, that the Risen Jesus takes time in the Gospel today to underline three important characteristics of any Catholic parish—of what makes a parish different from any other structure or entity.
The first thing that Jesus points out is that one of the key reasons we come here, more than anything else, is to obtain peace—real felt interior peace, which goes beyond the weak calmness we can conjure up for ourselves.
He said to them “Peace be with you.” and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, “Peace be with you.”
A first reason our parish is such an important place is because here, unlike anywhere else in the world, I obtain true peace. Not just that I feel a bit better—but when I come and spend time in our church, or when I go to brothers and sisters of the parish for consolation, I receive true peace.
This is peace that only God can give, this experience of being anchored in the heart of the God the Father—the only solid protection and the only perfectly good and loving place that remains more dependable than I am even to myself, as everything else moves and changes around me.
We obtain peace here because in a parish, Jesus is here. In the Gospel, Jesus came and stood among them. Jesus is standing among us now. A standing church is a public visible sign that Jesus is standing here, Risen among us, amongst our daily life and daily struggles and daily joys.
This is why it is no accident that this church is open all day every day: because Jesus is here, and we all need Jesus, and when we come into this church we are coming to Jesus. So brothers and sisters make the most of the Risen Jesus standing here on this hill, come to him at all times, to receive what you need, to receive Jesus wherever you are in your life.
A second point of our parish is that not only do we receive peace, but that we are changed. All of us want to be changed. Because none of us here are perfect. Jesus has set up this parish as a visible and tangible place to be changed by him. This is what we hear in today’s Gospel. “After saying this, he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
The best change agent in the world is the Holy Spirit. It is he through whom the Trinity created the whole world. The Holy Spirit is the secret to real change, and true change and perfectly good change. It is here in this church that the Holy Spirit is given. So come regularly, never miss Sunday Mass ever again, and receive and be changed by the Holy Spirit in the sacraments.
Jesus’ last point is that a parish is a place where others are brought to encounter the Lord and to be changed also by that encounter. It is only when Thomas is with the others that he is able to confess: “‘My Lord and my God!’”
A parish which does not evangelise is dead. Jesus does not give us all this stuff, and himself, just for us. He has given it to you for you to share with the others around you. If you are not willing to do that you have missed the whole point of Christianity, which is not about you—which is about the others, and how you can help them.
It doesn’t mean you need to become an evangelical weirdo. But it does mean it’s normal that you share with others what God has done for you, that you are an invitational parishioner. Let’s ask Jesus to help us live our parish properly. Amen.
Fr Josh Miechels is the parish priest of St Peter Chanel and St Joseph the Worker. This is his homily from the parish’s 27 April celebration of its patron saints.