Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Anthony Brankin
When I first got to Saint Odilo more than eight years ago—the Archdiocese gave me a 200-page book from the insurance company filled with pictures of all the buildings and of all the work that would be needed. Every new pastor gets one. Believe me, every pastor does what he can—and no pastor can do everything. And I know when I finally retire—there will be a book detailing all the repairs that will need to be addressed by the new pastor. Anyway—this book detailed about 220 thousand dollars worth of masonry and plumbing issues that needed to be done. It didn’t have to be done immediately—but soon enough. But being kind of impatient I thought how great it would be to get all our buildings fixed up and squared away as soon as possible. So I called the Archdiocese and asked if we might get a loan to do all this work. And just as simply as you please, they said “No. Get the money you need from your parishioners.” Oh well. And that is why we began our yearly appeals to the parishioners.
Every October we have asked for an increase in the amount that we give every Sunday. And the people have always responded well—so that little by little most of the work has been accomplished. And It was done well and thoroughly. And we did a lot. You might remember the scaffolding that was always up somewhere. One wall at a time—one building at a time. We worked on everything—from the convent to the rectory to the school to the church—grinding out and repointing all the crumbling mortar on all the facades. We sealed and caulked all the parapets—so that we could save the roofs. We resealed all the windows and between the windows. We fixed gutters and scuppers and downspouts—even replaced about ten windows in the convent basement. We did it carefully and surely—and over the space of about eight years. I am not a tradesman so I was totally dependent upon the experience and wisdom of our maintenance man, Rudy Herrera, who really kept things going. And please continue to pray for him as he recovers from a fall he suffered on the job.
Bringing back beauty
Now, we went with smaller companies—but they were good companies—These companies were comprised of men who learned their trades by working on buildings downtown before they came out to Berwyn. So they knew what they were doing. We just didn’t have to pay downtown prices for downtown work. And it was very important work. I remember one summer looking at the sagging bricks and bending steel lintels over the basement windows of the school that were being fixed. I thought to myself, “My goodness—the whole building is being held up by those rusting pieces of steel and dipping courses of bricks!” We re-graded all the perimeters of all the buildings—so the rain water would slope away from the foundations and not flood our basements all the time. We fixed the plumbing in all the buildings— I think Berwyn was built on an old lake and so Rudy and the men devised a way to channel basement water into drains. That is how we were able to fix the two church-basement bathrooms. There is even heat in the church vestibule after forty years of a broken pipe. We have patched and plastered the convent and rectory walls—and built entirely new walls in the school to make more rooms for ever more kids. Right now we are replacing a school basement door that is falling apart—fixing the two church sump pumps and a heat pump. That will be a couple of dollars.
But we have also been able to restore the church to its original beauty. The very first thing we did was bring the tabernacle back to the center of the Sanctuary. Then we rebuilt the communion rail that they had removed during the Revolution. Also we restored the confessionals. Ricky Miramontes helped with that. And I am glad we did that because almost all these confessionals are being used—every Saturday—when we have three to four priests hearing confessions. And how happy we are to have installed a real pipe organ just as the old electronic one was biting the dust.
None of this means anything—of course—unless it is helping the spiritual lives of our parishioners. And the only way we can tell that is by the numbers. Our attendance is way up. Last week we had almost twenty-eight hundred people come to Mass. Our school is growing and so too is our CCD. Saint Odilo is providing for the Catholic education of almost 750 children and young adults in the Berwyn area. Yes, the families pay tuition of some sort—but tuition doesn’t cover all of it. And it is our Sunday envelopes that pay for all the activities of all the priests and staff here at Saint Odilo. You will remember we still really don’t have a phone message system—we still have actual humans answering the phone—from 9 in the morning to 9 at night. And after nine—then the priests answer the telephone.
It is your generosity with something as simple as the Sunday envelope that has enabled us to do so many good things that we have become—in many ways—the go-to parish for Berwyn-Cicero. But this is why we come to you every year—and this year for sure. In order to keep these things going—in order to keep these buildings tight and strong so that they can provide a safe and warm environment for all our adults and children—for all our clubs and meetings and classes and organizations, we need your Sunday gift. That’s why we pass out envelopes. That is why we ask for your generosity. We cannot turn on the lights or cool off the church. We cannot warm the school or fix the buildings—or even answer the phones without the dear people of Saint Odilo digging into their pockets every week to help us. That is why we have this Offertory Increase campaign. And this year we are actually asking you to pray about how much more you can increase your gift to the parish. We are asking you to give five dollars more— ten dollars more—whatever you can. Do it this year—and start today if you can.
Maybe you are wondering—well what is a fair gift I can make every week to Saint Odilo—to keep the doors open and the priests going to sick calls and the children studying their religion and their parents gathering for fellowship? What can I do to help keep it all going? Is there a rule of thumb? Sure there is—you could tithe—give a fixed gift to God every Sunday—maybe you would just figure 5 percent or even ten percent of your salary. And then you just bite the bullet and offer it up to God. And the people who do that will be the first to tell you how happy they are to give that generously. Another way is to calculate how much you make for the first hour of work every week. In other words—what does that first hour on Monday from 8- 9 really mean to you? What a beautiful thing to do—to give your first hour of the week to God—this is what the Bible calls the first fruits. This is what believers have always done.
Eventually, the question comes down to this—Do you believe enough in what Saint Odilo parish is doing to give a little more this year? Do you think that what we have here is important enough to make a sacrifice for? Well, if you believe in what we are doing—and that it is important to your life, then say a prayer—make the increase—bite the bullet and give it up to God. I promise—your gift will not be wasted—but will only help us keep spreading the Kingdom of God in Berwyn and Cicero.