Longtime St. Pius X parishioners Jeff and Fran Nemeth meet Bishop Martin after Mass Aug. 24. The Nemeths joined the parish in 1999, one year before Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio began his 24-year pastorate of the Greensboro parish. Read about the funeral Mass for longtime pastor Monsignor Marcaccio.
GREENSBORO — Just weeks after offering the funeral Mass for longtime pastor Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, Bishop Michael Martin returned to St. Pius X Church to celebrate the weekend’s Masses and comfort grieving parishioners.
At the beginning of the Aug. 24 vigil Mass, Bishop Martin shared a little humor, telling parishioners they were “really scraping the bottom of the barrel” with him filling in while they await the assignment of a new pastor.
In his homily, Bishop Martin reflected on the Mass readings, referring to the recent Olympic games to illustrate his message.
People who commit themselves to the rigor of a particular sport, going “all in,” are inspiring, he said, and so are the families who support them. Bishop Martin called people to that same level of commitment in following Jesus.
AUDIO: Listen to Bishop Michael Martin's complete homily
The bishop described a common scene when an athlete wins a gold medal: “They shoot up to the crowd and there’s Mom and Dad and their brothers and sisters, and they’re all jumping around and crying as if they had just won the medal themselves. But isn’t it true? They kind of have! They’ve been in this race with these young people for years.
“So beautiful, right?”
He continued, “As many of us watched the Olympics from the comfort of our sofa with a bag of Doritos and a Diet Coke, and liked the show but knew it wasn’t for us, so too many of us in our spiritual journey sit in the comfort of our pew and watch the show, and think to ourselves, ‘I’m applauding and I’m supportive – but I’m not sure I’m of Olympic quality when it comes to following Jesus.”
“We are challenged … to accept our call to Olympic stardom,” he said. “To recognize that each and every one of us is invited to the games that don’t happen every four years. Those Olympics aren’t won in Paris. Where are they won? In the daily grind of getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning and going to the pool when everyone else is in bed, of doing the difficult thing, and dragging your family along with you.”
“The question is: are we willing to do the same? Are we willing to respond to the call of Olympic faith? And are we willing to bring our family along with us?”
Going “all in” for Jesus means being an example and inspiring other people to follow Him, the bishop said.
He connected this to the first reading (Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b) when Joshua says, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
“Joshua, who is tired of witnessing the malaise of his people, he’s tired of not being able to see Olympic-level faith of the people, and he calls them all out. Not only does he call them out, he calls himself out. He says, ‘Enough. Enough of our tepid engagement with the Lord. Enough of our trying to halfway be believers in our God…’ And he makes a claim, he plants his staff in the ground for himself and … his family.”
“Your lives need to be planting the flag in your neighborhood, saying, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ Other people seeing that in you will say, ‘I’m impressed by that. I’m going to do that, too. I see something about you that is different and compelling and Olympic level. I’m not just going to applaud with my Doritos. I want some of what you’re eating, some of what you’re drinking … because your lives are different.’”
That total, unconditional commitment also plays out in married life, the bishop continued, touching on the day’s second reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians (5:21-32).
But that commitment isn’t as easy as it sounds, he continued. It requires embracing “the tough message of the cross.”
The Gospel reading from John (6:60-69) describes how many followers abandoned Jesus after He preached that eternal life comes through eating His Body and drinking His Blood. Jesus turned to the apostles to ask if they would also leave, and Peter replied, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Turning away from Jesus is at “the heart of every sin,” Bishop Martin said. Like Peter, we must recognize that only Jesus – nothing else – can satisfy and sustain us.
“I pray that in the people sitting around you … you will find inspiration seeing them try, at least, to say, ‘Where would we go? The world never delivers what it says. As for me and my house, we have come to believe and to know that You are the Christ.’ May you see that in the people seated around you, may you make that Olympic medal of your family, and may other people see that in you, and make the difficult choices of Christian life.
“May that be the ‘Olympic’ church that we create in this community,” he said.
After Mass, parishioners lined up to meet Bishop Martin and thank him for being there for them since the sudden death of Monsignor Marcaccio from a rare cancer July 19.
“It's really great to see all the people coming together and hearing what the bishop has to say,” said longtime parishioner Jeff Nemeth. “It's funny because Monsignor often shared a similar message about praying together at home... It’s all about remembering to keep Jesus in your life every day.”
— Annie Ferguson