Bishop Michael Martin celebrated Mass at St. Mark Church with students from St. Mark School during Catholic Schools Week. (Photo by Troy Hull)HUNTERSVILLE — Bishop Michael Martin made a trip to Huntersville to celebrate Mass with the 720 students at St. Mark School for Catholic Schools Week.
“It is an incredible blessing to have Bishop Martin here today,” Principal Julie Thronley said. “We are so full of joy that he is with us today for our Catholic school mass. Our students and staff are so excited to have him join us.”
Students with their plaid jumpers and collared shirts filed into the church at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Students from the school choir sang 'Behold a Great Priest' in Latin, as altar boys carrying lanterns and incense accompanied the bishop during the entrance procession. An altar boy was assigned the honor of safeguarding the bishop’s crozier throughout Mass. The lector, student Sophia Payne, read the first reading, and the school band and choir assisted during the Responsorial Psalm.
Those who didn’t play an active role quickly became engaged when Bishop Martin began his child-friendly homily about the gospel reading, “The Parable of the Sower.” The bishop warmed up his young attendees with silly questions and small jokes. He teased by asking drama teacher Emily Chuma if he could be cast as the tree in the next production, “The Wizard of Oz.”
His lightheartedness opened the way to his message that sometimes “we play a role that is not really who we are.” He used this concept to simplify the parable, all while asking students questions. They eagerly raised their hands, each one hoping the bishop would call on them.
“What was the farmer doing?” he asked. “What is the seed?” “What happens to the seed?” “Where did the farmer first sow the seed?” All questions students avidly answered with ease.
“Pavement,” a student responds.
“The second?” the bishop inquired.
“Rocky ground,” a student in the back said after being picked.
“The third?” the bishop asks.
“The thorns,” replied the next student.
He encouraged students to be the fertile soil that God intends them to be.
“We have to make sure to get rid of the rocks, get rid of the sticker bushes, that we don’t allow ourselves to be hard like the pavement, so that God’s love can be a part of our life,” he said.
"Sometimes we are the rocks in the soil that don’t help the seed to grow. Sometimes you and I are the sticker bushes that trample the seed from growing into something beautiful when we play a role that is not something we are meant to be.”
Making fun of others, gossiping and disobeying parents sometimes make us act like the bird that picks up the seed, preventing it from growing in God’s love, he said.
“I want all of us today to be who we really are and to show God’s love,” he said. “If you forget everything I say today, remember this…that God loves us so much that he is throwing out his love on all of us at all times.”
He reminded the students not to be that rock, that sticker bush, or that thorn that snatches the love of God from others.
When students arrived back in their classrooms, they were still talking about the bishop’s visit. In teacher Toni West’s fourth grade classroom, the themed days of Catholic School Week, the service projects, the celebrations of teachers, and racing one another, were all “fun,” but these things had nothing on their new friend Bishop Martin. When asked what they enjoyed most about
Catholic Schools Week, they were quick to respond.
“Seeing Bishop Martin at Mass,” said Beau. “I was very excited because I have never seen him. I was happy to see him at school, at church, it was all pretty wonderful.”
“I liked that he was here because it made me feel like he cared about us,” Anthony said.
“What I felt from Bishop Martin coming to say Mass is that I was able to understand that parable on a different level. He was able to explain it to me so that I actually figured out what it meant,” said James.
Catholic Schools Week is at its midway point, but students across the diocese already feel “United in Faith” thanks to Bishop Martin, teachers, staff and clergy.
— Lisa Geraci, Troy Hull, César Hurtado and Siobhan Whipp
