Our Beautiful Church

Friday, Mar. 25, 2016

Christ is risen and alive in this world today.

I saw that with my own eyes last Thursday. In the afternoon I was in Ogden, where a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe was being installed in the garden of Give Me a Chance, which provides services to low-income people, primarily women and children, to help them along the path to self-sufficiency and a better future.

Already the garden has a gazebo, a pavilion, a children’s play area, a fountain, fruit trees, a rose garden and vegetable boxes ready for planting; plans call for a dry riverbed feature, plots of herbs and flowers, and large grassy areas.

The driving force behind Give Me a Chance is Sister Maria Nguyen, who came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam, joined the Daughters of Charity, and earned an MBA. Arriving in Utah intending to help people living in poverty, she began offering sewing classes to low-income women. That grew into what is now the DeMarillac Formal Attire shop, which sells handmade gowns, suits and tuxedos.

With that enterprise well under way, Sr. Maria turned her attention to other needs. The Give Me a Chance Center on Grant Avenue, where the Guadalupe Garden is located, offers after-school programs, GED and ESL tutoring, and similar services.

Sr. Maria’s work is supported by numerous individuals and organizations, many of them Catholic. Through their volunteering, advocacy and financial contributions, they help the least of our brethren, as Christ calls each of us to do.

Teaching immigrants English, assisting children with their schoolwork – these and other Give Me a Chance programs are critical in guiding the organization’s clients toward self-sufficiency, but I am thrilled that attention also has been given to their spiritual needs. The garden will be a lovely, peaceful patch for people who, I suspect, have little enough of either beauty or serenity in their lives to help them seek the Creator. As Pope Francis says, “It would be good for us to make room for silence, to hear the voice of love.”

Thursday night found me at the Cathedral of the Madeleine for the Chrism Mass. There I experienced another excellent example of our Church in action. The soul-stirring music, the careful attention to the fine details of the liturgy, the excellent homily – all reflected the beauty of our worship at its best. 

What struck me forcefully, however, was the ritual’s emphasis on the need to pray for each other.  

Of course, we regularly recite the Confiteor at Mass, and Eucharistic prayers are offered for our clergy, but during the Chrism Mass we were specifically asked to pray intentionally for our priests, our deacons, our religious sisters, and each other.

Too often, I think, we focus on the grievances that separate us rather than the Church that binds us. It is only because I see Catholics quietly acting as Christ in places like Give Me a Chance that I am able to bear the public sins of our fellow Catholics such as those priests who are guilty of child abuse. It is only because I am affirmed at rituals such as the Chrism Mass that I am able to confront the divisions in our parishes, our diocese, our national and universal Church. It is only because I believe that the multitude of small, everyday good works and kindnesses performed by those who act in God’s name tip the scale against the grand acts of evil such as those committed by ISIS that I am able to keep alive in my breast hope, the hope given by Christ, whose death and resurrection we will celebrate on Sunday. 

Christ is risen and alive in this world today. Amen. Alleluia.