27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1. I wanted to be with you at this Vigil Mass, the first Sunday Mass following the merger of St. Mungo’s Parish with St. Laurence’s Parish.

2. I wanted to be with you because it was my decision that this merger should happen. I want to be with you to be part of the experience of those of you who are coming here for their first Sunday Mass to their new parish church and new parish community. I wanted to be here to be part of the experience of those of you who are welcoming others to a new parish community and who are yourselves becoming part of something new. I wanted to be here with Father Gerry whose responsibility it will be to build up a new parish community here at St. Laurence’s and to bring him the prayers and best wishes of the whole diocese. I wanted to be here because something new is happening, and together we need to ask God to lead us forward so that his purposes will be fulfilled.

3. The readings today taken as a whole constitute a call to faith. In the midst of uncertainty, the prophet tells us that the good man will live by his faithfulness. In the Gospel today, the apostles plead with Jesus to increase their faith. This is a day and a time when we need to trust and to have faith. But it is not a blind faith. The parish communities of St. Mungo’s and St. Laurence’s represent a rich tradition of faith and devotion in Greenock. All the parish communities of Inverclyde have benefited from this tradition of faith. Now is the time, today is the day, for these two parishes to come together. God has blessed you in the past. He can and will bless you now and in the future. This is a new beginning. With an injection of new life, new parishioners and new resources, this is the opportunity to build a really strong parish community. I encourage you not to let this moment pass and to work together with a new spirit to build up the life of your parish and to do God’s work in this area.

4. So, my dear brothers and sisters, today two parish communities become one at this Sunday Eucharist. These words of St. Paul in his First Letter have a special relevance in this church and at this Mass today: “The fact that there is one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf” (1 Cor 10, 17). So I pray with you today that your parish life will very quickly be the life of one parish community in Jesus Christ, a happy and effective union of parishioners, spiritual gifts and resources. May God bless you all! St.Mungo, pray for us. St. Laurence, pray for us.

St. Laurence’s, Greenock

6^th October 2007