Our (Little) Commission

A Meditation on the Mission of Stella Maris Family of Parishes

I am director of evangelization for Stella Maris Family of Parishes in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. At present, the Archdiocese is in the middle of what is called the Beacons of Light pastoral planning process. Beacons is a response to the declining number of Catholics across the Archdiocese over the last several decades. Beacons invites us to ask how to best arrange resources in the Archdiocese, to evangelize and to make disciples right now, and for years to come. Consequently, Beacons is all about growth.

Confronting what Beacons challenges us to confront…

Beacons challenges us to ask a hard question, namely: are our parishes optimally set up to evangelize and make disciples today? This tough question brings up another one, one that strikes at the very root: What is a parish in the first place? What is the purpose of a parish?

It’s worth reflecting on the word "parish.” The origins of the word are Greek. Here’s how it breaks down: para means “near” and oikos means “house.” So, a parish literally has to do with houses that are near one another—a neighborhood. In Latin, the word refers to “sojourners.” Here, we add in this element of those who are on a journey. The result is rather beautiful. A parish refers to pilgrims who are sojourning near each other on a common (though unique to each person) journey to a heavenly homeland.

We can take this further by reflecting on Canon Law. According to Canon Law, a parish “is to be territorial” (Can 515 §1); it is “a certain community of the Christian faithful stably constituted in a particular church, whose pastoral care is entrusted to a pastor” (Can 518). A parish is a geographical area, a region within which the pastor “is obliged to make provision so that the word of God is proclaimed in its entirety to those living in the parish . . . He is to make every effort, even with the collaboration of the Christian faithful, so that the message of the Gospel comes also to those who have ceased the practice of their religion or do not profess the truth faith” (Can 528 §1). It is incumbent on the pastor, with the collaboration of the lay faithful, that the Gospel be proclaimed within the parish.

When it comes to the why of a parish, then, things are fairly straightforward: the parish exists for Catholic parishioners and for all who live within its boundaries, that they might know the love of God in Jesus Christ and respond to it. Thus, the Great Commission provides the impetus for every parish and contextualizes the mission of each:

• In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus commissions his followers to “Go . . . and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20).

• In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15).

• Acts of the Apostles contains a similar message: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:6).

We might say each parish is a little part of “the whole world.” It is a certain pastor’s (and his people’s) “ends of the earth." A corner of the vineyard. Each parish carries out its own “little commission” that helps make up the whole Great one Jesus talks about before the Ascension.

To summarize, a parish is a geographical region. Stella Maris consists of four such regions. When you combine the four parishes that comprise Stella Maris, our larger geographical region spans the southern third of Clermont County. This beautiful chunk of Clermont County our little piece of God’s commission, this is our mission territory.

Far from being superfluous rambling, this backdrop to Beacons, parishes, and the Great Commission matters. It matters because no parish or Family of Parishes really makes up its own vision statement or mission statement or what have you. These kinds of business branding and marketing strategies don’t apply here. Instead, the vision and mission been given a priori, so to speak, and they have been given in the form of the Great Commission. We can say each parish has a “little commission,” and it is one that must align with the Great Commission Jesus articulates. At the end of the day, all of this is really Jesus’ mission. We can only join in, participate in, what he is already doing. Instead of talking about vision statements and mission statements, and getting caught up in the analysis paralysis of committee work, using the word “commission” puts things in a more theologically accurate manner. It puts us in the “co-” role (as in “with”) and keeps us out of the “maker” space. It humbly situates us as those who respond and participate in a theandric manner, as Pope Benedict XVI describes: “God, who is always the beginning, also wants to involve our activity, so that the activities are theandric, so to speak, made by God, but with our involvement and implying our being, all our activity.”¹

Articulating Our (Little) Commission at Stella Maris

All this said, fresh articulations of a parish’s (or Family of Parishes’) “little” commission can be helpful. Recently, we have articulated ours as follows:

Stella Maris exists to reclaim southern Clermont County for Christ through the unique missions of St. Bernadette, St. Mary, St. Peter, and St. Thomas More. Our objective is simple: encounter Jesus and help others do the same through beautiful liturgies, friendship, and education.

Nothing in here contradicts the Great Commission and all of it provides direction and focus for our circumstances amid Beacons of Light. In the space that follows, I would like to briefly explain the parts of what I’m calling our (little) commission.

A Reclamation Project

Our (little) commission states that we are setting out “To reclaim southern Clermont county for Christ.” One gets the sense that we’re on the frontier, or on the battle front. Either way, we’re taking ground and not retreating (cf. Mt 16:18–19). There’s something alive about this line. In truth, Beacons is a kind of frontier. Nobody in Cincinnati has done this before, or at least not to this degree and at this scale. It’s new for all of us. It’s also a frontier because the culture has changed. We no longer live in a Christendom era, wherein the culture and its structures are foundationally and functionally Christian, and wherein the Church is a key player in shaping society. Today, the Church has been pushed to the outer fringes of society, becoming less and less relevant when it comes to shaping the broader culture.

When situated within a broader Christendom culture, the parish can rely upon strong Catholic subcultures within society and within the home, and embrace a kind of maintenance mentality. However, we are no longer living in a Christendom situation. A maintenance mode is no longer effective. Our times demand an apostolic approach. Risking the ecclesial cliché, we need to move from a maintenance mindset to a missional one. The first line of our (little) commission captures this movement and positions Stella Maris in missional terms. We are moving. We are taking ground. We are growing again — after some time of decline. We are reclaiming a land and a people for Christ. Again, the word “reclaim” acknowledges our cultural reality and the shift away from a Christian culture into one that is post-Christian and even anti-Christian. This is the cultural “space” in which we are called to bring the light of Christ today and southern Clermont County is the geographical space.

Missionary Outposts

Based upon what I’ve said thus far, reframing the whole conversation in light of mission, one sees a mission field and every mission field needs missionary outposts. As God’s providence would have it, the four churches that make up Stella Maris (i.e., St. Bernadette, St. Mary, St. Peter, and St. Thomas More) are already strategically located throughout southern Clermont County. Each location and each community already has strengths that can be offered to the whole Family of Parishes and this reclamation project. Each location, functioning as a missionary outpost, offers a point of concrete encounter with Christ. It serves as a physical site of encounter — a place of renewal for our parishioners and a terminal of our mission into the community for the outsider.

Viewing our four church campuses in this manner helps us to keep the broader picture in mind. Southern Clermont County is our mission territory. Each campus is a kind of missionary outpost, strategically located in the region. To pursue our (little) commission, we need thriving and active outposts. The health of the whole depends upon the health of its parts. So, it will behoove us to ensure that all four campuses are healthy and whole.

A Mission of Encounter and Discipleship

Pope Benedict XVI famously said: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”² And prior to his election to the papacy, he explained that “to encounter Christ means to follow him. This encounter is a road, a journey.”³ Encounter is not a momentary thing, but a life-changing event (or, better, a series of events), that shapes the whole of life.

We become Christians not through our own efforts or ideas, but through the prior effort and initiative of the God who encountered us most profoundly by taking flesh so as to lift us up — to make us human again so as to, in his time and way, to make us divine. So, encounter is what Stella Maris is all about. Our fundamental mission, if you could boil it all the way down, is this: to encounter Jesus and help others do the same.

Note that this mission is twofold: there’s an inward and outward focus. First, for those who are already parishioners, those who are on staff, those who form the core of our parishes, our fundamental mission (before anything else), is to encounter Jesus. Yes. We need to encounter Jesus and keep encountering him. In other words, the reclamation project begins here, with us — with our staff members and parishioners. We need Jesus to reclaim our hearts, to reclaim those parts of our lives when we hide from him, those plans we keep to ourselves. We need him to reclaim our vocations for his purpose and reclaim our professional work as well. We need to live from the encounter with Christ and identify with it. The encounter with Christ needs to become the substance of our being before and during any attempts to help others encounter him. The first “turf” that needs to be reclaimed by Christ in southern Clermont County is that of our own hearts.

This echoes Mark 3:13-19 (cf. Luke 6:12-16), where the evangelist recounts Jesus’ calling of the Apostles. Mark introduces this account by noting that Jesus “went up the mountain.” Throughout scripture, mountains often indicate closeness with God. Luke is more explicit in this regard, saying that Jesus went to the mountain to pray and spent the whole night in prayer (Luke 6:12). Only after Jesus prays does he call the apostles, those whom he wants. We do not make ourselves disciples by our own power. God initiates. Discipleship is borne from the prayer of the Son—from his dialogue with the Father. The Father desires our discipleship. It originates not in our own willing, but in God’s willing. But look at what happens next. The Twelve are tasked with a dual responsibility: being with him and being sent by him to preach with authority (cf. Mark 3:13-15). Note the order, here. The disciple’s first mission is to be with Jesus. Before being sent by him, they have to be with Jesus and learn how to remain with him even when they are sent by him. The same is true for us. The encounter with Christ and living life in Christ is always the fundamental mission, for without him we can do nothing (cf. Jn 15:5).

Helping Others Encounter Christ

To be sure, encountering Christ can happen through various means. At Stella Maris, we are prioritizing three such means as what we’re calling privileged or strategic “areas of encounter.”⁴ These areas will function as strategic anchors as we direct resources to carry out our commission. I will explain the three areas of encounter here, albeit briefly, knowing that far more could be said about each.

Beautiful Liturgies

Liturgy, particularly the celebration of the Eucharist, is the source and summit of the Church’s life and mission.⁵ The Eucharistic encounter is a privileged encounter, and one we have been seeking to revive across Stella Maris.

To say we’re all about beautiful liturgies is to say we’re all about manifesting the beauty of Christ, for, in the liturgy, we encounter Beauty itself. Jesus makes the liturgy beautiful. We can never tire of saying this: it is Jesus who makes the liturgy beautiful, who makes the liturgy what it is. Pope Benedict XVI reflects on this fact in Sacramentum Caritatis:

Beauty reaches definitive fulfillment in God's revelation in Jesus Christ: Christ is the full manifestation of the glory of God. In the glorification of the Son, the Father's glory shines forth and is communicated (cf. Jn 1:14; 8:54; 12:28; 17:1). Yet this beauty is not simply a harmony of proportion and form; "the fairest of the sons of men" (Ps 45[44]:3) is also, mysteriously, the one "who had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him" (Is 53:2). Jesus Christ shows us how the truth of love can transform even the dark mystery of death into the radiant light of the resurrection. Here the splendor of God's glory surpasses all worldly beauty. The truest beauty is the love of God, who definitively revealed himself to us in the paschal mystery.⁶

And Jesus invites us to participate in reflecting the liturgy’s innate splendor in our reverence, sacred music, liturgical ministries, ushering, greeting, church décor, and so forth. “Beauty…is not mere decoration,” Pope Benedict says, “But rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation. These considerations should make us realize the care which is needed, if the liturgical action is to reflect its innate splendor.”⁷ These considerations invite all of us into deeper liturgical catechesis and beckon us to enter more deeply into the liturgy.

When it comes to entering more deeply into the liturgy, we intend to make Lectio Divina a regular practice within the Family of Parishes. This divine or holy reading gives God the first word in our day, in our meetings, or what have you. And, when we pray Lectio Divina with the daily Mass readings, we believe the Holy Spirit will guide us in all truth and deeper into the mysteries celebrated in Holy Mass (cf. Jn 16:13).

Friendship

This is kind of a code-word for “evangelization.” We’re all about “friendship evangelization.” So we opted for the word “friendship,” as opposed to evangelization, for three reasons:

1. Culturally, both inside and outside of the Church, friendship is more disarming and, perhaps, a bit more intriguing.

2. It names the objective of evangelization, which is friendship with Christ — an encounter with Christ that leads to deep and abiding communion. We seek lead people into friendship with Jesus Christ, and to grow in that friendship ourselves, through the Sacraments, the interior life of prayer, and familiarity with the word of God principally through Lectio Divina.

3. It names the mode or means by which we feel called to evangelize in a post-Christian age. People are starving for friendship, for authentic relationships. And people are all over the place. Gone are the days of common cultural experiences. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all approaches or “if you build it they will come” ministry. Our world is fractured and fragmented, and people’s lives are fractured and fragmented. We need a personal touch to meet people where they are and accompanies them on the Way. So, when asked about our method for evangelizing, we might respond: “coffee.” But, we could push deeper still. Friends sacrifice for each other. Our evangelization efforts will not neglect humble acts of friendship in offerings of oblation and reparation and surrender.

To summarize, the word friendship captures the end and the means of evangelization. It aptly names a relational (as opposed to programmatic) approach to evangelization.

Education

The University of Mary’s must-read book From Christendom to Apostolic Mission argues that we no longer occupy a society shaped by a Catholic worldview. Catholic sub-cultures have evaporated and the assumptions on which most of our current Catholic educational structures were built have vanished. This book claims that most peoples’ imaginative vision, their worldview, is no longer Christian. This imaginative vision is like a set of corrective lenses that enable you to perceive reality in a certain way. Like corrective lenses, you don’t consciously pay attention to the imaginative vision, though it shapes how you see and understand everything. An imaginative vision “gathers together an overall view such that the individual and the society are given a basis to move, to make decisions, to pursue one path rather than another.”⁸ The book goes on to explain that “its power is in its ability to hold together a world in a more or less compelling narrative. Those [influenced by the narrative] are under the influence of a set of first principles, often hidden away in their minds and acted from rather than discussed.”⁹

None of us are immune to the broader culture’s imaginative vision. It impacts and infects our way of perceiving the world around us and ourselves. It also impacts how we perceive God and his role in our lives. The broader imaginative vision impacts our Catholic educational institutions as well. It functions like an undiagnosed cancer that, left untreated, will wreak havoc (and has been) on the Body of Christ. Consequently, Catholics need to recover “a Christian vision of reality and of readiness to live out the ramifications of that vision.”¹⁰

So, we are doubling down on our educational endeavors. We intend to continue the process of strengthening the Catholic identity of our grade schools according to the principles laid out by Archbishop Miller in The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools. Over the summer of 2025, we will launch the Stella Maris Institute, a house of formation dedicated to offering our adults solid education and faith formation. We will engage in family accompaniment, to help young families navigate the treacherous cultural waters of our times. We will strengthen sacramental prep and build a marriage catechumenate.

Catholicism is serious business and it demands serious (intellectual) attention. As John Henry Newman put it, “Catholicism is a deep matter—you cannot take it up in a teacup.” Our educational endeavors need to reflect this fact and provide depth and reintegration across all areas of knowledge.

Conclusion

We will embark on carrying out our (little) commission with courage, firmly relying upon God and stepping forward in faith regardless of fear and doubt. To do so, we turn to Mary, Our Mother, as a model and guide. She was (and is) courageously faithful and humbly confident. In closing, then, we can take up the charge of Pope Benedict XVI and move forward, under Mary’s patronage, come what may:

Mary thus stands before us as a sign of comfort, encouragement and hope. She turns to us, saying: “Have the courage to dare with God! Try it! Do not be afraid of him! Have the courage to risk with faith! Have the courage to risk with goodness! Have the courage to risk with a pure heart! Commit yourselves to God, then you will see that it is precisely by doing so that your life will become broad and light, not boring but filled with infinite surprises, for God's infinite goodness is never depleted!” — Benedict XVI, Papal Homily on 40th Anniversary of Close of Vatican II

1. Benedict XVI, Oct. 8, 2012.

2. Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, §1.

3. Joseph Ratzinger, “Funeral Homily for Msgr. Luigi Giussani.”

4. Note that each of our missionary outposts function as places or locations in and through which people can encounter Christ in the various “areas” of encounter: liturgy, friendship, and education.

5. See Sacrosanctum Concilium, §10; Lumen Gentium, §11; CCC, §1324; and Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, §3.

6. Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, §35.

7. Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, §35.

8. From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, 9.

9. From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, 9.

10. From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, 4.