Renovations and Changes (c. 2020-2021)

In an important, but easily passed over dialogue within the Mass, occurring at the very midpoint as we transition from the Liturgy of the Word to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the priest encourages the congregation to prayer, “Pray brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father,” to which the congregation responds, “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of His name, for our good and the good of all His holy Church.” It is the teleological linchpin that reminds us why we are there in a church and what we are doing, which is not a mere ritual calisthenics of sitting, standing, and kneeling, but rather worship of our heavenly Father.
What does that mean exactly? We worship our invisible-but-nonetheless-real and eternal Father by giving Him what he wants and what most pleases Him: His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. What we give to the Father is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Or better, we offer the one, historical yet eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit to our Almighty Father. While the Father is invisible and dwells in unapproachable light, the Son and the Holy Spirit have made themselves visible so that we might approach the unapproachable and enter the very throne of God which is what the Mass is, heaven on earth.
The renovation of the Main Church was undertaken to highlight this reality and the visible missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit that make possible our worship of the invisible Father so that “the very stones cry out” (Lk 19:40) and proclaim the glory of God. This is reflected in the two main features of our parish church: the sanctuary and the dome. The dome symbolizes the presence and mission of the Holy Spirit while the sanctuary symbolizes the presence and mission of the Son.
In the dome, you will notice the new blue paint and scriptural text on the drum of the dome to accentuate the original stained glass which feature movements of doves symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The passage from Matthew 1:20, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit,” are the words spoken from God to our patron, St. Joseph, through the angel, Gabriel. They were spoken over 2,000 years ago and they are continued to be addressed to us, the parish of St. Joseph, today. We are called to not be afraid of what the Holy Spirit is doing among us which is a continuation of the incarnation. What the Holy Spirit did in overshadowing Mary at the Annunciation and the apostles at Pentecost, He continues today. The Father sends the Holy Spirit to overshadow the Church and thus Jesus is conceived in her womb in the Eucharist, the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Like Joseph, we should not be afraid of Mary’s holiness amidst our all-too-present brokenness and welcome the Church and the Eucharist into our lives. The blue reminds us that the Church, like Mary, is our mother who cares for and nourishes us and that we must also, like Joseph, be faithful to her, support her, and defend her, for the Holy Spirit is with her. You will also notice the carpenter’s square together with lilies reminding us of Joseph’s carpentry work and his humble and chaste love for the Holy Family.
In the sanctuary, you will notice the new apse—a large semicircular recess—which encompasses the crucifixion scene at the top and the original, Marian stained glass below which are now more visibly prominent, both of which are tied together with the scriptural text from Ephesians 5:25-27, “Christ loved the Church and handed Himself over for her, to sanctify her that she might holy and immaculate.” The passage reminds us of the marriage of Christ with His Church which he definitively revealed on the cross. The Father sends His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to unite humanity to Himself so that we are not only forgiven but can now share in the very life of God. Not only was the Church present 2,000 years ago at Calvary in the person of Mary and His beloved disciple, St. John the Apostle, offering with Jesus His loving sacrifice to the Father, but the Church continues even now to offer that one, historical yet eternal sacrifice of Jesus to the Father in the Eucharist of the Mass. The Father not only handed over the Jesus to us then, but he continues to hand Him over to us in the Eucharist even now. The Eucharist is the marriage—communion—of God and His Church and, because of this most precious treasure, the Church is holy and immaculate like Mary. Thus, we are called to be as holy as the Church already is and, like Mary, to continually offer the sacrifice of Jesus to the Father.
The replacement of the original resurrected Jesus with the crucifixion scene reminds us of the priority of the sacrificial nature of the Mass and our vertically transcendent focus on God the Father. The crucified Jesus reminds us of Christ’s true humanity and the depths to which He entered our fallen, human condition. The presence of Mary, on the left, and St. John the Apostle, on the right, reminds us that our relationship with God is not merely individual—me and Jesus—but more truly ecclesial—Christ and His Church. The fact that Jesus is depicted as not having expired yet but rather looks lovingly and prayerfully up to His Father reminds us that everything we do in the Mass is directed toward our heavenly Father; that we come to Mass not so much to receive anything as to give something, to give the Father glory which is His only beloved Son truly present in the Eucharist. You will also notice the refurbished stations of the cross which highlight their presence and remind us to unite the sufferings of our daily crosses to the one perfect cross of Christ at the Mass. The presence of the resurrected Jesus at the back of the church reminds us that we leave the Mass to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus to others and to vigilantly await the second coming of Jesus Christ at the moment of our death and at the end of time.
By this coming Easter, we will have a newly sculpted Holy Family featuring a prominent St. Joseph in our St. Joseph niche (to the right of the sanctuary) and a relief statue of St. Cecilia, patron of musicians and choirs (to the left of the sanctuary.
We hope this newly renovated church is a fitting testimony to the rich reality of the sacrifice of the Mass, a monument to the beauty and generosity of the families that truly are this parish church, and a small glimpse of the ever ancient, ever new glory of our great God who sent His Son and Holy Spirit that we might partake in His glory forever.

Author: Rev. Fr. John Sollee, January 2021