Gratitude Passion and Hope in Eloy
I found myself recently going through our parish archives and I came across an inspiring essay by the late Coach Phil Atwood, of Santa Cruz Valley High School, (1962-1968). His description of Eloy reads:
“For many years I have known of Eloy, Arizona, and like many, my concept of the town was that of a lawless town out of the past. It had the outward appearance of a degraded town of which there was little or no value. It was only when I became part of the community that I realized how wrong myself and many others had been. I found the people friendly; attitudes good; the city progressive; and the history fascinating.”
I believe the vision of Coach Atwood is shared by many who come or move to Eloy and are not sure of what they are moving in to! It has certainly been my experience.
One only needs to look deep into the people of this community to find that Faith in God has animated the life and culture of the people of Eloy, and the Santa Cruz Valley from its inception.
From the encounter between that faith and the Native descendants of Hohokam, the Pimas and Papagos, there has emerged the rich Christian culture of the valley expressed in art, music, literature, and above all, in the religious traditions and in the peoples’ whole way of being, united as we are by a shared history and a shared creed that gives rise to a great underlying harmony, despite the diversity of cultural backgrounds and languages.
This same faith has serious challenges to address, because the harmonious development of society and the Christian identity of our people might be in jeopardy.
At the beginning of the New Millenium, Pope John Paul II challenged the growing culture of pessimism and nihilism with his vision to “Remember the past with gratitude; live the present with passion and build the future with hope.”
We can apply these same principles into our Parish Community.
“Remember The Past With Gratitude”.
The history of St. Helen’s Parish embodies the missionary nature of the Catholic Church. As Catholics, we believe that in all people there is a silent longing for a Savior and that Christ is the Savior for whom all people silently seek. Pope Benedict XVI said that authentic cultures are not closed in upon themselves, nor are they set in stone at a particular point in history, but they are open, or better still, they are seeking an encounter with other cultures, hoping to reach universality through encounter and dialogue with other ways of life…in which the diversity of expression is always respected as well as the diversity of their particular cultural embodiment.”
The vision of intercultural embodiment is what first inspired Fr. Patrick Murphy on December 12th, 1936 to establish the first Mission of St. Anthony’s Parish on 4th Avenue in Eloy.
The new mission church was named after St. Helen (d. 330 AD), the mother of the emperor Constantine. From the time of her conversion, she had an earnest Christian life and by her influence and liberality favored the wider spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. She assisted not only individuals but entire communities. The poor and destitute were the special objects of her charity. During her travel to the Holy Land, she brought many relics; one of them believed to be a relic of the True Cross on which Jesus was crucified. Our Parish is named St. Helen of the Cross because of St. Helen’s achievement in 4th century archeological investigations. She is, for that very reason, the Patron Saint of Archeologist. In our parish, we possess a certified relic of the Wood of the Cross from which hung the Savior of the World.
On the very wet and windy day of December 5th, 1951, Msgr. Sylvio Ross broke ground on a piece of land donated by Mr. John Alsdorf to build the current church building. On October 1952, Fr. Paul Rook became the first pastor, as St. Helen became a parish. Later that year the first Mass was celebrated on the Feast of Christ the King by Fr. Ross. After numerous bake sales and much volunteer participation, the Youth Hall was completed and dedicated in 1954. Many priests have served St. Helen as their pastor.
Fr. Paul J. Rook+ (1952-1961); Fr. Gaspar L. Parente+ (1961-1967), Fr. Charles Towner+ (1967-1970), Msgr. James T. Stapleton+ (1970-1973), Fr. Joseph Gorsuch+ (1973-1998), Fr. Martin Martinez (1998-1994), Fr. Mathew Asemangema (2004-2005), Fr. Juan Carlos Aguirre (2005- )
More recently Fr. Wally Balduck served as Administrator Pro-Tem and Fr. Madhu Geroge as Parochial Vicar.
Live The Present With Passion
We live in a culture that values diversity, but that at times promotes polarization between peoples. We might avoid the conflicts of diversity by simplifying labels.
The Catholic Church teaches that “Ultimately, it is only the Truth that can bring unity, and the proof of this is love.” This is why Christ, as the Truth of God, is not alien to any culture, or to any person, or language or background. In the Church we do not measure “progress” with the movement of a pendulum between two poles. What the Church wants is to unite humanity and at the same time respecting the wealth of diversity, opening people everywhere to growth in genuine values that promote the dignity of the human person.
The older generation of parishioners, the new residents that move into the area, and those who are to come in the near future form the great mosaic which is the precious treasure of St. Helen of the Cross parish.
Each group contributes with different gifts and talents that enrich the Catholic and Missionary nature of our Church. This mosaic of diverse contributions to our faith must be protected, promoted and when necessary purified.
By contemplating our past with gratitude, we can live the present with passion. Today in Eloy and the Santa Cruz Valley area, there is a notable degree of maturity in faith among the many active lay men and women devoted to the Lord. Members of both Pastoral and Finance Councils. Altar Servers, Choir Girls, liturgical servers as lectors and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. There are also many generous catechists. There are many young people, and ecclesial movements, like the Altar Society, those who assist with the Bingo, Spanish Prayer Group and the Knights of Columbus. Yet, as Pope Benedict XVI said, “it is true that one can detect a certain weakening of Christian life in society overall and of participation in the life of the Catholic Church due to secularism, indifferentism and the search for immediate gratification amongst our younger generations.
Understanding that faith is an important aspect of our cultural experience, as Church we must ask ourselves some very basic questions: Who knows God? For the Church, God knows God! …In Jesus Christ, the Father is revealed to us. Hence, as Christian community we hold Christ dear to our hearts.
Without God, without Christ, our lives, our reality of life is transformed into an indecipherable enigma; there is no way, and without a way, there is neither life nor truth.
When the disciple arrives at an understanding of this life of Christ “to the end”, he cannot fail to respond to this life with a similar love: “I will follow you wherever you go” (Lk 9:57).
Faith in Christ gives us a family, the universal family of God in the Catholic Church.Faith releases us from the isolation from the “I”, because it leads us to communion. Our encounter with God is, in itself, an encounter with our brothers and sisters, an act of convocation, of unification, of responsibility towards the other and towards others. How do we introduce people, especially our youth, into this important mystery of faith?
Build the Future With Hope
I believe we must strive to change our paradigm—world view. We cannot mold the future of our community by fermenting polarizing ideas. Thus we need to build our future with hope.
In 2005 the Board of Directors of our Parish, supported by the Pastoral Council supported me in what as become known as the Pastor’s Appeal. This appeal is not only of financial significance for the improvement and betterment of our future. The Pastor’s Appeal is a comprehensive pastoral approach to the bring the Good News of Salvation to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Sunday Mass, Center of Christian Life. We give priority to pastoral programs that appreciate the importance of Sunday Mass. The participation of parents with their children at Sunday Mass is an effective way of teaching the faith and it is a close bond that maintains their unity with one another.
The Family. The family was and is the school of faith, the training–ground for human and civil values, the heart in which human life is born and is generously and responsibly welcomed. There has to be intense and vigorous pastoral care of families. By promoting sacramental marriage as the best environment to raise a Christian child.
The lay faithful must consider themselves jointly responsible for building society according to the criteria of the Gospel, with enthusiasm and boldness, in communion with their Pastors. All members of our parish are active when they take initiative in outreach programs. They assist in uniting the members of the Church and strive to be examples of Christian living for others.
Young people. I believe that we under estimate the potential of young people.The youth is not afraid of sacrifice, but of a meaningless life. Young people want to make a difference in our world, and their ideas must be taken seriously. They don’t want to be told how wrong they are, they want some one to teach them how to do what is right. To build their future with hope, young people must treat life as a continual discovery, never allowing themselves to be ensnared by current fashions or mentalities, but proceeding with profound curiosity over the meaning of life and the mystery of God, the Creator and Father, and his Son, our Redeemer, within the human family.
As a parish we must offer our youth programs that assist them in the discovering their potential and give them the tools needed to challenge the trends of secularism in our social environment.We must pass on to them the missionary zeal and love of Christ that led our predecessors build our parish many years ago.
Some one ask me in regards to methods to reach our children: “As we celebrate Mass in English or Spanish to reach out to people…can we celebrate Mass in “Kid”? I believe we must make the Sacrament of the Eucharist more accessible to our youth, and invite them to be active participants in the life of faith of the Church. Since May, with the help of many volunteers, we invited children to participate more actively at the 11:00 am Mass on Sundays. The “children’s mass” is intended to promote participation of children and teach them how to behave at Mass. It also assists parents to be more devoted during mass as they are not as distracted by their children.
In Conclusion, some of you may say, “How idealistic is Fr. Juan Carlos.” Perhaps he is just dreaming…we cannot do all that. There are some who might be pessimistic about this plan. But I am sure that we have the potential. We must remember that ideals must be place high, so to meet them half way. I am constantly reminded that the Lord seeks from us to maintain a steady course towards him. We are seeking progress, not perfection. St. Paul told us: “God has given us the wisdom to understand fully the mystery, the plan he was pleased to decree in Christ. A plan to be carried out in Christ, in the fullness of time, to bring all things into one with him, in the heavens and on earth” (Ephesians 1:3-5).
May the Wisdom of God guide us and our parish family.
Fr. Juan Carlos Aguirre