I read somewhere that the first 12 minutes in a church dramatically influences whether you’re coming back or not. This is before you’ve heard the music or the pastor speak or even decided where’s the “best place” to sit during the service. When we moved to Shepherdstown, we checked out a few churches, trying to decide which one might be best for us. St. Agnes was an old, very small building and it offered essentially no parking.
When we entered the church, it didn’t take anywhere close to 12 minutes — we knew almost immediately this was the place for us. As soon as we met Fr. Mat, the decision was easy.
Over the years, I’ve attended all kinds of churches in many, many places around the world. I’ve been exposed to, and in some cases, gotten to know many members of the “clergy.” (I used the term clergy, but I think that technically refers to “christian” religious personnel — some of those religious orders weren’t “christian.”) But over the years, I’ve come to know many, or at least some, of this group fairly well. It would be easy to rank my top five — after that, it would become a little more difficult. But Fr. Mat would be at the top of my list every time.
This past Sunday, Fr. Mat celebrated his last “official” Mass at St. Agnes in Shepherdstown. He now embarks on, hopefully, many years of a much deserved retirement. A few years ago St. Agnes had a stewardship initiative entitled GIFT. Even now, I’m not sure how I viewed that initiative or felt about it at the time. The bottom line of the undertaking was to improve out relationship with God by the act of giving — I certainly never had any issues with the concept — giving is one of the central themes of the Bible — gifts, giving, etc. are mentioned hundreds, if not thousands, of times and the giving and receiving of gifts brings joy to most people. I’ve heard it said that God’s greatest gift to us was Himself. But I think His greatest gift to St. Agnes was Fr. Mat.
So on this auspicious occasion, congratulations and thanks to Fr. Mat — and along with those wishes we should probably include an apology. We often only think of him as the true Shepherd that he is, and we forget that he has his own problems — probably because he is so good at putting his own situations aside and making us feel as though we matter to him more than anything else. He never tells us to call him later when he’s busy, when we suffer the loss of a loved one, when we have trouble in our lives or homes, when we are sick — he’s always there. Very few parishes are so fortunate to have the gift of God we’ve had in Fr. Mat. Happy retirement!!
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Amen!