Late priest's homilies compiled into book; packed with wisdom

By Tony Staley

	Stewardship Stewardship: A Way of Life is the diocesan thrust. It invites Catholics to acknowledge that all of life is a gift of God and to respond through prayer, service and sharing. This series will look at ways to do that.

It's been nearly a year since Fr. Greg Smith, pastor of Good Shepherd Parish, Chilton, died of cancer. He also had been the pastor at St. Luke Parish, Two Rivers, and the associate pastor at St. Mary Parish, Algoma, and Holy Name Parish, Kimberly.

"You Are a Voice," a book containing 26 of his homilies, is just in time to celebrate the first anniversary of his death, Dec. 20.

The book was compiled and edited by Pat Vanden Boogaard, longtime director of faith formation at St. John the Baptist Parish, Howard, and Gary Van Helvoirt, a volunteer at the parish, where Fr. Smith was co-pastor for 10 years until July 1, 2005.

The homilies cover the entire liturgical year with the greatest concentration on Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. It is rounded out by the homily Fr. Bill Swichtenberg, longtime co-pastor at Howard, preached at Fr. Smith's funeral.

Fr. Smith also was co-pastor, with Fr. Swichtenberg, of St. Joseph and Immaculate Conception parishes in Oneida while serving at Howard.

Fr. Smith gave informative and interesting homilies that offered guidance and suggestions for his listeners - and himself - on things to do on the road to salvation.

While Fr. Smith doesn't specifically mention stewardship in any of these homilies, what he is talking about is stewardship: realizing that all we have is a gift of God that we should be thankful for and use wisely. That he has such an understanding is not surprising because he had made stewardship his way of life and he was a strong advocate of stewardship.

For the second Sunday of Advent he suggested: take an honest look at yourself; practice constructive self-criticism; do something to bring about change.

We can't just intend to do something because nothing will happen unless we take some action, he said. "So we have to make that phone call. Write that letter. Visit that friend. Offer that apology. Take that extra time each day to pray. Or whatever it is. Our lives are not going to change themselves."

On the third Sunday of Advent, he invited his audience to change Jn 1:6 from "There was a man named John sent by God" to read "There was a man (or woman) named (insert your own name here) sent by God." The reason, he said, is that it's true: "Your life has a divine origin. It is too sacred to be wasted or desecrated in any way. You were sent by God. I was sent by God. If we could ever get that idea clearly in our minds, I don't think we could ever again violate any of life's sanctities."

For the fourth Sunday of Advent, he said that even if we don't like to admit it, we all believe in sin. As proof, he noted that we keep our car keys with us, not in the ignition.

It's not just the sins of others, like robbery, from which we need to be saved, he said. "We need to be saved from our own sins. We need to be saved from selfishness, from our greed and from our bad tempers. We need to be saved from hatred, bitterness, resentment and dishonesty. This is the kind of salvation that Jesus came into the world to accomplish."

On Christmas, he said that most of us are afraid to make room for Jesus in our lives, because we fear that if we gave him a little room, "he'd take too much room; that little by little he'd take over our lives. He'd change our interests, our values and our priorities until we'd be different."

We are modern Magi, he said on Epiphany. Like them, we must commit ourselves totally to Jesus and then travel home a different way.

What the church wants you and me to realize on Palm or Passion Sunday, he said, "is that in a world where Christian people and Christian churches can still commit sins of racism, sexism, consumerism and materialism and see nothing wrong or inconsistent about that, our taking home a palm branch today is not enough. In fact it's nothing. It's just a little souvenir that says we went to church. That is not enough. We need to hear again the story of the Passion. We need to make it our story."

In another homily, he addressed the idea that religions don't matter because they all believe in God. It does matter, he said, because Jesus, unlike Muhammad, Buddha, Abraham or Moses, said: "The Father and I are one." That means, "If Jesus is who he says he is, then Christians do have a more accurate view of God than any other religious group."

In another homily, he warned: "Any time our religion convinces us that we are somehow better than others, our religion has gone bad. Good religion, regardless of the label it wears, will always make me more conscious of my sins and failures than I am of yours. All good religion begins by revealing to me that I, too, am a sinner. I, too, have areas of my life that are unredeemed. And I, too, need a Savior. Therefore, I am in no position to look down on anyone else. In true religion, what counts is not what we do; what counts is the love in our heart that motivates us to do what we do."

Another time, he invited his congregation to pretend they were preparing for confession, but instead of listing their sins, he asked them think of all the good things that make them loveable.

"All our gifts come from God," he said. "To recognize and celebrate our gifts is really an act of praise and worship to the Giver of those gifts."

In his homily for Christ the King, based on Mt 25:31-46 - the Last Judgment - Fr. Smith said Jesus is "a very strange kind of king." Rather than dine lavishly, our King is hungry. Our King does not live in a palace, but is homeless. He wears tattered clothes at best and is behind bars in concentrations camps and prisons.

Rather than rule by force, he invites us to help him in the needy person. "But we don't have to help him unless we choose to," Fr. Smith said.

"You Are a Voice" is packed with wisdom, insights and challenges. It would make a splendid Christmas gift. Mainly, it deserves to be prayerfully read and pondered again and again.

"You Are a Voice" is available at St. John the Baptist Church, Howard; St. Catherine Book Shop, Green Bay; and on Amazon.com.

(Staley is a retired editor of The Compass.)