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POSTCRIPT
Holy Name Parish in the lengthening day of its new life must either advance or recede from its present status. The momentum of its first fervour may propel it for a while but is energy will inevitably evaporate if not reinforced with fresh zeal and loyal support. Valiant words and facile optimism are easily formed and easily uttered, but in the daily grind of blazing and clearing the way they contribute little to the substance and quality of parish life. Even the high-sounding name, which is the honorable title the parish assumed, will lose the appeal and rousing power of an earlier date, unless sustained by continuous loyalty and indomitable courage.
Holy Name has, from the start, been confronted with problems greater than its years. During the fitful period of the world war, when civil and ecclesiastical undertakings were held in the perplexing coils of drifting circumstances and changeful fortune, the parish was forced to struggle against conditions which cramped it movements and postponed the fruition of its first hopes. Faced with increasing burdens, and rapidly advancing prices in labour and material, it was compelled to undergo obligations unwarranted by its years and resources, or else suffer a setback, which might prove irreparable. Hence both church and presbytery are out of proportion to the ordinary time required for a gradual and properly developed expansion. But while apparently massive in plan and framework, Holy Name lacks the robustness and tenacity of grown-up life and is still liable to the hazards and aberrations of nonage. Like an orchard in the blows, it requires the close attention and fostering care of ardent friends who will safeguard it over the trying time of adolescence.
At this particular juncture, when the parish is emerging from its teens into adult life, the need of the hour is the courage, self-sacrifice and staying power of those who helped to share its destiny and prosper its course. The transitional period through which the parish is now passing is critical, if no perilous, and demands the unstinted help of all who wish to see it attain to the finished strength of a highly developed organization. The liabilities are yet great and overhead expenses considerable, but the record of what has been done in a few hectic years encourages the belief that if each parishioner of workable age contributes an honest share to the parish budget, Holy Name will grow into the full opulence of a great and highly disciplined Catholic centre.
If during the gaunt years of a precarious beginning the founders and builders of Holy Name preached and practiced the Gospel of bigness, should a less generous spirit obtain in this ampler day of greater opportunity? If in the large payments that had to be met during construction time, there was ladled out without intermission the sweat of toilers on the edge of poverty, should there not survive the strong hope that the springs and taps of Holy Name liberality will remain open and continue to flow into the years to come.
But it sometimes happens that after the performance of a big task, the participants may grow stale and lost the thrill of their first fervor. Having withdrawn from the strenuous athletics of parish founding and church building, they sometimes unconsciously lapse into a lassitude and indifference, which begets slackness of thought and slackness of effort. Theirs is a type of stolid unconcern, which the church sets downs as a “pestilence;” which means that we have authority for regarding backwardness and inaction as a real menace to parish progress. It is recorded in the Gospel that two men, holy alike by profession and occupation, proved unequal to a service which ordinary people are ready and pleased to render, of giving firstaid to a dying man. Being selfish and unheeding the priest and Levite refused to take the risk of remaining a few minutes, while they assisted a stricken and half-dead stranger. They were satisfied to evade their duty as long as it was not compelling, in the hope that somebody else, less prudent and wise than themselves, might come and the same way and take charge of the sufferer. Not prepared to take any chance, when their own lives were even remotely in danger, they lost no time in moving away from the danger zone. Christ preached a long parable to illustrate their indifference and deadness of heart as well as to call upon them the everlasting contempt of mankind.
Shade trees are all the better for being ornamental, but better still, if they yield fruit as well as leaves. In California the favorite shade tree happens to be the orange tree, the fruit of which adds pleasure to the breakfast table while the branches afford protection from the sun as well. The same combination is needed in parish life. Professions of loyalty are desirable but achievements are necessary; acquiescence is good but performance is better. It is well if a parish at times can rise to the height of an exalted phrase for the sake of promoting interest and kindling enthusiasm, but better yet if it can count on a full-blooded generosity which is able to quicken its pulse and hasten its steps.
A parish whose members are not willing to go down into their pockets to speed it on its upward course can hardly hope to ever reach the full flood of success. In such an atmosphere the most promising saplings are stunted into shrubs and the most glowing hopes are blasted by retardment and disappointment. Fed on empty crumbs, a parish necessarily loses character and dignity and can only continue by cumbering the ground.
If Holy Name has satisfactorily progressed and maintained throughout a good batting average it is largely due to the fact of its having retained that discipline of self-denial which inspired its first fervour and early loyalty. Under the auspices of its great title and in the light of is heroic beginning and unbroken perseverance there is ample room for the hope may long remain a nursery of the faith and an inspiring school of wholesome Catholicity. REPRINTED FROM “HOLY NAME PARISH 1913 – 1927” A PARISH HISTORY PUBLISHED 1927. |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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