Mission Magazine Autumn 2023

A letter from our
National Director
For over 25 years, Father Thomas
Lyon served as a curate (Parochial Vicar)
at Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish in the
Flatlands section of Brooklyn. He was
beloved. When we met, I was newly
ordained, and he was in the twilight of
his years, having suffered a stroke that
badly impaired his speech and cognitive
functionality. He also looked very
disheveled. Nevertheless, the number of
people who requested him to celebrate
funerals and even weddings was
incredible. Frankly, it did a little damage
to my ego. One day, I asked a bride why
Monsignor Kieran E. Harrington during a visit to
Ukraine in Easter 2022.
she requested Father Lyons. She responded, “When my grandmother was at
home and couldn’t come to church, he faithfully brought communion, and
when my Dad was in the hospital, he came regularly to visit.”
To this young bride and so many like her, it didn’t matter that they couldn’t
understand Father Lyon’s homily or make out what he was saying at Mass. His
life was the sermon.
Over the summer months, priests from all over the world visit parishes in
the United States as part of the Missionary Cooperative plan. Sometimes, these
priests speak with a pronounced accent, and it can be a little exasperating to go
to Mass and not understand the homily. Yet, I would propose that their lives
are really the homily and the Mass.
The Holy Eucharist is a sacrifice, and the one who offers it is Christ through
the hands of the priest. Jesus is the sacrifice and the one offering the sacrifice.
We priests, despite our own unworthiness, act in the person of Christ, the head
of the Church. As such, our lives ought to be configured to His own. We priests
should live sacrificial lives; we should live a life for others.