Keynote Address from Rev Paul Makar
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Before I begin, I must start with a caveat and a heartfelt “thank you” to Father Ruslan Romanyuk, who, as you well know, was my predecessor here at St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, Cherry Hill. The caveat is that often when I have interesting conversations with people, they unintentionally give me raw material that I can use to form a homily or a speech. Last October, in Chicago, all the Ukrainian Catholic Clergy of the United States of America came together for a clergy conference. One night there, at the hotel bar, Father Ruslan and I had a very interesting and uplifting conversation over a few drinks with some of our brother priests. Father, I think that you will understand what I am talking about as I continue, and as such, I cannot thank you enough for the inspiration for what I am about to say.
Some of you are undoubtedly wondering, what could Father Ruslan and I have talked about? Well, I intend to make that clear, but for now, I want to do a little time travel. Some of you here may remember my last homily and bulletin to you in my last Divine Liturgy of July 30th, 2017, just before I left for my new pastoral assignment to St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Minersville, PA, and Nativity of the Theotokos Ukrainian Catholic Church in Middleport, PA. Some of you may remember I was quite a fan of the original Doctor Who television series. When I left you, I quoted a very famous and timeless farewell speech that the First Doctor gave to his granddaughter. I said to all of you, paraphrasing from the actor William Hartnell:
During all the years that I have been taking care of you, all of you, in return, have been taking care of me. I want you all to have roots of your own, as any mature Christian should. Here, at St. Michael’s Cherry Hill, you will find that all of you already have those roots – deep roots nourished by God’s Grace and your faith in Him.
But the time must come for us to depart.
One of these days, I shall come back. Yes, yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no tears, no regrets, and no anxieties. Just go forward, full of the Grace of the Holy Spirit, full of the faith given to you by God, with all your beliefs . . . and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.
I firmly believe God has blessed me to keep this promise for you, and thus I have come back, and am honored to share a few words with you to commemorate this special occasion of the 100th anniversary of your parish. This is a very special and blessed occasion, a grace that has been given to all of you, by God, to share and treasure in your hearts, with your children, your grandchildren, and your generations to come.
I am willing to bet that all of you adults and teenagers here remember the very first love of your life. You know those butterflies in the stomach that you get, those twitters that hit you in your limbs, when you were struck by cupid’s arrow and fell in love with someone for the very first time. Trust me, you know that feeling. Dean Martin’s words capture that feeling very well – you know when “that’s amore”, “when the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie.” For some people, those feelings inspire them to make a move, and when they do, they begin to learn about that person intimately and almost immediately. For some, that move ends right there; for others, they date and find out it doesn’t work; for the lucky others, they grow together and mature, and their love blossoms like a fruit tree. No matter if you married your first love, or if you have gone through several, you all know that your very first love sticks in your mind and even if you are with the one God has granted you, you still know those details and feelings from that very first time.
In a like manner, no matter whether a priest is married, or if he is celibate, I guarantee you, every priest on our God given planet remembers full well his very first pastoral assignment. That first assignment to a parish is almost identical to the very first lady a man falls in love with. St. Michael’s was my very first love, as I am sure it was for Father Ruslan, and for Bishop Basil Losten, for you were our very first pastoral assignment as priests. Yes, truly, you really are my very first love.
Just as I never forgot all those feelings that came over me when I met my very first girlfriend long before I entered seminary, I too never forgot those feelings when Metropolitan +Stefan first gave me orders to come here to be your pastor. I never forgot that very first day I arrived and Father Ivan Demkiw, Dean of the Philadelphia deanery at that time, signed me onboard and released Father Ruslan to his assignment at Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church in Shamokin, PA. I remember how I trembled when I signed the transfer and audit papers and received the keys to St. Michael’s Church and Rectory. I remember the smell, the look, and the taste of the pizza lunch that Vicki and Greg Kara got for us from People’s Pizza off Route 38. I never forgot the butterflies, the excitement, the fear, the mistakes in that fateful first week of August 2012. It still sticks in my mind so vividly that I still can recall almost every exact feeling and sensation I had.
I can tell you how I was curled up in a ball after everyone left the rectory on that day, crying my eyes out and panicking, wondering, “Just what am I going to do?” Some of you here may remember my confessor, the Very Rev. Archpriest +Daniel Gurovich of Bethlehem, PA (and in an ironic twist of fate, I am now very busy trying to fill in his big shoes at St. Josaphat’s for the past year!), because I called him up in tears. I remember his dry, sardonic voice on the phone saying, “Hi Paul”, and I screamed at him, “I have a wedding in two days, bulletins to print, a funeral next week and a feast day – WHAT DO I DO??” And he said in his unique curmudgeonly, yet fatherly, way, “Don’t they teach you anything in seminary??? All you have to do is look for a black book that says weddings, fill that out, sign the sheet of paper that says, ‘marriage license’, look up the bulletins on the parish computer and print them out, keep your first homily short, tell the people you will love them, shake their hands, and do what the funeral director tells you to do!” After I hung up the phone, I tried my best to do my job that I was assigned to do.
I’ll never forget how that very first weekend, the bride and her family screamed at me for ruining her wedding because I followed the ritual of Matrimony by the book and did not customize the wedding to her demands. Also, because that bride just HAD to be ‘fashionably late’, I wound up forgetting the bulletins and being ½ hour late for Saturday Liturgy at the former Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Williamstown, where I faced the wrath of people there (they all later forgave me). I never forgot how that Sunday how the people setting up for Sunday coffee greeted me, with Pani Anna Slotwinska loudly wondering if I was going to hit my head on the upper part of the iconastasis since I was so tall. There were so many other memories too that I can’t even begin to recount them all.
Truly, I got baptized by fire that first week here, and truly, like Dean Martin’s proverbial ‘pizza pie’, I got smacked right in the eye!
I (and I am sure the same holds for Father Ruslan and Bishop Basil) was blessed and most fortunate to cut my teeth learning the arts of pastoral care during those five years I was assigned to be your priest. Some of you remember those days, from when I first adopted my two rectory princesses, Mittsie and Whiskas (and they both say meow from Bethlehem), to starting up catechism classes with the Missionary Sisters of the Mother of God, to visiting the homebound, to preaching at your Divine Services, and so much more. In one way or another, all of you taught me, Father Ruslan, Bishop Losten, and many others, how to work the craft of pastoral care for God’s people, to truly love all of you just as a father loves his own bride and children. True, mistakes were made, tough decisions were handled, arguments were had, and even discipline needed to be administered. But with the love of God, we learned to forgive, to love and to grow together, just as a father and his family mature together. In all of that, I learnt just how God works amongst his people, how He bestowed his grace upon all you who laid down deep roots of faith as an anchor that still holds you together as a community, as one body united with the love of God.
That anchor came from some very dear people who are no longer with us. Tough people who you did not exactly want to tangle with, but at the same time, they loved you even more because of your faith (and respected you even more because you did dare to stand toe to toe with them!). People whom God called before they could see the day you are experiencing now, people who helped shape the history of St. Michael’s and laid a foundation for all of you here. You are their descendants, and all of you now share in the fruits of the harvest that they planted starting 100 years ago. The Grace that God has blessed them with, you all are blessed to share with each other now, here, today.
To show just how deep this foundation of love goes, I want to show you this big envelope I have with me at the podium. Don’t worry, this is not my speech, but it does contain something priceless. Most of you know me to be a very sentimental man. I have kept this folder with me everywhere I have gone. This folder contains a stack of letters from a man who has kept continual contact with me ever since his sister died here in New Jersey and moved with his mother to be with his brother in Florida. In his unique loving and innocent way, he recounted me the history of St. Michael’s parish that was related to him from his father, and from you parishioners over the years. To give you an idea of this love that you built for each other to show you how special St. Michael’s is, I will give you a brief reading of one letter of his from September 18th, 2017 (reprinted here):
Dear Father Paul,
I wanted to tell you we had that hurricane Irma here a couple of weeks ago. my mother and I got through it alright thank God. We stayed at my nephew’s home Saturday, and Sunday and on Monday we came home. We are still in hurricane season down here. hurricane season ends the last week in November. I hope you are happy at your new church (in Minersville). I called Steve Slotwinski two weeks ago and he is ok. he said that he was going to call you. I told Steve that in 2023 St. Michaels's church will be celebrating its 100th anniversary. Steve is going to tell it to Mary and also to Vicki so they can have some kind of celebration. St Michaels church began on September 6th 1923 in Camden. My father kept records of the Church. he wanted me to learn the history of our church at St Michael's. Good luck at your new church and I hope the people there made you feel welcome. God bless you.
Yours in Christ. Paul Berezowski
Most of you here remember Paulie well, and I am sorry he can’t be here with us. We have corresponded continually ever since, and in these letters contains much information about how you have that deep root of the love of God in all of you here. I want you to know, I took six letters in which he recounts the entire history of St. Michael’s Church, from its inception in Camden, NJ, all through the move and construction of the new church in Cherry Hill, up to when I left in July 2017. I had these originals framed for you, and I hope that, with Father Eugene’s blessing, you place them in your church hall so that you can read these words of your history and rekindle that love of God in your hearts. Even though they are private correspondences, they really capture the essence of God’s love among you; thus, I believe you should have them for you and your posterity. Father Eugene, I would like to present this to Mickey Romach, Mary Chubik, and Mary Ann Cokos, your Centennial organizers, and please place this in the hall as a reminder of your parish history, and the grace that God has given to you all (Father Paul presents the frame with Paul Berezowski’s letters to Mr. Michael Romach, Mary Chubik, and Mary Ann Cokos).
I pray you all realize that, with today’s prayer at Divine Liturgy, and your fellowship here today, all of you share a deep, God-given love that lasted a hundred years, a love that is indeed a grace from God. In Greek, this type of love is known as “agape”, the highest form of love, a love that mirrors God’s love for all of us, for all His creation. You have been blessed with this love as a parish. Always hold on to it. Always cherish and treasure it. By doing so, in following God’s commandments, in following the teachings of the Church, in doing the good works that you do here in this Church, God may bless your children and your children’s children to have this special crown jewel for another 100 years.
I love you all, and may God bless you all for another 100 years!
Glory to Jesus Christ!
