Fr. Richard's mission: preaching, healing
Fr. Richard Goodin, OFM, receives a blessing from Provincial Minister Fr. Jeff Scheeler, OFM, and the congregation
Thanks to technology, missionaries are only a phone call
or a Skype session away.
But they are separated from loved ones by thousands of miles, maybe an ocean or two. And it is this realization that strikes those gathered Sept. 28 to send forth and support Richard Goodin as he heads to Jamaica. Touching in its simplicity, the missioning ritual brings home to his parents the reality of the distance and the assignment, ministry in a land where Catholics are few and challenges are many. Tears are shed and hugs are exchanged as SJB’s newest missionary is commissioned to serve the people of the Diocese of Montego Bay.
“It is a simple ceremony, yet profound and significant,” says celebrant Jeff Scheeler, welcoming guests to St. Clement Church. “Richard is not just going, we are sending him…. He is being sent on behalf of friars and the Church to share the Good News.”
Br. Roger Lopez, OFM
It should remind each of us “how we are sent and commissioned to do the Lord’s work.” The Gospel reading from Luke – when Jesus sends forth the 12 – was often repeated when Richard and fellow friars made their walking pilgrimage across Virginia five years ago: “Take nothing for the journey.” The disciples set out “proclaiming the Good News and healing people everywhere.”
Tell all the world In his Reflection one of Richard’s fellow pilgrims, Br. Roger Lopez, OFM, talks about the disciples’ “journey of acceptance and integration. But even in the slowness of their hearts, Christ confidently continues, motivating, witnessing, teaching, planting the seed of his goodness into their being.”
Inspired by the work of the Master, “They could not contain their zeal and fervor. The preaching of the Good News and the ministry of healing, which his disciples were reluctant at first to share, now overflowed and had to spill out upon the whole world, for they were the fruit of the initial encounter with Jesus Christ.”
In gathering on behalf of Richard we remember the task each of us has to preach and heal, Roger says. Yet we sometimes fall silent when we encounter those unlike us, people with a differing point of view, the very souls a missionary is called to serve. “It is in listening to those whom we normally tune out, and quelling judgment on those whom we regularly ignore that we can be better disciples who minister to the people of God,” Roger says.
Ministering to those who have been “overlooked, neglected and forgotten” means broadening our horizons. By doing so, “We will see the brokenhearted that we were blind to before and together our wounds shall be bound. This openness will enable us to speak the peace those in captivity long to hear. We will encounter the prisoners whom we have neglected and together find freedom. We will be given comfort to comfort those who mourn.”
Fr. Richard Goodin, OFM, with his parents Judy and Rick
Hugs and tears That sentence takes on special significance after the Missioning, when Richard agrees to “serve the people with zeal and love, relying on God’s mercy and rejoicing in his promise.” Jeff presents a cross, one worn by the late Howard Hudepohl during his ministry in Africa. As friars come forward for hugs and farewells Richard’s father, Rick, drapes an arm around the shoulders of wife Judy, who is overcome with the significance of this emotional moment.
“Go to your parents,” Jeff says quietly, pointing Richard in their direction. He later notes that “throughout most of the ceremony where Richard was sitting, he was right in the sunlight. I was taking that as a grace and blessing that the Lord was filling you with grace and energy.”
One more official act remains. Pastor Fred Link thanks Richard “for how you’ve entered into the life of St. Clement Parish the past three months” following ordination and in preparation for ministry in Jamaica. He addresses Judy and Rick. “I want you, Mom and Dad, to know he is terrific. Richard has blessed us abundantly” with his preaching, his organizational skills, his devotion to the parish festival, young adult ministry, scripture study and visits to shut-ins. “Mom and Dad, you’ve done so well,” Fred says, “and what a gift he will be wherever he goes.”
And no matter how far that seems, he’s really just a phone call away.
This article first appeared in the SJB News Notes
A video of Fr. Richard's Ordination in June and an interview on his life as a friar can be viewed on our Province Youtube page.
Fr. Richard and Br. Roger with Ms. Pearl and the staff of St. Anthony's Kitchen in Negril, Jamaica
