Homily – Corpus Christi – A Letter from Kristi

Exodus 24:3-8

Hebrew 9:11-15

Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

 

This weekend we celebrate the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ -- Corpus Christi.

          On Friday night, Archbishop Murphy High School honored another Kristi as we graduated 94 seniors. One student was graduated posthumously. Kristi Bartz was killed in a tragic train accident almost one month ago.

When the name Kristiane Nicole Bartz was read, her two older sisters Stefani and Michaela both graduates of A-M-H-S walked in her place to a standing ovation as they received their sister’s diploma.
 

          There was not a dry eye in the house.

      As each graduate went to receive his or her diploma, they placed a yellow rose in a basket under Kristi’s empty chair. A beautiful hand drawn picture of Kristi adorned the chair along with her red cap and gown.  All students were wearing yellow “KB” initials on their caps. Yellow was Kristi’s favorite color.

          At the senior awards assembly one week earlier, Kristi received two awards that had been selected weeks before her death.

One scholarship was from the Mill Creek Business Association. The other was from the U.S. Army Reserve naming her the Female National Scholar Athlete of the Year.

To standing ovations, her mother Karen and father Manfred were presented both of these awards honoring their daughter.  

Again, not a dry eye in the house.

Three weeks ago, we held Kristi’s funeral (here) at our own Immaculate Conception Church in Everett.

A packed church watched as her family, and the two friends who were with her in death, lit candles around the urn that held her earthly remains.

Her father and two sisters eulogized Kristi in beautiful ways.

A video with pictures from her life and her favorite Christian songs helped to start the healing process.

A few days earlier, on what would have been Kristi’s 18^th birthday, we gathered in our A-M-H-S gym with her family to share stories about the friendships and good times forged during her lifetime with us.

Kristi’s family and close friends were all on couches. The students were on the floor with blankets and pillows.  Her classmates and family wanted the gym feel like one giant living room. It did.

Amazingly enough, Kristi’s birthday fell on the 40^th day after the Resurrection, on the Ascension.

At the end of the Memorial of Life gathering, we marched to the football field with a thousand balloons.

After reading the story of the Ascension found in Acts of the Apostles, I shared something found in Kristi’s day-planner inside a pencil-etching she did of angel’s wings.

It read, “It’s always the saddest thing when angels fly away.”

On a clear spring night with the sunset in the distance, we released a thousand balloons to the heavens.

Kristi was one of my leaders at our Kairos retreat for juniors and seniors at Archbishop Murphy.  She was an awesome young person; hard working, strong willed, conscientious and compassionate.

While at Kairos, students have transformational faith experiences. For many, it’s their most impactful God experience in high school.

Near the end of Kairos, students write a letter to themselves documenting the impact the experience has had on them. They are told the letters will arrive at their homes in six weeks.  

Kristi’s final letter arrived a few days before her death. Her sister Stefani found her Kairos letters in Kristi’s room on the night of her death and read them.  She then read the letter at Kristi’s funeral to gasps from the audience who heard a prophetic voice.

With the family’s loving permission, I’d like to share the letter Kristi Bartz wrote on Kairos.

I think it will touch many hearts in this Church, but especially touch the hearts of our young people searching for God in their lives.

This is Kristi’s Kairos letter:

 _______________________________________________

Dear Kristi of the Future:

I hope at this point you have not forgotten your amazing experience at Kairos. But in case you have, let this be a reminder of how you felt and what you learned through this experience.

Never forget how important it is to love.

I know how easy it is, for you especially, to get caught up in the constant chaos in your life. But remember that you are never too busy to show someone you care.

You’ve had your rough patches and you will have more. But don’t forget that you aren’t alone.

Remember all the amazing individuals who opened up to you and shared their stories of suffering. They showed their true self, putting themselves in a vulnerable position so that they could receive love. Don’t be afraid to do the same.

You are independent and self-reliant, but it’s okay to admit that you need people sometimes.

You ignited, rekindled, and strengthened a lot of relationships at Kairos and I hope they can continue to grow throughout your senior year. Do your best to branch out and reach out.

Make it a memorable year. Leave your mark on Murphy. Don’t lose sight of the things that are important to you and the people that motivate you.

You are who you make yourself and that cannot be determined by anyone else. Be the strong, determined, and energetic leader that you are and remember how much you are loved and valued by the people in your life.

If you’ve learned anything from your rough patches and your experiences at Kairos, take it upon yourself to make sure no one feels alone and unworthy the way that you have seen in others and yourself because no one deserves that. Save a life.

Last of all keep your faith close to your heart. Let it guide you in the choices you make and let God in. It’s hard, I know, but it is through Him that you are who you are so thank Him for that.

And while you’re at it, tell someone you love them today. Let them see how much you really care before you may not have the chance anymore. 

Stay strong girl always. I love you for who you are and who you’ve become.

Don’t let nobody stop you from taking charge of your future.

Yours Truly,

You (Kristi from the past)       

____________________________________________

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain helped us break ground for our new chapel at Murphy the day before Kristi died.

          He wrote something powerful in this month’s Northwest Catholic entitled: The true meaning of life.

“By desiring and loving me, God brought me into being and sustains me. I am neither the source nor the goal of my own life. I am one who is desired and loved by God, moment after moment, and therefore I am alive. My existence is evidence that God exists.”

Kristi knew that. She felt her Kairos experiences helped draw her closer to God and helped her forge a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

The word Kairos stands for God’s time. We live in what is called Chronos, human time. Time we can keep on a watch.

Kristi now lives eternally in Kairos.  

Thank you for keeping Kristi’s family and friends in your prayers as we heal from this painful loss.

On this Corpus Christi weekend may we also give thanks to Jesus Christ who opened the gates of heaven for us all, and keeps us connected to Him through His Most Holy Body and Blood.

Homily - Memorial Service for Kristi Bartz

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

Romans 8:31b-35,37-39

Luke 24:13-35

 

When we heard the news last Saturday and at our Sunday prayer service at Archbishop Murphy, how many of us felt like the disciples on the road to Emmaus?   

Grief-stricken, in disbelief, suffering deep sadness?  

We were downcast and distraught, walking away from the experience with heavy hearts.

Our joy in knowing and loving Kristi was displaced with despair, our happiness to be in her presence was replaced with grief, bitterness and anger.

All the hopes we had about Kristi’s future life vanished in an instant.

Much like the hope the disciples had in their future life with their savior. All of their dreams of the one who would redeem Israel, a leader who be King, dashed by the crucifixion.

But like Christ rejoice. Kristi has been born to new life.

These words may ring hollow for some today, but I want to challenge us all to let the light of Christ shine on our darkness and help us to see a new reality.

I know it’s hard for many of us to understand God’s plan in all of this. Why would he take one so young, so promising, so fully alive?

I wish I knew the answer.  I wish I could say something meaningful to make sense of it all.

I do know, Christ was the first to weep for Kristi. God cried as he extended his hand to guide Kristi from this life and give her new life.      

I do know, as we heard from our first reading,

 

 

 

“There is an appointed time for everything... A time to give birth, and a time to die... a time to weep, a time to mourn.”

 

A freak accident took her earthly life. But that’s not the end of Kristi’s story. It’s the only beginning.

For Christ, it didn’t end on the cross. That was not the end of the story, but the beginning.

A new book was written with the Resurrection. In Christ’s obedience to God’s plan and loving sacrifice for us all, the gates of heaven were opened for all who believed in our savior and we were all given the hope of eternal life.

And for Kristi, her story didn’t end on the trestle. Her earthly journey may have come to a close, but her eternal life was just beginning.

As St. Paul reminded us in the second reading:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life… will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We’ve all seen signs of Kristi’s spirit alive in our community this past week.

Kristi was with us when our softball team had a miraculous comeback against a league-leading rival. Kristi was with us when our soccer team played one of its best games of the season. Kristi was with Cole Brandt, her prom date, as he was on the mound this week keeping batters off balance in an important game heading into the district championship series.  Kristi was with us at the track meet as her dearest friends Camilla and Rory stepped back onto the field to compete.

Kristi was with us as we celebrated her 18^th birthday on what was the 40^th day after the Resurrection, the Ascension.  And as we released a thousand balloons we heard a quote from Kristi’s day-planner that read, “It’s the saddest thing when angels fly away.”  She was with us again as those balloons soared high into the sunset.

And Kristi’s spirit is here with us now. Her beauty is present in these pictures and in the memories we hold deep in our hearts. Her spirit is here in the love we all feel for her today.

Kristi soars now with a choir of angels. Perhaps she’s now the fastest angel. Or at least the angel with quirkiest (or as her friends would say “weirdest”) sense of humor.

I’m sure she’s entertaining her fellow cherubim and seraphim with her funny accents and telling God stories about each and every one of us.

Thoughts like this bring me peace. I hope they do the same for you.

Kristi loved her Kairos retreat experience at Archbishop Murphy. I met Kristi for the first time last fall when this young lady with the infectious smile came up to say, “Thank you” for letting her take part in a life changing faith experience.

In the spring, Kristi signed up to lead Kairos and had her heart set on doing a certain role. But the adult leaders knew this would be her only time to lead and wanted her to be the face of the retreat along with several others.

She let me know her disappointment in a very direct manner. That was Kristi’s way. She liked to get her way.

But I asked her to pray on our decision and ask God where the best place was for her. She came back a day later, resigned and said, “OK, I’ll do it.”

After our retreat she thanked me profusely for pushing her to be a leader. She told me she felt it was where God wanted her to be, touching the lives of others with her compassionate care and concern for the wellbeing of others.

As I’ve heard from those in her charge this week, she had a tremendous impact on their lives.

Kristi felt her Kairos experiences helped draw her closer to God.

The word Kairos stands for God’s time. We live in what is called Chronos, human time. Time we can keep on a watch.

Kristi now lives eternally in Kairos.  She will wait there for each and every one of us, ready to greet us when our earthly lives come to an end. 

So, may “our hearts burning [within us]” as we think of Kristi’s new life in Christ Jesus

And let us always remember, today is not good bye, only see you later. See you later, Kristi.

Homily – 5th Sunday of Easter - Vine and Branches

Acts 9:26-31

1 John 3:18-24

John 15:1-8

 

This weekend’s readings are a gold mine for missionaries.

When we travel to faraway lands to bring Christ to the poor, amazing things happen if we heed Christ’s words,

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”

We see this with St. Paul in his mission to spread the Gospel to the world of his day.

We witness St. Paul’s debut as a disciple in today’s first reading from Acts of the Apostles. Eventually, the disciples will Saul-Paul has a deep connection to Christ.

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.”

You see for missionaries these words drive mission. These words turn worlds upside down. These words can change lives and how we see the world forever.  St. Paul understood that.

I am praying these words as we form our parish’s Guatemala Mission team. I’m praying we will have a life-changing experience in San Lucas Toliman in the Lake Atitlan area of Guatemala this summer. I’m praying our hearts will be touched by what we experience and the doors of the Kingdom will open to our young people, their parents and grandparents.

Young people today need a mission experience to see the face of Christ. They need to unplug from this comfortable culture and experience life without their Smart Phones, without their social media, without their constant connectivity to a less than divine source.

When we unplug from this world and plug into Christ’s work with the poor and marginalized, we are branches connected to the true vine and we produce much fruit.

 I want to thank all of you who donated to our Guatemala mission trip at Mass a few weeks back. You are helping to bring Christ to a broken world. You are helping to extend branches from the true vine. You are helping to forever change the lives of your fellow parishioners.

For a young lady about the age of several of our Guatemala missionaries, a senior year trip to Uganda changed her life forever and turned her world upside down. Christ called her into mission.

Katie Davis was born and raised in Brentwood, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville.  She was senior class president, homecoming queen and preparing for graduation and college.

But her journey to Africa opened her eyes to a world so different from her own and put a face on the plight of the poor that would seer into her soul and plant a seed of mission.

She said, “Slowly but surely I began to realize the truth: I had loved and admired and worshipped Jesus without doing what He said.” Without taking care of the “least of these” our sisters and brothers.

But in Uganda, she was faced with the overwhelming need and her heart ached to do something to be Christ to these people.

So, after returning to the United States to finish her senior year, Katie started planning to return to Africa after graduation. She promised her parents she would only for one year before returning to go to college and fulfill the dreams they had for her life.

 She told friends she was quitting her life.

But she promised it would only for a year.

Early on, she admitted to being, as she put it, “overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need and the incredible number of people who need help.  Many days I see the destitute, disease-ridden children lining the streets in the communities I serve and I want to scoop up every single one of them, take them home with me, and feed and clothe and love them. And I look at the life of my Savior, who stopped for me."

Blessed Mother Teresa said, “Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”

That’s just what Katie did.

She started out as a Kindergarten teacher, but saw so many children unable to attend her school in Uganda because their parents didn’t have the money for school fees.

For those able to attend school, many were hungry because their families had little to eat. And most of them were filthy because they had no place to get clean.

So, she prayed for guidance and asked Jesus what to do. Christ planted in her heart a desire to give more.

First, she used her life savings to rent a house near her school.  There, she opened its doors to over a hundred children providing a daily meal, a place to get clean and started fundraising to pay school fees for many left out of the educational system.

As Katie was running her burgeoning ministry, she had the help of some young Ugandan women who had hearts as big as hers. They introduced her to children who had no parents, no guardians and no home to live in.

Katie slowly began to adopt these children and make them her own. She became their “mommy.”

By the time her year was coming to an end, Katie’s ministry was helping 150 children go to school and taking care of their needs.

She was 19-years-old and was now running a thriving non-profit. She chose the name “Amazima” which means truth in the native language of Uganda (Support Amazima Ministries).

As the first Letter to St. John reminded us today,

“Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth.”

Katie says, “People are people. They all need food and water and medicine, but mostly they need love and truth and Jesus. I can do that. We can do that. We can give people food, water, medicine, love, truth and Jesus. The same God created all of us for a purpose, which is to serve Him and to love and care for His people. It is universal. We can’t do it in our own strength or out of our own resources, but as we follow God to wherever He is leading us, He makes the impossible happen.”

I’d like to share a story that captures Katie’s heart for the children of Uganda:

“The night in 2007 was cold and rainy. I was walking out of the supermarket on Main street … on my way home. Then I saw him. Huddled on the street corner, drenched and shivering, was a little boy. At that moment, all I really wanted to think about was getting home, getting dry, and crawling into my warm bed. But a voice inside told me to stop.

I took the little boy inside the supermarket to dry him off a bit and bought him some biscuits and juice. I gave him my sweatshirt, a small wooden cross I carried in my pocket, and some change so he could get a ride home.”

As he left, he called out, ‘What is your name?’

‘Katie’ I responded, ‘Auntie Katie.’

‘Me, I am Daniel,’ he shouted and disappeared into the wet chilly night.

About a year later, I walked into the supermarket to buy food for my family and got caught in a big hug. Two small … arms wrapped around me as a child’s voice excitedly proclaimed, ‘Auntie Katie!’

I looked down to see Daniel. Beaming.

‘Wait,’ he urged me.

He hurried to the nearest street vendor and bought me a Popsicle with the little pocket change he had. He then dug his little hand in his pocket and pulled out the small wooden cross. Looking at me with a wide grin, he spoke words that pierced my heart. ‘I have never stopped praying for you every day.’"

Katie writes, "To this day, I think of that story and stand amazed at the goodness of our God and the enormous things He can accomplish if I am obedient to his command. To stop and love the person in front of me. That rainy night, I really just wanted to … go home. But I stopped, because that’s what my heart told me to do. I only gave him a sweatshirt… I only gave him some cheap biscuits… I only gave him enough money for his ride home… But Jesus gave him hope that night. And he remembered. He didn’t just remember my face; he remembered my name. He prayed for me. He prayed for my safety and for the opportunity to see me again. I blessed him just one cold night, and he blessed me every day after that for an entire year.”

 Katie did come home to fulfill her parent’s wish to go to college, but only attended one semester before returning to her thriving ministry in Uganda.

Today, Katie helps over 500 children to get an education, cooks them a daily meal, offers them a place to get clean and most importantly she gives them hope.

You can read Katie’s story in the New York Times selling book “Kisses from Katie” or support her ministry through her popular blog.

 “I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing…

By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Pope Francis is calling on all Catholics to be Missionary Disciples.

26-year-old Katie Davis is a textbook example. She’s become the Mother Teresa of Uganda.         

But we don’t have to go to Uganda to be missionary disciples. We can be missionaries right here in our own parish if we follow the Holy Father’s lead and take care of the poor and marginalized in our own community.  Just stop and love the person in front of you.

Katie was raised a devout Catholic and is living out our Catholic Social Teachings in amazing ways.  And because she is a branch connected to the true vine, she bears much fruit.

May we bear much fruit this summer as we travel to Guatemala to be Christ to others. May our lives and our hearts be changed forever.  Thank you for keeping our efforts in your prayers.