Read the bishop's column regarding the Mass.

By David Myers

Southwest Kansas Register

GREENSBURG, July 1, 2007 – Less than two months after the May 4 tornado leveled Greensburg and St. Joseph Church, parishioners came together once again to celebrate Mass, if not in the same building, at the familiar site held even more sacred now then when it was established in 1952.

Today, many of the broken remains of the homes are gone, but one still has to maneuver around the occasional debris in the road, wait momentarily for a front-end loader cleaning a site, or pause disbelievingly at the remains of a structure, including one in which could be seen a closet that still held clothes.

Peering out the front doors of the temporary modular church -- set just west of the site of the old church -- one parishioner noted the gaping hole in the earth where his home once stood a half a block away.

Surrounded by the blank spots that once were their homes, more than 90 parishioners filled the church to capacity, many filtering through to another room where they could hear the Mass being celebrated.

While impossible to grasp the emotions of those gathered, Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore said it best when he noted, "I’ll have to confess, this is a sad and a happy day." Sad, he said, because of what they had lost, and happy "because we’ve returned to … this sacred place."

Also celebrating the Mass was St. Joseph pastor, Father Gregory Le Blanc, whose broad smile greeted those in attendance.

" ‘I will be your follower wherever you go,’ the man with no name said to Jesus," Bishop Gilmore said in his homily, in reference to the scripture reading. The liturgy spoke of what it means to be a disciple, and what it costs to follow Jesus, he said. "The lessons of the storm give sharp new detail to our own discipleship in the wake of its passing.

"The storm was a hard thing he asked of us," the bishop explained. "It is a particular, and a painful, share in his own cross. You have the end-to-end destruction. You have the overwhelming and heartsick loss. You have the uncertainties. You have the aggravations. You have the nuisances and the inconveniences. He asked a hard thing of us, and he plunged us into our form of his passion.

"Will you be his followers, even when he goes there?"

The storm "was a new thing he asked of us," the bishop said -- just as Jesus asked a new thing of Elisha, of his disciples, and of Paul on the road to Damascus.

"They didn’t know what they were letting themselves in for. They didn’t know to what they were agreeing. They didn’t know where they were going. But they embraced it with full and ready hearts. They accepted it as a task … as a challenge … as a gift. He now asks a new thing of us, and he plunges us into a fearful new adventure. Will you be his followers, even when he goes there?"

Responding to the man who told Jesus he would "follow wherever he went," Jesus replied, "The foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."

"I will be your follower," Bishop Gilmore said, "even into the no-dens, even into the no-nests, even into the nowhere. Will you be his followers even when he goes into the nowhere of his death and resurrection and ascension into heaven?

"For some reason, this calamity is the best way for us to enter that nowhere of the mystery of Jesus," the bishop continued. "Will you be his followers even when he asks you to walk with him through the nowhere of the storm into the somewhere of his risen-life? On this bittersweet day, let your faith say it strong, let your faith say it clear: I will be your follower wherever you go. Wherever you go. Wherever, even into this nowhere, into your nowhere, into my nowhere. Our nowhere is, after all, his somewhere."

The modular structure that is temporarily St. Joseph Church was made possible through both the hard work and financial assistance of many individuals and organizations.

"Thanks to members of my staff who helped make this possible," Bishop Gilmore said at the conclusion of the Mass. He offered heartfelt thanks to the people of the parish, the many people who donated funds, and to the Catholic Extension Society, which "before the wind stopped blowing were on the phone seeing what they could do."

In the church bulletin, the parish offered additional thanks to Grand Knight Andy Kimble, and diocesan financial officer Dan Stremel, who oversaw the purchase and implementation of the new structure.

A new, permanent church is in the works, although details are in the very early stages. Once a new church is constructed, the modular structure may remain on site and serve in a number of capacities, such as parish offices.