Fr. Vince’s Homily

This is the third of the three foundation documents that together capture the happenings that led to the initial institution of the Aidan’s Masterpiece club at St. Joseph High School. The first is the story of the The Servant King. The second is Kathy Kershner’s remembrance of her encounter with Aidan a few days before the accident.

As has already been stated, the response to Aidan’s accident was overwhelming. The support we received on so many fronts was much more than Denise and I could have expected, as was the response to the presentation I made at the school Mass. It might seem counterintuitive, but in the days after the accident, the momentum was palpable.

This momentum manifested itself as a call to discernment. Was God asking that this accident be transformed into something positive that could have lasting consequences in the communities that Aidan hoped to serve, and perhaps beyond?

A few days after the funeral, we got together with Mrs. Kershner to talk about what to do next. Kathy began to talk about the idea of a service club at St. Joe and the details came quickly. The biggest thing was that the club would not be just one more club that happened to be focused on service and that operated mostly in its own little world. The club would schedule service activities, but the bigger idea was for the club to be a unifying force in the school that served the students and faculty by calling them to their own acts of service in Aidan’s name.

This club would challenge other clubs and other extracurricular entities like athletic teams to add to their itineraries. If we were successful, all the organizations at St. Joe would be inspired to include service as a component of how they went about their business and the entire school would be uplifted by this collective commitment to helping the surrounding community.

This fit perfectly with the story of the Servant King and with what Aidan had told Kathy about what he hoped to do with his life. It also fit perfectly with the homily that Father Vince had given. In that homily, Father had challenged everyone present, but the students from St. Joe in particular, to pick up the work that Aidan had intended to do and to complete it for him.

As you will see in what follows, the word “Masterpiece” was integral to the story that Father told to inspire everyone present at the Funeral Mass. Using that word to label the club was so obvious that I think all three of us began to talk about it at the same time.