The New Wine Press vol 25 no 2 October 2016 | Page 12

Fr. David Matz and altar servers wait to begin Mass at St. Agnes Parish

Pondering Missionary Life in LA
by Fr. David Matz, c.pp.s., Pastor of St. Agnes Parish, Los Angeles

When I tell people I work in Los Angeles I imagine
their first impressions are the glamorous images of
Hollywood and pristine beaches filled with tanned
bodies—and then there’s all those cars. As I sit here
and watch from my window, parents are bringing their children to school this cool pre-autumnal
morning. Cars, trucks, and hundreds of people
pass through this corner of West Adams and South
Vermont Avenue everyday. I ponder the significance
of being a missionary in the midst of this massive
morning movement of people—that really never
stops but only intensifies in the morning light on this
Southwest corner of the inner city of Los Angeles.
I love being immersed in the masses of the faithful
people of God who strive to live their lives of faith in
the midst of seeming chaos. I wonder if this atmosphere was not like the one that St. Gaspar loved
when he went home to his beloved Rome, a city alive
with the hustle and bustle of people thirsty for the
Word that would stabilize their hectic lives.
I began discerning my call to serve as pastor at St.
Agnes Parish in Los Angeles over three years ago when
10 • The New Wine Press • October 2016

one of our missionaries sat down and told me frankly
that I would be a perfect fit for the parish. At first, I
brushed him off with false humility, but over a period
of time he would remind of that invitation every 6
months, sitting down with me again and renewing the
invitation. Finally, the call came from my provincial to
honestly consider the call. I visited St. Agnes while the
former pastor was struggling with cancer and realized
soon afterwards that the prophetic vision revealed to
me three years earlier was an authentic call to the mission of serving at St. Agnes.
I have been immersed in this massive circle of these
people of God for a year and a half. It’s a diverse parish, ethnically and culturally comprised of persons
from North and Central America and Korea. Spanish
and English are spoken often and often times together. I have yet to learn the Korean language; time
has not afforded me the study and we are blessed
with a Jesuit priest from Korea, Fr. Choi. The parish is
mainly first generation immigrants and their families.
Parishioners run the gamut of economic classes. With
enough income to survive but not enough to save, the