Pastor's Desk Archive (April 2009)

Let Us Go Up To Jerusalem To Die And Rise With Christ (4/5/2009)
Born Again, Sealed by the Spirit, Welcomed to the Table (4/12/2009)
Being A Witness To The Risen Christ (4/19/2009)
The Risen Christ Is Not A Ghost (4/26/2009)

Let Us Go Up To Jerusalem To Die And Rise With Christ (4/5/2009)

With glad shouts of Hosanna, we embark on yet another Holy Week. If we are truly seeking to break away from the crowd to become more faithful disciples of Jesus, we will do our level best to participate with devotion in The Sacred Three Days! (AKA the Triduum).

On Holy Tuesday, the truly devout are invited to gather at the Cathedral at 6pm for the Chrism Mass during which the Sacramental Oils are blessed and consecrated. This is also the Mass during which Fr. Jack and all the priests will rededicate themselves to faithful service in the Church. Your presence will be a visible sign of love and support for our priests.

On Holy Thursday at 6:30pm we will gather to receive the Sacramental Oils which were blessed and consecrated at the Cathedral. On this night we are commemorating the events that occurred at The Last Supper: The washing of the feet and the institution of the Eucharist. This is also the night on which we welcome into full communion with the Catholic Church those who were baptized in other Christian communities. They will profess their faith, be confirmed, and welcomed at the table of the Lord. Being confirmed also on this occasion will be a few Catholic adults who didn’t get a lot of religious formation after first communion. Following this Mass there will be Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until midnight. “Will you wait one hour with me?”

On Good Friday at 6:30pm we will gather to listen to the Passion According to John proclaimed in parts; to participate in the Great Intercessory Prayers; to venerate the wood of the cross; and to receive Holy Communion. This is the one day of the year on which the celebration of Mass is forbidden. As this service concludes, each person or family is invited to approach the cross and venerate it according to custom. This is always very moving.

On Holy Saturday at 8:00pm, we will gather for the Solemn Easter Vigil. This begins with the Service of The Light and The Service of the Word in which we listen to the Story of our Salvation. This is the night on which we initiate our catechumens through the Easter Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. And as we celebrate this first Mass of Easter, all of us will be given the opportunity to renew the promises of our baptism after which we will be sprinkled with fresh Easter Water.

Catholics may receive Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil Mass and again at one of the Masses on Easter Sunday.

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Born Again, Sealed by the Spirit, Welcomed to the Table (4/12/2009)

What a great joy it is each year to be able to celebrate the Easter Sacraments with our newly initiated members. This has been the high point of my priestly ministry for more than 35 years and I never “get used to it” or “take it for granted”. Because of my ministry as pastor, teacher, and confessor, I am humbled by each of the personal stories that so uniquely lead each one to the Easter Sacraments.

I encourage everyone who has been a part of our parish family for some time now to seek these new members out so you can personally welcome them and encourage them in the practice of the faith. Surely it builds up our own faith to know that each and every year new members want to be part of the life of our parish and the greater church. It is a very good practice to approach people you don’t know or recognize before or after Mass and introduce yourself. Do you find yourself extending the sign of peace to the same “strangers” each Sunday? How simple it would be to introduce yourself on the way out of church. It could be a new member.

To those of you who have celebrated the Easter Sacraments this weekend know that you are a blessing to me, personally, and to the parish family as a whole. We are honored that Christ himself has led you to us and we pray that you regard us as a blessing for you. You have each been given a spiritual gift or gifts explicitly for the purpose of serving the members of this parish family. May you soon discover how God would have you play an active role in our community.

I am especially looking forward to our gathering this coming Wednesday evening when each of you will have the opportunity to share with the rest of us your experience of the Easter Sacraments. It may be difficult for some of you to talk about something so personal, but know that by doing so you build up and inspire our faith. If you are able to come to the 6:30 Mass first, then all the better.

Happy Easter to All!

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Being A Witness To The Risen Christ (4/19/2009)

Throughout the Easter season, the first lesson is always taken from the Acts of the Apostles. This is Luke the Evangelist’s sequel to the Gospel account which bears his name. In this “history” of the early church, the author stresses the indispensible role that was played by those who were actual witnesses of the Risen Christ. Not everyone saw Jesus in his resurrected body, but the Apostles did along with as many as five hundred other disciples.

In today’s gospel, we were reminded about how the “doubting Thomas” reacted when his fellows apostles claimed to have seen the Lord. Thomas, it seems, needed to see for himself before he was going to believe what sounded like a wild tale. So Jesus came again and obliged Thomas’ request while saying to him, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” Jesus was referring to people like us. Every time we gather for the Eucharist we celebrate our belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, even though we have not seen him for ourselves. Or, have we?

In truth, any of us who have experienced the love and mercy of God have had an encounter with the Risen Christ. This kind of encounter can take place whenever we celebrate any of the sacraments, for we believe that the new life that Christ won for us through his death and resurrection is made available to us in every such celebration. During the climactic days of Holy Week, I saw Christ in the faces of those who were being baptized, confirmed, and admitted to Holy Communion. This past Wednesday at Journey of Faith, I listened as each of our newest members spoke about how they experienced God’s power in those sacramental celebrations.

This means that we can give our own kind of witness to the resurrection to the extent that we experience his power and presence in our day to day lives. In fact, without this kind of personal “witness”, religion remains just a private matter. Why would anyone who does not believe that Christ is truly risen from the dead choose to be a part of a faith community? Surely, it can only be because they are somehow able to see in the way we live and practice our faith that God is living in our midst.

Let us never be ashamed to announce to others that Christ is Risen.

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The Risen Christ Is Not A Ghost (4/26/2009)

We believe that Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried; and on the third day His physical body was raised from the dead. We know this from the testimony of the apostles who saw Him, in the flesh, with their own eyes. So they were not just seeing a “ghost”, or some kind of apparition. This is a critically important article of faith, because on it rests our belief in the life of the world to come. We, too, shall one day suffer, die, and be buried; and we will be raised up on the last day when Christ will come again and call us forth from our tombs. Some people wonder how this could be possible since many will have been dead for so long that there will be nothing left but dust. Do we really suppose that God lacks the power to fashion us new, resurrected bodies, from the very dust of our remains? The one who through His Word created all things out of nothing? Though the mountains may fall, and the hills turn to dust, yet the love of the Lord shall stand; as a shelter for all who will call on His name, sing the praise and the glory of God!

So, if the Lord has been raised bodily from the dead, where is He now? The scriptures tell us that 50 days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father. This article of faith simply conveys to us that upon the completion of His mission on earth, Jesus returned from whence He came. It is from heaven that He will come again on the last day to judge the living and the dead.

Does this mean that the Risen Lord is now so far away from us in heaven that we are left to fend for ourselves here on earth? Not at all! On Pentecost, the Risen One sent forth from the Father the power of the Holy Spirit which rested on His apostles like tongues of flame. The Holy Spirit, is the fire of God’s love. He is the Lord and Giver of Life. He is the very Soul of the Church who makes it possible for Christ to remain in our midst. Christ is really present among us in a myriad of wonderful ways: 1) Through the ministers of the Church who teach, sanctify, and serve us;. 2) In the proclamation of His word when the church is gathered for worship; in the midst of those who are gathered to worship in, with, and through Him; and in His very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the most holy sacrament of the altar. As if these ways were not sufficient, the Risen Christ is present in the hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, sick, and imprisoned. Christ is risen! He is truly risen!

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