Missive

I was pleased and blessed last Sunday to celebrate with our parish communities our young people who are finally graduating.  Graduation is an exciting doorway into the next phase of life.  I trust that all will join me in praying for all our young people as they head out into a new and wider world.

This week we come to the end of our series of Gospel readings featuring from St. Matthew featuring the parables.  It is a fitting place to end this series as the whole of it has been focused in a particular way on wisdom as the means by which we come to see our salvation in Christ; and now it ends with an opportunity to consider the ultimate worth of that salvation which is offered to us in Christ.

As I speak to people, from the very young to the very old, there is no question that, when asked, nearly all will quickly affirm their desire for heaven.  The difficult thing we all come up against is how badly do I really want it?  Put another way, “what am I willing to do to attain it?  How much effort will I put into it?”

Now, please note I am not suggesting that our effort / response is ultimately the means of our salvation: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ (the Paschal Mystery) is ultimately the means of our salvation.  However, where God has issued an invitation, and made the trip possible, there is still a response required of us.  We must always understand that we do not deserve entry into heaven; we cannot earn our way into heaven.  Our entry has been purchased for us with Christ’s own blood, the blood of the Paschal Lamb from heaven.  For our part, we must receive this gift into our hearts by receiving Him who paid that price – who suffered, died, and rose again for us.

So, we find ourselves reflecting on whether or not we are going to accept that invitation.  The way that invitation is to be accepted has been clearly laid out for us.  We need only to have the humility to accept that invitation according to God’s wise plan, and the fortitude and focus to see that choice through each and every day.

     Pray well!

Christifidelis 49-52

     We continue our consideration of Pope St. John Paul II’s exhortation on the lay faithful, having recognized that people of every age have a unique part to play, we now turn to a consideration of the unique part played by each of us on account of our gender.  Sections 49-52 address, first of all, the important role of women in the Church and then of men and women together.  Why so many sections?  The synod fathers, and so following, the Holy Father go to great pains to emphasize the dignity of women in a Church where the ministerial priesthood, after the example of our Lord, is restricted to men.  But there must be a recognition of the biblical account of the important part women played in the life and ministry of our Lord, and also the critical part they play biblically and in our own lived experience in the life of the Church.

     Thus, we are challenged to recognize the equality in dignity even as we recognize the difference in roles of male and female within the Church and within the society that we are called to make over in the image of Christ, Whose body is the Church.  The complementarity of man and woman, male and female is thus recognized, honored as part of God’s divine wisdom, and then lived fully.  So…

   1.     Do I recognize, appreciate, and honor the unique and critical part played by the women in my life?  Do I see them and treat them with the equality in dignity with which God has created them?

   2.     Do I recognize the true dignity of the men in my life: not as “lord and ruler” but after the example of God’s own Fatherhood?

   3.     What can I do within my family and community to give greater recognition to this mystery thus encouraging the full and proper participation of each man and woman?

Challenge:  Spend some time in contemplation of how someone in your life has been a real example to you of Christian womanhood or manhood.  Pray for that person and thank them!