FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK
My Dear Parishioners,
How wonderful to be a prophet and to be able to promise that God will watch over another person! When we see the gifts of the prophets, we are amazed. To appreciate a prophet, however, we also must look at the sufferings of the prophet. Elijah, like most of the prophets, spent his life going here and there at the neck and call of God. He was not appreciated by his own people nor by the rulers of his people. The king often tried to get rid of him. Serving God is not easy nor is it comfortable.
Today’s Gospel from Saint Mark helps us understand the ways of God. From those who have nothing, he wants everything and is very happy when He receives it. God is not willing to settle with us for only a part of our lives. God wants everything from us and will not rest or be happy until He has everything. We can ignore God. We create our own ideas of how to serve God. We can reinterpret the Word of God. We can act like people of prayer while not giving our hearts. We can give money and material things to God while not loving Him.
Always God wants all. Why? God wants all because God loves us and wants us to be with Him always, forever. The only way that can come about is if we finally give Him all. That complete giving can happen in this life. There are saints who give themselves completely to the Lord while alive on this earth. Most of us only begin the process in this life and so we have the reality of purgatory after death to purify us and allow to us to give ourselves completely.
The poor widow of the Gospel can become our model. She shows us how to give everything, forgetting ourselves and only thinking of the God that she loves. She trusts that God will provide for her. Jesus teaches us that we must learn how to live that way every day. He will provide for us.
Putting ourselves into the hands of the living God, the hands of Jesus Christ, is truly scary.
The Letter to the Hebrews helps us understand that Jesus is truly like us in all things except sin. He knows that it is scary to hand our lives over. He knows what it is to suffer for others. He knows even how to offer His life so that others may live. Jesus came to free us from sin and to bring us salvation. Jesus came to invite us to share the Kingdom of God. Jesus never promises that it will be easy. He does promise us that He will always be with us.
Once more we are invited to walk the way of Jesus. It is always the Way of the Cross. Jesus always invites us to die with Him so that others can live. Come, let us walk with the Lord on His way.
Peace,
Fr. Monteleone
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