From the Pastor – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
From the Pastor – 25 th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In our First Reading from the Book of Isaiah, God reminds us that He does not think in the same way that we do. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts.” That is quite clear in our Gospel today from Matthew, which relates the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.
In the Gospel parable, God (who is represented by the landowner ) does something which from our human perspective may seem unfair and unjust. What we must keep in mind is that the landowner did not treat anyone unfairly. He may have seemed more generous to some than to others, but again that is from our perspective.
We can be absolutely certain that God will never be unfair to us. The Lord may bestow greater blessings on others, some of whom again from our perspective may seem less deserving. God is a righteous God. Through stewardship we acknowledge that everything comes to us from God. All our blessings may seem to be more or less than we deserve, but if we are grateful for what we have and what we are, we will then recognize God’s generosity and His grace.
The important thing to us should not be and cannot be whether we are first or last. What is central is that we are part of the Kingdom of God. That should be sufficient for us. We get into trouble when we conclude that God should think the way we do. © Catholic Stewardship Conference, 2017.
Pastoral Pondering – I would like to welcome Sr. Zeny and Karen Kramer to our parish staff. Sister is a Dominican Sister of St. Catherine of Siena, an religious order from the Philippines. Sister will be our Director of Faith Formation. Mrs. Kramer is well known to our St. Mark School students. She taught Middle School religion before having her first child. Mrs. Kramer will be assisting with our Middle School Edge and Middle School Youth Ministry.
I want to thank everyone who helped putting together our parish Eucharistic Congress observance. Such events take a lot of work, but they are wonderful opportunities to celebrate our faith and the centrality of the Eucharist. Since we could not come together as a Diocese this year, we are afforded the opportunity to celebrate as a parish community the “source and summit” of our faith.
A little over a week ago (by the time this goes to print) I learned that one of father’s last surviving sisters, Aunt Betty, had passed following a brief battle with cancer. She was one of my favorite people because of how she radiated love and concern for others. It was always Aunt Betty who would open up her phone diary and start calling members of the family to see how they were doing and let them know that she loved them and was praying for them. She was a bridge between the generations, and she will be sorely missed. Her death reminds me of the importance of reaching out. We have been trying intentionally to increase our Christ-Centered culture here at the parish. There are many programs, some of which we use, that are great resources, but when it all gets boiled down, true evangelization is about Jesus and sharing His love.
Creating this culture is not always easy, especially in a pandemic-conditioned society. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit continues to work and continues to inspire the children of God to act and respond to His promptings. An example of this occurred a couple of weeks back. I was invited to dinner by a few men from the parish who have been praying and discerning what God is asking of them. In so doing, they realized that they were being strongly called to take Jesus into the community through public prayer and witness. They have called their group Return to God and have described their mission “to be fed by God and to call ourselves, our Church and our country back to God.” This will be put into practice through coming together in public places to be a presence of prayer. While not a sponsored apostolate or ministry of the parish, I have no doubt that this is a work of the Holy Spirit, and I support their efforts. I also encourage anyone who might feel a similar “tug of the heart” to join them.
Finally, as many of you know, we have begun “opening up” the Kerin Center. The adoration chapel is already up and running, and we are excited to be able to welcome some activity, over and above worship and sacraments, back to parish life. Because of continued guidelines from the Diocese, we are observing the recommendations set out by the Governor of NC whose executive orders have been based on CDC guidance. While some can see this as cumbersome, and even a violation of personal freedoms, as a priest and pastor of the Diocese, I am duty bound to implement the guidance given to us by the Bishop and his officials. My personal opinions and preferences are immaterial. We all want to open up more fully, and we have certainly done everything we can to promote and encourage participation at Mass. This is one more step to finding our way back to normal parish life, and I am thankful that we are able to take this step and thank the parish leaders who are helping to make this step possible.