From the Pastor – 5th Sunday of Easter
From the Pastor – 5 th Sunday of Easter
The readings on this fifth Sunday of Easter present us with themes of dwelling places and home. As Christian stewards, we are well aware that this world is not our permanent home. We are merely pilgrims here, making our way through the stewardship way of life to our true home, heaven.
Yet, as we make our way to heaven, we are called to make our dwelling here — whether we are in a household of one or bursting at the seams — a true “domestic church.” In other words, the stewardship way of life begins long before we set foot on the parish grounds. Stewardship starts at home. It begins with our families, our domestic churches.
The domestic church plays a key role in our sanctification because it is the primary place where we practice intimate and selfless love of other persons.
In our Gospel passage from John, Jesus speaks of heaven as a home filled with dwelling places. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” This is a beautiful image of the glory that awaits us and the personal love our Lord has for us in preparing the perfect “spot” for each one of us who remain faithful to Him.
Let us respond to this great love by becoming good stewards of our earthly dwellings, making of our homes true “domestic churches” where we honor God with our prayer, our thoughtfulness to each other and our generous hospitality to all.
Let us never forget that stewardship starts at home!
Pastoral Pondering
At this point we have been under the restrictions of one Executive Order or another for several weeks. While there have been signs in some parts of the country that things are improving, and in some jurisdictions religious services have been exempted from restrictions, North Carolina continues to restrict religious services with greater that ten people (50 for a funeral) in attendance. This has obviously been very difficult for many, and there are too many arguments on both side of the issue to debate it here. Nonetheless, we have been doing what we can to make a difficult situation a bit easier. Your cooperation with outdoor confessions, Sign-up Genius Communion appointments and sick calls has been very much appreciated. My hope is that when this actually goes to print, we may have some easing of restrictions in the state.
If you have not seen information in some of the other modes of communication that we use, I want to highlight how St. Mark has been responding to the pandemic over and above the liturgical items I just mentioned. We have been supporting the making of masks for health care workers and other first responders. We have been participating with CMS to provide lunches to children who usually receive lunch at school. We continue to collect food and other items in our charity bin in the narthex to assist our community. I highlight these to simply show that we are not closed. The work of the Gospel continues through all of these efforts which seek to bring the light of Christ to dispel the darkness. Thank you to all who have assisted with these endeavors in one way or another.
Most of us now have gotten fairly familiar with virtual meetings and the like. Prior to the outbreak, I thought Zoom was just something cars did on Stumptown Road! I do hope that you have been able to use this time to grow the relationships in your family. Certainly our parish family can stay connected with the livestream and other activities, but we know that these can never take the place of direct and in person human contact. Let us then pray for one another and for those given authority and responsibility. We all need the guidance of the Holy Spirit who is the source of wisdom, knowledge and understanding.