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A few more pictures from Confirmation – 10/05/2010
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[cincopa AwHA3VKQQ3Ej]
A few more pictures from Confirmation – 10/05/2010
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[cincopa A4GAFUqGnM1d]
All Saints/Souls Celebration with the youth K-5 – 10/31/2010
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It’s very clear in Matthew’s Gospel that Christ’s passion is made so completely sorrowful when we acknowledge that Christ is all alone. From the mensa where Judas leaves Him, to the garden where His companions encourage His isolation as they drift into sleep and He agonizes alone. From the abandonment of Peter in his denials to the cross where all set themselves apart from Him in their jeers and taunts. One of the greatest elements of Christ’s suffering is that He is completely cut off from all others. And as if that were not a deep enough suffering, even His Father isolates His Son when the Lord cries out, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” He is utterly alone.
Yet, this is not a complete picture of the depths of His abandonment. Surely he has been abandoned: the victim of isolation forced upon Him. But our second reading describes it even more completely when St. Paul writes, “Even though He was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped.” Here we begin to witness Christ’s active abandonment. No longer a victim who is cast off, but He casts Himself off: He leaves His divine stature in order to become man. But there’s more: He emptied Himself and took on our form, yet the form He takes is that of a slave, subjecting Himself to all other men. He has abandoned Himself in this offering, and His isolation is the deepest and purest ‘aloneness’. Thus we are made aware of such agony, such depravity, such utter isolation and abandonment.
It might serve us well to follow Him into abandonment this Holy Week. We have been made keenly aware of our depravity this Lent; and our need for new “light” and new “life” is very apparent. Maybe in order to experience these divine gifts, we will need to abandon ourselves to suffer with Christ, to die in a sense, in order to rise with Him. In this way, we can be isolated near Him…we can be abandoned with Him…not utterly alone, sure, but just ourselves with the Master who suffers with us. And a new, deeper, more intimate bond between ourselves and the Lord can then be forged, and ratified, and made more intense and satisfying.
May each of us have a truly holy Holy Week.
Fr. David
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Today’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans reminds us that our life is a tug-of-war between this physical life and the spiritual life sustained by God’s Spirit. And as we’ve traveled through these first five weeks of Lent, we might need to pause for a moment to reflect on how we’ve been moving.
During our first week, we saw the temptations of Jesus and wondered whether or not we would be able to overcome them ourselves. Then, we caught a glimpse of the glory of the Lord as He was transfigured on Mt. Tabor. Surely, that whet our appetite to cling to Him and stay close…hoping that our nearness would bring us to future glory as well. Then, with the woman of Samaria, we came to know Christ as the font of living water, who is able to slake any hunger or thirst or longing we might have. Last week, we sawwith the new sight of the blind manthat Jesus is a prophet, a healer, …He is one in whom we can place our faith. And this week, we witness the drama unfolding on life’s stage: there is illness, and fear; uncertainty, and death; there is then One with power over life and over death. Yes, lots to reflect on during this season of Lent. So, how have we been moving within ourselves during this season?
If you might not want to answer, consider a few other guides that we hear from this weekend: Martha and Thomas. Clearly a very close, intimate friend of Jesus, Martha is able to state, with confidence, that Jesus is the Lord over life…”Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died”. And yet isn’t her confidence more intellectual than it is rooted in authentic belief? Sure, she knows well the prophecy told by Ezekiel from today’s first reading, yet she doesn’t believe it can hold true for her brother Lazarus. Within just a few moments, she’s protesting opening Lazarus’ grave because of the four days lapsed. She’s still clinging to the rabbinic tradition that after three days, death has absolutely won and there is no going back to life. Here the Lord responds with His greatest act and Lazarus is raised from the tomb and set free. Martha knows Jesus’ power, yet her belief strains when confronted with suffering and death in this physical world. She wonders whether the Lord Jesus, is truly “Lord of all”.
Or, what of Thomas? A close disciple of the Lord, Thomas has an inkling that if they go to Bethanynear Jerusalemsurely the struggle with authorities will end terribly and Jesus will suffer. And while Thomas encourages the brothers, “let us also go to die with him”, only a few days later, Thomas is the one who cannot and will not believe that Christ has risen from the dead. Only after being presented with concrete evidence is Thomas able to profess “my Lord and my God!” Even Thomas has much growing to accomplish in order to come to an authentic, living faith.
So, how have you been moving within yourself during this season of repentance, death and new life? Not to worry: just as Martha came to believe; just as Thomas came to doubt no more; we, too, are on a journey of growth in holiness. Let’s be patient with ourselves, yet always keeping our hands to the plow. In these next, and last, weeks of Lent, may our journey be fruitful and our authentic faith be enlivened.
God love you, and those you love.
Fr. David
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Last weekend, we went to the well with the Samaritan Woman. And as we conversed with Jesus, we first saw him merely as “a Jew”. But later, as we listened while He spoke, we came to discover more about Him and we perceived Him as “a prophet”. Only after He shared with us the depth and beauty of who we are in His midst did we understand Him to be “the Christ”.
This weekend, we find ourselves again in His midst, but this time we are as the Blind Man who has no sense of this Jesus: blind since birth, we cannot hope to see except by the One who can restore our lost sight. We clearly admit from the outset, “I am he” who is blind. And we are challenged and ridiculed by those around us.
Yet, the more we ponder and share about the One who restores our sight, the more we come to see Him for who He is:
If we share our lives with Christ, He will be able to share greatly His own life with us. If we share our life of faith with others, so much more will that life of faith impact our own…allowing us to grow in comprehension and witness…allowing us to see Him for who He really is, and to proclaim “Christ, the Lord!”
Blessings on your Lenten journey,
Fr. David
Imagine what your life would be like if you awoke tomorrow morning and found that there was no water coming into your home. What would you do? Probably you'd get a few gallons of bottled water, and feel a bit grungy and inconvenienced until the water came back on. Other than that, things would really be OK. But what if the water never came back on? And what if the stores ran out of bottled water? What if the nearest drainage ditch became the only place we could get any water at all? … Help The Thirsty