A Word from Your Pastor - December 18 Fourth Sunday of Advent

Dear Parishioners:

One of the most wonderful aspects of our Catholic Faith is the promise of Healing that touches the full human person, body, mind and spirit.  Our hearts and souls are open to receive the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when we experience the touch of Mercy that heals us where we hurt.  The Sacraments of Healing are Reconciliation – known also as Penance or Confession – and Anointing of the Sick.  Each of these Sacraments plunges us into the Paschal Mystery, the power of the Living God to bring us from death to Resurrection through Jesus Christ.

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we are freed from sin.  By the Anointing of the Sick, our human limitations – illness and death – are put into contact with the healing Mystery of the Cross.  Acknowledging our need for God and opening our hearts to His grace, we give God room to act in our lives and we discover that our limitations themselves become a means of grace in us.  This transformation enlivens in us the Hope that reaches all the way to Eternal Life.

The Sacramental Life is the life that points beyond this world.  We are made for Love, that is, a sharing in the very Life of God, Who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a Trinity of Persons United in Love.  The nature of the Sacrament is to be, as the old Baltimore Catechism put it, “a sensible sign, instituted by Christ, to give grace.”  Jesus is the Sacrament of the Father: He reveals God to us.  The Church is the Sacrament of Christ.  The Sacramental Life of the Church, in the Seven Sacraments, forms us to be living witnesses of the power of God’s Grace, given to us through our Faith in Jesus Christ.

This weekend, as we offer the Blessing of all involved in the ministries of health care, and as we experience the communal celebration of the Anointing of the Sick, may we all find the healing we need to be an effective witness to God’s Love and Mercy.