A Word from Your Pastor September 8

Dear Parishioners:

When we learned to type back in the day (on a typewriter), there was a practice line that was very familiar: “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.”  This practice was first suggested in 1867, so google says, and the line may or may not have been uttered by the early American patriot Patrick Henry.  Whatever the truth of its origin, the sentiment expressed is certainly a reminder of the times in which we now live.

Now is truly the time for every human being to reclaim the fundamental reality of our unity.  The world around us is on a destructive course of division.  Wisdom makes known to us that this is not God’s intention for us.  We are called to be one with God and one with every son and daughter of God.  As brothers and sisters to one another in Christ, our purpose in the world is to live in such a way as to invite all people to come to know the richness of life in Christ.

There is no human circumstance that puts us beyond the reach of Wisdom.  The Scriptures and the life of the Church through the ages reveal to us the incredible truth that God can bring good out of evil and that we can cooperate with His Spirit to renew the face of the earth.  We can come to the aid of our party now through the practice of our Faith.

Practice of our Faith means being engaged, involved and committed to the common goal set for us by God.  God has set in motion through His grace and through the events of Salvation History all that is necessary for us to reach our goal.  But we have to get on the train!  We have the ticket – given to us at the moment of our creation in our mothers’ wombs and renewed an deepened at the moment of our recreation through Baptism.  If we don’t make use of the ticket by our own choice to be involved in practice of our Faith, we cannot hope to arrive where we are headed.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, said her “yes” to God, fulfilling the purpose for which she was created.   She continued her engagement throughout the life of Jesus and all the way to the end at the moment of His Passion.  She invites us to continue to the end of our journey by responding in word and deed to the grace offered to us, saying our own “yes” to God’s call.  May Wisdom help us to be attentive.