Dear Parishioners:
Last weekend, as you know, the Parishes of the Diocese of Columbus and Catholic Parishes around the country shared an invitation to you to participate in the process of government by contacting your legislators about an issue of great importance, namely, the right to religious liberty and to live in accord with our conscience.
Our Constitution guarantees us the right to “free exercise” of our religion.
Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression.
Ratified 12/15/1791.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
We are called upon by our Bishops to respond through prayer and by the exercise of our duty as citizens. The Internet makes it possible to study the issue and to contact our civil officials very simply. Use thes web links:
For Bishop Campbell's Letter read at all the Masses last weekend:
http://www.colsdioc.org/Portals/0/Departments/COM/Documents/Bp.%20Campbell%20letter%201.29.12.pdf
For further information:
http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/conscience-protection/upload/preventiveservicesbackgrounder-3.pdf
The U.S. Bishops' general website highlights the issues of importance:
http://www.usccb.org/.
Follow the links and you will be sending messages to those who can work to guard the Constitutional rights that are being ignored.
The Catholic Church in our time has highlighted in a particular way the responsibility of her Lay Members: the charge to take the Gospel to the Nations, that is, to make the secular holy. This means being in the world, but not of the world. It also means allowing the Church and her teaching authority to offer us insight into the Word of God and its application to the problems of our time.
All Men and Women of the Parish are invited to participate in the conferences that will be held in a few weeks to build up the Body of Christ. Fathers and Sons, Mothers and Daughters: join other members of the Church to hear the Lord’s Call.
The Women’s Conference will be February 25: http://www.columbuscatholicwomen.com/.
The Men’s Conference will be March 3: http://www.columbuscatholicmen.com/.
Our Parish will experience a Parish Lenten Mission in the intervening week, February 26-29. Mark your calendar now and keep this week free for a spiritual experience you won’t soon forget.
Entering into our Golden Jubilee: Getting to know Saint Timothy.
We have completed a journey through the Scriptures of the New Testament that explicitly mention St. Timothy. This has given us a deeper understanding of our patron. Now we will begin to reflect on a few more Scriptures that may be implicitly associated with St. Timothy, although he is not mentioned by name. It is clear from Church Tradition that our Heavenly Patron was identified as the first Bishop of Ephesus. So, those Scriptures that mention Ephesus and the Ephesians can offer insight into the Community associated with St. Timothy.
The first of the Letters to the Seven Churches found in the Book of Revelation is to the Church of Ephesus.
"To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write this:
" 'The One Who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks in the midst of the seven gold lampstands says this:
"I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors. Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. But you have this in your favor: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the victor I will give the right to eat from the tree of life that is in the garden of God.' " (Revelation 2:1-7)
Some commentators suggest that the “angel” mentioned in each of the Letters is the local episkopos, or bishop, the one who is responsible for leadership in the Community addressed. In the case of Ephesus, tradition indicates that this would be Timothy.
John is writing the Letters and the Visions of the Book of Revelation from the Island of Patmos, where he has been exiled. In writing to Ephesus, he is writing to a community he knows very well, since he and the Mother of the Lord were residing there together before the Assumption. He will eventually be able to return there and to die there himself, and to have his first tomb there. (Later, his relics were taken to Constantinople and at the time of the Crusades to Rome.)
This message is to be taken in the context of the whole Book of Revelation, and along with the details of the letters to the other churches. It is an encouragement to perseverance and patient endurance under persecution. It is also a promise from the Risen Lord that the Gift of the Resurrection will bear fruit in the lives of those who hold fast to Faith.
At the same time, however, we may see the message as a personal appeal from the Lord through John to Timothy and his community. With that perspective, it brings into relief the fact that Timothy is now at an advanced age. He is no longer the young man who was charged by Paul not to let others look down on him because of his youth. Paul is gone, having been martyred in Rome. John, who himself was the youngest among the Apostles and now is an old man, is now in exile. In a short time, John will be restored to Ephesus, where he will die peacefully at home.
Timothy, perhaps inspired by this letter’s charge and remembering his mentor Paul’s efforts to proclaim Christ among the pagan Ephesians, will be martyred, being clubbed to death by revelers on the pagan feast of Katagonia, when he tries to turn the crowd from their raucous worship of the goddess Artemis. He hears the call of the Spirit to renew his youthful zeal and he joins the Apostles in their witness to Christ. Under St. Timothy’s patronage, we pray that we may also renew our zeal for the freedom that belongs to us in Christ.
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