A Word from Your Pastor February 10

Dear Parishioners:

A Call from God is addressed to every human being.  As Christians, we are obliged to acknowledge that the Creator of the Universe has a Plan which incorporates all people.  The charge given to us is to pass on this Good News to others.  St. Paul expresses succinctly the central part of this Word:  Christ died for our sins.  He was buried.  He rose from the dead and appeared to followers who knew Him in His earthly ministry and then to others, like Paul himself, who were also charged to share the Gospel.  This Message becomes something of first importance to those who hear it and receive it.

When we relate to one another, we are meant to see one another as fellow ministers of the Gospel.  The social activities and all the other aspects of our common life have the purpose of forming us as a family of disciples who are meant to draw others into the family.

God is Holy.  By our relationship with Him, we become holy.  He shares His very life with us.  We acknowledge Who He IS.  We relate to Him on His terms, realizing our smallness, our weakness and our sinfulness.  He purifies us as we pray and worship in His Presence.  We receive what He offers, experiencing an interior transformation that frees us to relate more deeply to Him.  Our response, then, is to follow through on the mission entrusted to us.

The material world can be an obstacle to our relationship with God when it gets all our attention.  It is meant to be a means of relationship with God and with others.  Body, mind and spirit, we belong to God.  Our whole persons will share in the fruits of the Gospel.  We will be sustained through the sufferings of life.  We will die and we will rise from the dead.  If our hearts and lives have been given over to God, we will share in His glory forever.

The choice is ours.  Time is a great gift.  We are given days and years in which we can learn the lessons that God wants to teach us.  But we must acknowledge Him for Who He IS.  May we be formed by grace as a people who relate to God, who receive His Word of Truth and Life, and who respond fully to the Call that is addressed to us by the Living God.