Dear Beloved Parishioners,
So, once more, someone, using an email that is not even remotely like mine, is pretending to be me. This one had a little twist – it specifically told you NOT to call me, but to “talk via email”, because you would realize as soon as the person started speaking that they were NOT me…
Once again, (sadly) I remind you that I will never ask you to “manage a task for me discretely”. And if you have a doubt that perhaps I could be asking you to do something, then CALL ME at the rectory – and I or Marie or the parish staff will assure you that it is a scam…. I just won’t do that. I promise…
(That being said, in the funniest line in the midst of this most recent iteration of being scammed, one of the quilters said as I poked my head in the door where they were working: “Father, they must think your parishioners like you…” I laughed all the way up the steps…)
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SO, thanks to the 353 people who have completed the ONLINE Disciple Maker Index (and the 10 people who have returned their paper copies). That represents 56% of our average Sunday Mass going parishioners. As mentioned often, this is one of the three chances you have to give input on this whole All Things New process. Please take the 10-15 minute survey online at this link: https://portal.catholicleaders.org/d/y3226y
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A few people have asked why there is no comment box on the survey. Fr. Chris Martin explains it this way: 1) That is why we have the “All Things New” mail box, and why there will be listening sessions later in the summer and fall. 2) This part of the process is not about collecting subjective data. The Archdiocese has 20 years of demographic, financial and sacramental data on each and every parish. The DMI is an objective self-assessment on the state of our parish at the moment. Our small team of key leaders will be given workbooks with our data as well as the results of the DMI. Those tools present a picture of who we are and what our current self-assessment is. Based on this, we will ascertain what are the most pressing needs for our parish. As I understand, it is at that stage where individual feedback comes into play. Then, ALL that data will be incorporated into the modeling we will do in the fall.
In the meantime, we continue to do the most important thing – and that is “to pray ourselves ‘free’ to want only what God wants” – for our families, communities and the Archdiocese as a whole. If we make that the desire of our hearts, then whether we are elated or saddened by whatever the final result of this planning process is, we will find ourselves trusting in the Holy Spirit’s guidance of our lives ever more, and be ever more an instrument of evangelization…
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SO, there is this rare breed of human being who think nothing of being suspended by a few ropes high in the trees, wielding a chain saw with one hand as they do their appointed jobs. Here is a picture of two of them removing 4 of the gall infested trees on the western edge of the soccer field. (Those four trees were anywhere from 60-80% infested, and beyond salvaging.) The other three were significantly trimmed in the hopes of buying us a few more years of shade for that end of the field. In addition, they removed two dead trees on the east side of the parish center and did some significant trimming of branches threatening the school and parish center, as well as removing a fair amount of dead branches on otherwise healthy trees. I thought you might enjoy the picture.
(and that would be a big NOPE for me…
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The DEEPER DIVE into the Sunday Scripture, albeit a bit late, comes to us from the good people of the Paulist Evangelization Ministries and Fr. Frank DeSaino.
One email I hate to receive is when folks are asking me to send a picture. Perhaps it’s a talk or a parish renewal; whatever, they want a photo. Which one will I send? Shall I send one from ten years ago? Or shall I get a new, post-cataracts photo? Maybe there’s one that makes my hair look darker or my nose look smaller? Or, when I die, which picture will they stick on my memorial card?
Images are important because no one image comes close to capturing us. In some ways, old-time painting worked better than modern cameras, because a paint could imply subtle traits which photos often cannot do.
We have a little bit of that problem with the very powerful Gospel story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. In this Gospel, after all, Jesus seems to show a different face to his disciples. However they saw Jesus when they went up the mountain with Jesus, now it’s more complicated. Now they have an image of Jesus when they first met him, as well as an image of Jesus in radiant glory; and then the post-Transfiguration of Jesus as they came out of their trance. “After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone,” the Gospel tells us. And they said nothing to anyone. How could they ever look at Jesus the same way again?
I’m sure one of the reasons they said nothing was because they had seen way more than they could process. How could they make sense of Jesus at this point? And, a few weeks later, they will see yet another face of Jesus, bruised and immobile with death. And, three days after that, another face, that of the Risen savior.
In some sense we need all these images of Jesus to keep us from pigeonholing him. There is one Jesus, but that Jesus comes at so many different moments of our lives it takes a lifetime to begin to see them all. Maybe that’s one of Lent’s goals: to force us to try to see Jesus more deeply, in the various ways he is present to us, in the various ways in which we need him. Like the apostles, we need to be overwhelmed again with our overwhelming Savior.
We Catholics have yet another way to see Jesus. We have the Mass, the Eucharist, this central act of worship that defines Catholic life. Perhaps it is this image of Jesus, built up Sunday after Sunday, which is the most important one for our understanding. After all, would our faith change much if someone could go back in history and take a photo of Jesus? I gave a Confirmation class I am teaching three different renderings of Jesus. They were puzzled because they always though Jesus was blond and blue-eyed. Seeing Jesus is seeing Jesus through faith.
Lent is a time for us to explore the Eucharist once again in our lives: how Jesus speaks to us in the Liturgy of the Word; how Jesus encounters us, and invites us to encounter him, in the second part of the Mass; and how Jesus sends us forth as witnesses and missionaries to bring the fruits of the Eucharist to our daily lives.
This Lenten time of renewal not only calls us to reflect on how we see Jesus. It also calls us think about how Jesus sees us—the way we live his life and the way we do not; the faith that we have or that we might struggle with; sense of closeness we have of Jesus, or the sense of distance. Christ shows us his many faces so that we can know that we do not have to hide any of our faces from him. He loves us in all the ways we are because that’s how he invites us to always look toward him.
Abraham put his faith in a God he could not see. Jesus invites us to put our faith in him precisely because we can always, one way or another, see him.
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Reflection question: What is the image of Jesus that speaks most to me? Why?
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The Song of the Day, once more from “Lent at Ephesus” God of Mercy and Compassion.
Here are the lyrics…
God of mercy and compassion,
Look with pity upon me,
Father, let me call Thee Father,
‘Tis Thy child returns to Thee.
Refrain:
Jesus, Lord, I ask for mercy;
Let me not implore in vain;
All my sins, I now detest them,
Never will I sin again.
2. By my sins I have deserved
Death and endless misery,
Hell with all its pains and torments,
And for all eternity.
(Refrain)
3. By my sins I have abandoned
Right and claim to heav’n above.
Where the saints rejoice forever
In a boundless sea of love.
(Refrain)
4. See our Savior, bleeding, dying,
On the cross of Calvary;
To that cross my sins have nail’d Him,
Yet He bleeds and dies for me.
(Refrain)
Blessings,
Fr. Bill