Pastor’s Message: Thanksgiving 2022

Dear Beloved Parishioners,

An apology, as I thought I had sent this yesterday.   Ooopsies…

A few practical things first:

1. There is was NO Wednesday 8am All School Mass.We held that today Tuesday, on the kid’s last day of school before the break.
2. Thanksgiving Day’s Mass will be at 9am. Plenty of time to get the bird in the oven before you stop by and give thanks…
3. There WILL be an 8am Mass on Friday.
4. The Advent Blue books are on order but are not slated to arrive until Monday.  I thought we were automatically enrolled year by year, but apparently that is not the case.  My apologies for not getting them to you in a timely manner.  

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Please pray for the repose of the souls of Bill Frein and Dick Schmitt.  Bill’s funeral is today at noon, and Dick’s is Dec. 3^rd at 11am, both here at St. Justin.

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On the All Things New front – from Fr. Chris Martin.

We completed the last Listening Sessions this past weekend. More than 30,000 people participated in 329 Listening Sessions across 10 counties and the City of St. Louis. We have already received 4,500 completed follow up surveys.

Every draft model option in every planning area is now posted and public. All are invited to take a closer look and share feedback through the online survey by

visiting https://allthingsnew.archstl.org/Planning-Process/Planning-Areas

The follow up online survey remains open through December 31. You are encouraged to share your feedback on the draft model options, ministry opportunities, and opinion on what “new” thing that could be developed or expanded in your planning area that would help us in our evangelization or social outreach efforts.

All of the survey feedback is being individually reviewed as it is received by a team comprised of individuals from the All Things New team, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, and Catholic Leadership Institute.  This compilation will occur through early January 2023 and will be used to add to and modify existing model options.  These revised model options will be shared with priests, deacons, parish life coordinator, and key parish leaders in the winter of 2023 for further feedback.

For any questions pertaining to All Things New, contact http://www.allthingsnew@archstl.org.

For any questions pertaining to accessing or completing the online survey, contact http://www.onlinesupport@catholicleaders.org.

Thank you for your participation in the All Things New initiative, and your desire to bring the Good News of Salvation into the lives of all those we touch, so that individual hearts and all of society may be converted to God and all things might be made new.

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And, if you want to see Monday night’s talk from the parish mission, here is the link to the boxcast site.  My apologies for my error in not making the event “public”.  And, of course, once it is recorded, you cannot change that setting.  Who knew…

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The Deeper Dive into the Sunday Scriptures, comes to us, once more from the good folks at the Paulist Evangelization Ministries.

For years I resisted getting an Alexa Echo.  There’s something about these modern gadgets that drives me nuts.  When does everything come down to pushing a button, or clicking a mouse, or giving a verbal command?  Coming from a generation that changed channels by fiddling with an antenna for ten minutes and walking up to the television to change a knob, all these modern gadgets seem to mark us as lazy and spoiled people.

Alexa play this.  Alexa tell me the weather. Alexa stop.  I’ve come to love this.  No fiddling with radio buttons or distorted signals, Alexa gives me the radio channel I want with just my speaking.  I wish that things happened that way when I speak to my car while I’m driving.  There I am, with Alexa, for at least a moment or two in my life, in total control

Total control has been a human yearning throughout our history.  Wasn’t that Adam’s problem, he couldn’t have total control?  Every nation that has invaded another sought control.  From Alexander, to Ceasar, to Frederick II, to Napolean, to Adolf Hitler, to Vladimir Putin, the idea of totally controlling something has seduced us humans.  And if emperors and conquerors can do it, why cannot I?

The feast of Christ the King seems to be line with this desire.  We have long seen images of Jesus as the conqueror and controller of everything. We’ve long thought of the Last Judgment as the moment when Christ stops playing around and takes total control.  When we look at what it took as we endured our last election, we rather like the idea of a King who settles everything by sheer power.

Yet this Feast teaches us that we should not impose our ideas of kingship and rule on Jesus; rather, we are to place his ideas of Kingdom and power over our own deluded images.  The tender scene we have in the Gospel, when Jesus shares the hopes of his death with a common criminal, shows how Jesus thinks of power.  He does not need people to bow down to him; he rather needs his followers to learn how to bow down to others, especially the broken and hopeless, in imitation of him.

The second reading ends a rathe powerful poem about the preeminence of Jesus with a shocking image.  It talks about the ministry of Jesus as one of reconciliation, a reconciliation that happened by the blood of the cross.  That blood does not represent domination over others; rather it represents the power of self-giving love to conquer both death and human hostility.  It implies that the victory of Jesus’ blood brought about reconciliation between Jews and Greeks, between those with authority and those without authority, between all humans whose blood Jesus shared in the Incarnation.

Jesus’ power is all about peace, reconciling opposites, bringing together people who defined themselves against each other, people who believed they lived in two different worlds.  So powerful is the generosity of Jesus’ self-giving that there are no barriers that it cannot overcome.  So powerful is this generous love of Christ that it is supposed to mark the lives of every one of his followers.  Indeed, we know now that creating divisions is a mark of weakness and limitation; the true victor is the one who can unite all in a vision of love.

“Are you not the Christ?”  This is what they yell at Christ as he dies on the cross?  We can hear Jesus responding:  “Indeed, I am the Christ, but not the one your power-hungry mind longs for.  I am the Christ who, freeing you from your delusions of power, can conquer your hearts with love if you only give them to me.”

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For Reflection: what are the things that hold the greatest power in my life?

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The Song of the Day: In honor of Thanksgiving:  Now Thank we All our God, sung by The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square…

Blessings, and a happy Thanksgiving…

 Fr Bill