My dear parishioners,
Greetings of peace and goodwill to you and your households!
Last weekend we had our parish summer picnic. It was such a
wonderful opportunity to meet with some of our parishioners. I
had so much fun, and I am sure those who were able to attend
did likewise. We even had music provided by Kevin & Lynda
Gring. How cool! I wish to express my gratitude to our staff
and all who volunteered their time and resources to make the
event a huge success. Thank you to all who brought side
dishes as well. We pray for more opportunities to fellowship
together as a parish community.
We received the donation of a beautifully crafted stand for the
thurible (censer). It was designed and donated by Bill and
Linda Conyers. They had observed some weeks ago that the
old stand was not befitting for our parish, and they asked me if
they could do something about it. Thank you for making good
your promise to provide us with a new and more presentable
one. Also, we received some cash donation from Joan Lennon,
a long time parishioner who just returned to the parish. May
the Lord bless you for your generosity. You are examples to us
all of generosity to God and his church.
This Sunday we commemorate the Solemnity of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is also the 12th
Anniversary of my ordination to the Priesthood. I am amazed at
what great treasures the Lord has entrusted to a fragile vessel
like me. I ask your prayers that I may continue to be a disciple,
following only wherever the Lord leads. My gratitude to the
Filipino community of our parish for volunteering to host a
brunch after the 11:30 a.m. Mass in my honor.
Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin on November 1, 1950 in a bull titled
Munificentissimus Deus (The most bountiful God). The
definition of a dogma puts a seal on a teaching as irrevocable,
and therefore cannot be subject to further debates. Usually,
when the church defines a teaching as a dogma, it is to clarify
such teaching as what the church has always held to be
divinely revealed and believed. This does not mean the
invention of a new teaching, but the clarification of a
previously held teaching, but which, on the basis of modern
realities, is deserving of definitive affirmation.
The Church teaches that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary is a consequence of her Immaculate Conception. It is
totally the work of God. In the bull defining the Immaculate
Conception as a dogma to be firmly and constantly believed by
all the faithful, Ineffabilis Deus (Ineffable God), Pope Pius IX
emphasizes that Mary’s immaculate conception is a gift given
by the Omnipotent God. Just like all graces, this extraordinary
grace is given through the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of
all. In Mary’s case, this grace was given in view of her role in
the history of salvation. God gave the Blessed Virgin Mary this
grace, which protected her from personal sin, from the very
first moment of her conception. She was radically redeemed,
so she would be the worthy mother of God, and an example to
us of the new creation, which is the goal toward which all
humanity should tend.
The Second Vatican Council, in its Dogmatic Constitution on
the Church, Lumen Gentium, 56, speaks of the Blessed Mother
as “all holy and free from every stain of sin, as though
fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature.”
Because death is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23), and Mary is
without sin, it seems to me that it would be alien to God’s
character to allow his holy one experience the effects of sin,
which is death and corruption or decay (Psalm 16:10). The
death being referred to here is the spiritual death, which is the
fate of the damned.
Pope Pius XII reminds us that what we commemorate in the
Assumption is “not simply the total absence of corruption from
the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary but also her triumph
over death and her glorification in heaven, after the pattern set
by her only Son, Jesus Christ” (cf. Munificentissimus Deus, 20).
We see a pattern for all of us Christians, who believe in Jesus
and strive to follow him as his disciples. When our own earthly
lives come to an end, we would be united with the Lord again
in our heavenly homeland. Jesus promised that he was going
to prepare a place for us, and when everything is ready he
would come to take us home (John 14:3). While we live in this
world, this promise of Jesus should set our hearts afire with a
lively faith, without which no one can please God (Hebrews
11:6). It should ignite hope in us. And hope does not
disappoint (Romans 5:5). And it should inspire in us love for
God and for one another.
We see in the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary a glimpse of what our own ends would be.
Although we might not all be assumed body and soul into
heaven, we are confident that the Lord would come for us, just
as he did Mary, who is the model of the Church, and the protodisciple of Jesus.