Pastor's Letter -- October 24, 2021

My beloved parishioners,

The request of blind Bartimaeus was simple but direct: “Master, I want to see.” He had no time for stories, but went straight to the heart of his desire. He gives us an example for our own prayers – be simple, but straight to the point! Like Bartimaeus, we all have desires that have been planted in our hearts by God. And we are all crying out to Jesus to be the fulfillment of our desires. We might not be physically blind, but our needs are by no means small. More than anything, what we are crying for is Jesus. And there is a part of receiving Jesus that can only be received in a Christian community. If we want to live a full life in Christ, we must be open to communion with our brothers and sisters. Like the early Christians, we need authentic Christian community to share this communion. Even in monastic life, we see the importance of communal living. A brother or sister who wants to become a hermit must first prove himself or herself capable of living in community. Despite the pressure from the crowd, Bartimaeus did not stay silent; he knew that only in Jesus would his desire be met, so he kept crying and shouting out. We too must cry and shout out to the Lord in the face of the many voices around trying to shut us down. We have many good, holy desires within us. And one of those desires is for a real and authentic community, for real friendship with one another. The world tells us to keep those desires quiet. It might sound something like, “Don’t ask for so much from others,” Don’t be a burden,” “There’s no perfect community,” “There are sinful people everywhere so why bother,” or “I don’t want to risk being seen by others or risk that they might not accept me,” “Don’t expect so much from God, or especially from Christians, they’ll just let you down,” or “Real friendship doesn’t exist.” Bartimaeus could recognize the lies in the voices that were trying to keep him from reaching out to Jesus. Do we see the lies in the voices telling us not to reach out to Jesus or to our brothers and sisters? What are those desires the Lord has placed in your heart? Do you think they cannot be fulfilled? We must remember, as our heavenly patroness, St. Thérèse said, the Lord does not inspire a desire that is impossible. God has never given a desire that he cannot fulfill.

Like the Psalmist, who sang the praise of God who had done great things by setting the captives of Zion free and bringing them back to their homeland, the Lord has begun something new in our parish. They are called HOUSEHOLDS. In the early days of the church, the disciples of Jesus met weekly in house churches, that is, in the homes of believers, to break bread and share the Word. Today, we are being called to small communities of believers to fellowship together and to share the love of the heart of God with our brothers and sisters. Even though we share meal together and fellowship with our brothers and sisters, these are not social gatherings; neither are they civic associations, political groupings, or exclusive clubs. Their sole purpose and focus is Jesus. We come together to witness to our love for Jesus and our love for one another. We will share our joys, sorrows, laughter and tears. We will be free to be ourselves without giving offense to anyone or taking offense ourselves. In these households, everyone is invited, and everyone is valued and loved. By our coming together, we will bear witness of God’s love and goodness to the world. I therefore invite you all to be open to this movement of the Holy Spirit, to deepen our communion with one another and to grow in our witnessing to Jesus and to the gospel.

This weekend is World Mission Sunday. The church is by nature missionary. And we all contribute to this mission by our time, talents and treasure. I ask that you be generous as you are able, to the Mission Sunday second collection this weekend for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you! With blessings from my heart,