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Pastor's Letter -- February 20th, 2022
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Dearly beloved parishioners,
The dominant theme for this weekend’s liturgy is Mercy. Mercy supersedes the Law. Were we to always receive our deserts, I wonder, like the psalmist, how many of us would survive (Psalm 130:3). But thank God, we do not always get what we deserve but what God in his magnanimity chooses to give us. We sing in our responsorial psalm, “The Lord is kind and merciful.” Mercy and kindness are two of the attributes of God. The attributes of God are integral to his identity. That means we cannot imagine God apart from his attributes. This is not so for you and me. We might do good deeds under certain circumstances, and not-so-good deeds under certain other circumstances. The David who resists violence is the same David who arranges for the killing of Uriah to serve his lust for Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. It seems easy to love those who love and treat us well, and maybe in some circumstances, those who dislike or despise us. This is not so with God. God does not just perform kind or merciful acts some times, God is mercy and kindness. These attributes are synonymous to God’s nature. So, to imagine a God who is unkind or not merciful would be to imagine something other than the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
God makes his nature visible through his acts, which we can group into three major categories: Creation, Redemption and Sanctification. God created the world, and continues to sustain creation in existence through his providence. Christ has redeemed us by his salvific passion, death and resurrection. He makes this saving reality present at every Eucharistic celebration. The Holy Spirit continues to sanctify the church through the preaching of the Good News, the sacraments and ministry of the church in the world. God has revealed himself to us as a kind God who shows his loving kindness and mercy to everyone. Jesus has made this even more visible through his life and ministry. By our baptism into the Trinity we have received some aspects of this divine nature and are called to grow in them until they become our own nature. We cannot say
we are kind or merciful until we act kindly or mercifully. David exercises these qualities in the first reading. He shows mercy to
King Saul, his archenemy, who had made attempts on his life for no just reason. Thus, David does what God does; just as God does not treat us according to our sins (Verse 3 of responsorial psalm), David does not treat Saul according to his transgression. He went above and beyond what was permissible by the law: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” He does what Jesus invites us to do in the gospel, “love your enemies and do good to them.”
Ash Wednesday is next week, and the season of Lent will soon begin. This season of preparation for Easter has traditionally been characterized by prayer, fasting and acts of mercy. The first two directly correlate to our vertical relationship with the Lord, and the third speaks to our solicitude for our brothers and sisters. This Lent, maybe we can focus less on praying for our own needs and praying more for others. Since God does not benefit from the food we reject when we fast, maybe we can try giving the food to the poor or giving the money we would have used for that cup of coffee or that can of soda to someone who has more need for it. Maybe we can be more intentional in studying again the Corporal and the Spiritual Works of Mercy and adopting some of these for this Lent. We trust that the Lord will help us as we take on these holy practices for our own spiritual health and the health of our world.
Finally, our beloved bishop Kevin Rhoades would be celebrating our 9 am Mass next weekend 02/27/22. Let’s make him welcome to our parish and pray that his time with us would be a blessed one.
May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!
