FROM THE ASSOCIATE PASTOR’S DESK What motivates us to do the things we do? We go onto school so we can earn a living. We get advanced degree’s so we can earn more money. We work hard to make a good check, support our families, drive the car we want and buy the house we want. We all have varying motives for the things we do. When I was growing up, we did things to help out one another. There weren’t motives behind it. We did it because we knew it was the right thing to do. We helped out around the house, we helped the neighbor because we saw a need, we helped friends because they were just that, friends. We didn’t expect to be paid, sometimes we didn’t even expect a thank you. There wasn’t a status quo pertaining to who we helped. In our Gospel passage from Luke this week, Jesus turns the table on his disciples when he narrates a story to them about the master and his servants. He turns those listening into the servant, and not the master. Making them realize that to be served comes at all levels. Do we live this out in our own lives? Do we know who we are in the kingdom of God? Do we know what is expected of us by God? Do we do things out of love or for some other reason? Is it driven by faith? Faith in a God who adores his creation. A God who created out of love. A God who continues to show his love for us each and every day. Do we truly have that faith, and does that faith allow us to see beyond ourselves? St. Justin Martyr wrote in the year 160 AD, “If men by their works show themselves worthy of His design, they are deemed worthy of reigning in company with Him, being delivered from corruption and suffering. This is what we have received [from the Apostles]....Those who choose what is pleasing to Him are, on account of their choice, deemed worthy of incorruption and of fellowship with Him.” Through each of our baptisms, God commissioned us to be his disciples, to go out and spread his word, healing, casting out demons and preaching his word. Our faith leads us to do more and be more. With that faith our world turns into a different place. It becomes a place where we don’t go without because a need in our community, a need in our state, a need in the world, is seen and addressed. Not because it benefits the person doing the act, but rather because it benefits someone other than them; an individual, a family, a community, a world. Ultimately, we use our time and talents to improve this impoverished world we live in. To make it a better place, one person by one person. Our faith directs us to lending that helping hand. To be active in groups that help those in need. Maybe our faith is calling us to start a group, to get active, to begin doing something no one else has done before! In the words of Saint Mother Teresa, “We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Our faith leads us in many different directions, where is your faith leading you? Where is God calling you to go? Maybe it is to be more active in the parish? Maybe to deepen your faith through a bible study or mens / womens group? For me it was to sell all my possessions and enter the seminary with that ultimate goal of becoming a priest. Now I’m not saying that is your call, but God is calling each of us to serve, are we listening? May God open our hearts and ears to where he wills us to be, and may he bless you abundantly in that process. Fr. Barry
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
MASS SCHEDULE
Tuesday - Friday: 8:00 AM Saturday: 4:00 PM Sunday: 8:00 AM & 10:00 AM RECONCILIATION
Saturday: 3:15 - 3:45 PM OFFICE HOURS
Monday - Thursday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM Friday: 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM Stay Connected with Our ParishWelcome from Our PastorWelcome to Christ the King Catholic Church! Ever since 1938 this parish has been assisting souls in their quest for deeper union with God. Our mission statement is essentially found in the stained glass window above the main altar: “For Christ our King.” Insofar as God made us and we belong to Him, we have come to... Read More
Archives
February 2021
Categories
All
|