From the Pastor’s Desk
Dear St. Mary’s Parishioners:
With God, nothing is wasted. He can take our mistakes, redeem them, and use it for the greater glory of the Kingdom. We see this consistently manifested in the Old Testament. Whenever Israel would go astray, he used their pagan neighbors to draw them back. “A sword! A sword!” proclaims the prophet Ezekial to the Jewish people. “ A sharp and shiny sword is coming from Babylon! It is sharpened to kill people. It flashes like lightning… Jerusalem will fall.” (Cf. Ezekiel 21) Then again with Moses himself in the Book of Exodus. God uses the Egyptian pharaoh to manifest his closeness to the Chosen People. How can we forget the example of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis? Through the “Happy fault” of our first parents, as we exclaim in the ancient hymn that we sing during the Easter Vigil, comes forth our redeemer, Jesus Christ. His death on the vicious cross itself demonstrates this in the most perfect way. He will take the vile filth of humanity upon his very body and be crucified. The “death” of God will thrust open the gates of Heaven. The price of Original Sin will be paid by the blood of the Son. Nothing is wasted.
This is also true in our own lives and world today. God still acts. He has never stopped. The great Spanish mystic, St. Teresa of Avila, once said, “God writes straight with crooked lines.” We can mistakenly think that we can only offer the good things of our lives back to him. I dare say, God is more creative than we give him credit for. Offer everything to him, even our darkest, most shameful failings. Watch what happens.
When the Covid lockdown shuttered our churches, it was devastating for many, especially us priests. We were handcuffed to what we could do. Many of us felt helpless and cut off from the people we lovingly laid down our lives to serve. Then suddenly, almost overnight, we priests were forced to become “televangelists”. We took to the airways, television, social media, and radio, like never before. From your average parish priest to the pope himself, the digital domain became a part of the mission fields. Creativity became a necessity in order to reach the flock. Thanks to the help of tech-savvy parishioners, we made my homilies available online through a website and all podcast apps. This made access easier in a convenient format for those who wanted to keep connected and share it with family and friends. As I joked last weekend in my masses, my homilies are also scientifically proven to cure insomnia. If you have trouble sleeping, simply listen to one of my sermons and I guarantee you will sleep like a little baby.
Homilies can be found here. You can also subscribe by putting in your email address and you will automatically receive it in your inbox after it's published. https://frbriansoliven.org
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Fr. Brian J. Soliven
