FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK

Dear St. Mary’s Parishioners:

I didn’t know what to expect when we planned the Parish Family Picnic. It would be our first big gathering since the pandemic shut everything down. Many questions swirled in my mind as your newly arrived pastor. How would the people respond? Would anyone show up? Would it rain? Would it be too hot? It’s going to be a big dud! All these doubts crept through my imagination. When I drove up to Andrews Park, I was shocked. I could barely find any parking. Smoke from the grill heroically manned by our Knights Columbus covered the sky. The whiff of hot dogs and burgers permeated the air–it smelled like the American Dream! By the time we started the Holy Mass there were nearly a whopping 700 people in attendance. As I stood on the stage where the makeshift altar was set-up, I had a beautiful vantage point. It was a sea of people decked out in blue hats with “St. Mary’s” in gold letters on front that we passed out as gifts to the parish. My heart exploded with joy. I thought to myself, “These are my brothers and sisters in Christ.”

To be a faithful Christian is not easy in our day and age. The next time you’re at work, look around you. How many followers of Jesus Christ are there in the room with you? Most likely than not, you are in the minority. The culture tolerates a “Christian lite” form of lived faith. If you proclaim you hold the age-old Church teachings of the dignity of human life from conception to natural death or the traditional view of sexual morality you are deemed an old fashioned, rigid religious zealot. Or worst of all, you are called a bigot. It’s almost easier to go along with the culture and not fight for Christ and his Church. After all, we may win more friends that way. I get it, no one wants to be a social leper. We all desire to be loved and accepted. “Is any of this worth it?” I asked in my homily last week during the Sunday Masses. Is it worth giving our lives to Christ in the face of the turmoil that it can cause? To be a Christian will demand everything from us. Jesus asks us to change our lives to conform to his laws and teachings. The first words of Jesus ever recorded in the Bible is “metanoia”, which means “repent”. He tells us to utterly change the direction of our lives from sin and selfishness, if we want to be worthy of him. This my friends, this change of which Jesus speaks, will always be painful because it requires me to kill my ego.

To live the teachings of Jesus can sometimes make us feel alone. This is one of the main reasons why I wanted to do a Parish Family Picnic. I wanted everyone to see that although we may be a minority, we are not alone. We have one another, we have the saints in Heaven, and most importantly, we have God.

St. Paul, the author of the Second Reading that we heard at Mass today understood this reality better than most. He writes: Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead… for which I am suffering, even to the point of chains, like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory. This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful…

If we asked St. Paul, is being a faithful Christian worth it? What do you think he would say?

In Christ,

Fr. Brian J. Soliven