Pastor’s Letter: December 1, 2019

Pastor’s Letter: December 1, 2019

29 Nov 2019 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friend,

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving. St. Paul often reflects in the Biblical letters about the importance of being thankful for the gifts we’ve received and the people in our lives. It is certainly tempting to lose sight of the importance of human relationship. People often take things for granted and those closest to us can actually be the most challenging to love. Tension in human relationships is often at its height with those closest. Whether it’s lack of communication between spouses, assumptions about why someone says or acts in a particular way, or children and parents not communicating well because of lack of trust of personal experience. The Bible challenges us to realize that successful relationships are contingent on the communication of truth. Jesus Christ is the Word of Truth, as the Gospel of John reveals. Jesus came to speak truth and it was His revealed truth that resulted in his Crucifixion. The lives of the Saints reveal that the virtue of the saint is humility. Humility invites truth into our lives and our relationships. Truth can certainly be hard to accept or embrace. Often times it is easier to ignore issues, not have the difficult conversations or simply pretend one has all the answers. The Bible invites us to cooperate with the truth of Jesus Christ that brings enlightenment to human life. Of course we know that Jesus is objective truth. That which God reveals stands above what we might personally think or desire; but, when matched with the virtue of humility, the human person learns how subjective human experience can be enlightened by the objective truth of God. The challenge is allowing this discovery in us and in our relationships. As we seek more thankful hearts for those around us, let us commit ourselves to the hard work of seeking truth. It is Gospel truth that brings patience, heals relationships, and orders us to reconciliation with God and one another.

This weekend marks the beginning of the Advent Season. Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas and the final coming of Christ. This twofold preparation for welcoming God allows us the opportunity to reflect on the extent to which God loves us. All of the Christian mysteries begin with the Birth of Christ and they certainly will culminate with the Last Judgment. This season thus has the feel of waiting.  We wait for all sorts of things in life. The world waited for the Messiah to come, which we believed happened in the Birth of Christ. We wait for appointments, social gatherings, personal celebrations, retirement, and certainly we wait for heaven. The challenge of the Advent Season is to see our waiting as having eternal significance. No matter what the life situation, we wait in peace knowing the fullness of God will be revealed to us. The confidence we have in our God should inspire us to see every day as an opportunity to live toward eternal fulfillment. May this Advent Season give us the courage to invite Jesus anew into our lives and compel us to live the Christian life.

God bless,

Father David