Pastor’s Letter: June 16, 2024

Pastor’s Letter: June 16, 2024

14 Jun 2024 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friends,

As we return to Ordinary Time in the Church, we quickly hear one of Jesus’ parables this weekend. Jesus spoke in parables, or short stories, to communicate truths and get people to think, while not directly revealing all truths about Himself at once. Like in the Old Testament, God in the New Testament slowly reveals Himself. Mark’s Gospel this weekend says, “Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.” The forming of His disciples was something that Jesus clearly took seriously. He spent a great deal of time with them. He encouraged them to watch and listen. He taught them through what he said publicly and then furthered that teaching to them privately. “Knowledge of the mysteries” was given by Jesus to the disciples to help them understand and commit to following Him. This knowledge was strengthened by the Holy Spirit and their own success in ministry. It did take time, however. Just like the Bible, all of our lives require time to learn and discover the mysteries of God. It is the practice of the faith, attendance at Mass, personal prayer, and living the virtues that allows each of us to grow in our knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven. While we celebrate our current understanding, Christ invites us to seek more.

The parable this weekend states, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God: it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.” Part of the challenge that God gives all of us in life is that we don’t need to know everything. Many of the struggles people have in life revolve around seeking information that does not belong to one, or is none of one’s business. Gossip is of course speaking information about others that is not ours. All of the horoscopes or seeking information “from the universe” the “stars aligning” or seeking “positive energy” are all things that involve believing in a “force” other than God. People try to seek all information and attribute knowledge to things they can’t control.

In this parable, Jesus makes it clear that we don’t need to know everything. We simply need to know how to assess a situation and make the truthful, moral choice in response to the situation presented to us. Two thousand years ago, they didn’t know the complexities of seed germination; but, they could see and touch a seed, they knew if they planted the seed in fertile soil, with water and sun, the seed could become the largest of plants. For our own journey to heaven, we are expected to use our gifts and talents to best understand the world around us, while being content with controlling the controllable and focusing on making the best moral decisions. Judgment for people two thousand years ago was not about how much they understood about seed germination, but rather about how well one lived a state of gratitude with the blessings bestowed by God.  May the Lord give us the grace to ground ourselves in our own moral choices, removing from our desires the knowledge of certain facts of the world or any other person that doesn’t matter to our ability to live a charitable, Christian life ordered to heaven. Have a great week.

God bless,

Father David