From Our Pastor's Desk
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From Our Pastor's Desk
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THE GOOD WINE OF THE WEDDING
For us, the Mass of every Sunday is a feast. We come to seek the good wine that Jesus offers us; the good wine of his word, the good wine of his love, the good wine of his Body and Blood that is given to us as nourishment and brings joy to our lives. Today, the Gospel of Saint John tells us of the first miracle that Jesus performed in the most beautiful setting: a wedding banquet. He speaks to us of love and of the role of women. How our concepts of marriage and family are illuminated at this wedding in Cana? Christianity is a wedding feast because it allows us to live in a wonderful intimacy with God and the marriage union is but a pale image. Dear brothers and sisters: 1. What do we learn about love? Human love is not only the union of bodies but a communion between persons that unites them in life and in their destiny and that blossoms in the fullness of joy. Jesus announces and demands an indissoluble marriage. A marriage founded on true love must be exclusive, total, and unconditional for life. Our society today needs men and women who know how to defend the project of a love founded on these principles and who at the same time understand those who are incapable of living it. 2. What is the role of Jesus in a Christian family? Christ cannot be a simple guest at our weddings, but the one who must stay with us when all the other guests have left. Christ wants to be the witness of the affection of the spouses, the guarantor of their happiness, the mediator in their conflicts, the confidant of their problems, the friend who gets them out of trouble when the wine starts to run out; and above all this, the one who gives them the joy of living, converting the wine of human love into the generous wine of the last hour: the wine of Christian love. For this reason, Christian marriage can never be a duet of selfishness, since it represents the infinite love that God has for us. 3. Have we already valued the place of the Blessed Virgin as the teacher of our life? Her brief intervention highlights the role she plays as a mediator in the mystery of redemption. Mary's presence is rich in details of exquisite femininity and discretion, attentive and effective like a true mother. In this passage we read the only words of Mary in the fourth Gospel: "They have no wine." In the Old Testament, wine symbolizes the fullness of joy in the love between wife and husband. This is how your gaze should be, one that does not question the faithfulness of God, who is not concerned only with himself and his own gains, but who is aware of the "thirst for wine" of so many people around us who have lost even the taste for living. This was Mary's attitude in Cana and this should be ours. Finally, let us not miss an important detail: when we do in our lives "what he says" everything becomes "better." It is the transforming action of Jesus. We must be the water turned into wine for our fellow men. We become "miracles" of Christ, so that the world may believe. A privileged sign is the faithful experience of Christian marriage. The family that is born from it will continue to be the basis of the perfect, happier, and more humane society. In a time of crisis like ours, we ask God to bless all our families. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests BAPTIZED TO TRANSFORM THE WORLD
The Epiphany was the manifestation of Christ's divinity before the world, and his baptism is a new “epiphany”; God himself reveals to his people that Jesus Christ is his Son. When the Father's voice was heard, heaven opened for all of us. With Christ, we too celebrate our baptism, which is our birth to the life of grace. Sisters and brothers: 1. St. Luke tells us that when all the people were being baptized by John, Jesus also went to be baptized. Is this not what he had already done through the mystery of his Incarnation: to mingle with men and enter into the current of their history? He had come to be in solidarity with men in everything; not in sin, but in the consequences of sin. This is the novelty of his doctrine. Jesus approaches sinners as a friend; not as a moralist who seeks out those to blame, nor as a judge who passes sentences, but as a brother who preaches forgiveness. How often people who have fallen and whom we easily condemn need more than our light criticism, understanding, and help that gives them strength to renew their lives! 2. Jesus' baptism was like his presentation to society by God. God breaks his silence, bursts in publicly to take him out of his anonymity at the beginning of his public life, and to present him to everyone as his messenger, as the expected Messiah, as the definitive Messiah. This Jesus, who lets himself be baptized by John, anonymously mixed among the people, is not just any man, he is the "Son, the beloved, the chosen one." We too have been baptized. Contemplating Jesus' baptism, we also remember our own. 3. On the day of our baptism something has been kindled within our hearts. It is the fire of the Holy Spirit that comes through us to transform the world. The Letter to Diognetus said: “What the soul is to the body, so are Christians to the world.” The Christian is an apostle by vocation. How the world would change if we were faithful to this requirement! In baptism we become children of God, we receive the gifts of the Spirit. The laity of today must be able to offer new solutions to new problems, inspired by the faith of always. We are integrated into the world, in school, in art, in politics, in work and there we must sow the seed of Christ without becoming prisoners of its false myths. Brothers and sisters: We are Christians by baptism but do we live as Christians? Some are added to the statistics because they are registered in the parish registers but they do not know Christ or follow the commandments; it is understood that apostasy is fashionable among them. Confirm your faith and that of your brothers! Value the gifts you have received, take care of them, and thank God for them. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests |
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