Dear Parishioners,
Our God is one of surprises who reveals himself in different ways. To Moses, he first appears in the “burning bush” which wasn’t consumed by the fire. Later, at Mount Sinai, he reveals himself in thunder and lightning. In today’s readings (1 Kings 19:9-12), he comes to Elijah not as a strong heavy wind, earthquake, or even fire. Instead, he comes as a tiny whispering sound. Perhaps it is a warning to us that we can never totally figure out God. For just when we think we have, we discover another aspect or another feature in his nature and activity we never before realized. And that’s not a bad thing. It keeps us off balance; we can never take God for granted; we can never presume we have all the answers.
That’s a lesson our world needs to learn where so many, in their pride and arrogance, think that they do, especially our political and government leaders who leave God and morality out of the discussion as we see with so many of our Catholic politicians. They use their Catholic faith when it suits them only to cast the faith overboard when it is politically advantageous to do so. Let us pray that we may look to Christ and his Church for guidance and wisdom in our personal decisions and those of our government leaders.
- Fr. Carl
Rev. Stephen Hook is Pastor of the Pastorate of the Visitation which includes the Catholic Churches of Pasadena, Maryland: St. Jane Frances de Chantal (Riviera Beach) and Our Lady of the Chesapeake (Lakeshore). He is assisted by Associate Pastor Rev. John Belinki, Deacon Howard Klohr, and Deacon Rick Clemens. To learn more about our pastorate, please visit www.catholicpasadena.org.
