Dear Parishioners,
One of the things we all need to do is be more grateful and thankful for the blessings we have and the people around us. I want to thank everybody for their prayers and support for one another and the parish during the pandemic. I was particularly impressed by the good stewards who helped clean the pews after each Mass week after week, the ushers who helped seat the people with distance spacing, the many who signed up for electronic fund transfers (EFTs) when they couldn’t bring their envelopes to Mass, the gentleman who recently refinished the pews damaged by the cleaning solutions, and you, so many of whom have come back to Mass. Somebody jokingly said, “They might just get used to watching the Mass on TV in their pajamas with a latte in their hand and the newspaper by their side.” But if there’s anything we learned in the past month from the Gospel of John, if we want to share in the life of Jesus, we must eat the “Bread of Life,” Jesus in Holy Communion. And we can’t do that through television.
Today’s readings call for us to make a choice (Jos 24:1 2a, 15-17, 18b; Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21; Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32; Jn 6:60-69). At Shechem, Joshua invites the Israelites to make a choice. It’s either the God who liberated them from Egypt or the gods of the Amorites. The people and Joshua made the right choice. The gospel shows Jesus offering Peter a choice as well. He could stay with Jesus or go with the many who left because the teaching of Jesus was “hard to endure.” Peter made the right choice. May we always do the same even when we find His teachings through the Church “hard to endure.”
Please pray for Haiti and Afghanistan.
Fr. Carl
