Thanks to God and His providence we have been able to reach this Sunday to celebrate the first 50 years of our parish community. Thanks be to Him and Jesus Christ be praised forever!![1].
Thank you very much to all who have wished to join this celebration, especially [bishop and bishop ] and my brothers priests.
By a happy coincidence this Sunday we are treated to one of the most beautiful passages about Jesus in the entire Bible. Our Lord emptied Himself of his divinity. He became a human being. More than this, he became a slave for all of us. And he obeyed His Father for our sakes, even when this obedience led to His death on the cross.
It is difficult for us to explain our belief in Jesus. He is not just a theory, an intellectual doctrine. He is a living person. We have a personal relationship with Him. We go through our days speaking to Him and listening for Him to speak to us. We know that He is the eternal Son of the Father, the Word of God present from the beginning of creation. But that is not how we relate to Him or He to us. He is our closest friend, our deepest Love. We look at the Cross and are amazed at the extent of His Love for us.
He is God, and yet, He became one of us, more than that, he became a slave for us. A slave serves the needs of his master without considering the impact on his life. Jesus came to serve us. He came to free us from the grasp of materialism. He came to renew the quest for the spiritual within us. He came to restore us to that place in creation that we deserted out of pride and selfishness. He came to instill the spiritual within us so that we can be united to the Eternal after our death.
Be like Him, St. Paul invites us in the first reading. humbly regard others as more important than yourselves. This is difficult. We would like to think that the world revolves around us and our wants. But it does not. The world is the Lord’s.
Today, with this celebration, with this anniversary we are called to work in the Father's vineyard. The vineyard is your house and my house, your family and the parish community. The vineyard is that place where others are reaching out to us, seeking the love of Christ in us. They long for Jesus. And they can find Him. They can find Him within us. Within us as Church and within us as individuals.
So, what is the reality of Jesus in your lives, in my life? How real is He to you? Can we all realize that through the Grace of God, Jesus’ presence is stronger and His Life is more meaningful now than ever before? This is not a matter of feeling; it is a matter of recognizing reality. Everything is for Jesus. Everything that matters in the world flows from Him and leads to Him. If we are here this morning, is for Him If we organize this celebration is for Him the glory is not for the parish priest or pastoral council, or the staff. The glory is for Jesus Christ, who in a few minutes will go down to the altar.
St. Paul put it so beautifully in those closing words of today’s second reading; God bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father[2].
He is ours. And we are His. We pray today for the courage to serve the Father as He served Him, emptying ourselves of our selfishness, humbling ourselves before our God, loving Him until the day that we are totally united to our Tremendous Lover ■
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario