Clothed in Immortality

Dear Friend,

This Sunday we celebrate the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, with Ash Wednesday close on its heels.  We won’t return to Ordinary Time until June 22nd.  While I trust liturgical specialists to help me mark this timeline, I also see that my – and our - pilgrimage through history is a sacred path where “my time”, “our time” and “God’s time” converge.  I live in a “brief parentheses between two eternities”, as a former teacher once put it.  Said another way, though it may not feel like it, we are being “clothed in immortality” (cf. this week’s second reading).  What this requires Jesus spells out in his conclusion to the “sermon on the plain”:  wisdom. Nothing dramatic or earth-shaking, it is a willingness to pay attention and to learn.  

On Father Jude’s website Preacher Exchange, Barbara Quincy writes about “a continuous exercise of faith, hope, and charity” - words drawn from the Vatican II document on the laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem.  She continues: “The document makes clear that our task as able-bodied lay Catholics is ‘to renew the temporal order of the world’ where ‘Christian social action is preeminent’ (7). This is something that should imbue our entire lives, not just when we have time, not just when we retire, not just incidental, not just someone else’s responsibility. Sacramental lives. This is the fullness of being Catholic.”

Our parish planning aims to support each parishioner in living this out in daily life.   Nurturing our life like a precious tree, acknowledging we all have our blind spots, being quick to listen and slow to speak - learning these takes time.  A regular liturgical practice, on-going formation, education, and service are key.  Is there something small, steady, generous and loving you might commit to during Lent? My goodness, now is already the time!

Gratefully,

Father Dan, Pastor