The Hard Way Ahead
Master, to whom shall we go?
Announcements for August 21, 2021:
Registration forms for our religious education program are available online and in the church narthex. Please bring them to the rectory office by September 1st.
OLMC School kicks off the 2021-22 academic year on Monday, August 30th. Please remember our families, faculty, and staff in your prayers as we prepare for another year of educating children for lives of eternal purpose!
Our 2022 Mass Book will open in September. We will publish more information on Mass intentions in the bulletin and on the website next weekend.
Visit our Parishioner Portal for up-to-date announcements.
Dear Saints,
Our five-week foray into the sixth chapter of Saint John's Gospel comes to an end on Sunday. Like what we've encountered heretofore, our Gospel passage this weekend does not disappoint.
Towards the end of the Bread of Life Discourse (go ahead, read it through in one shot), Jesus tells his followers that they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood. When he insists on the point, many of his disciples walk away from him. Jesus asks the Twelve if they'd like to leave, too.
Peter responds, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
There's so much to tease out in this powerful exchange, but I'll leave the lion's share of that for another time. For now, it's enough to say that Jesus is forging a hard way ahead, and many of his disciples at the time refused to follow him there.
Jesus' mission is to raise up God's fallen world, and he endeavors to accomplish it by healing wounded human beings - by forgiving sinners - winning them by and for the cause of love. Jesus goes the hard way of self-gift, and he calls his disciples to follow him on that way into God's promised future.
The words of eternal life that Jesus communicates bring about this reality, they bring to life God's reign of justice and holiness. Despite its difficulty, there is no other way to bring God's promised future to life now than the way of love, and no one other than Jesus to lead us there.
I love you, my friends. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Christ's Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter
Raphael, 1515