Dear Saints,

The splash page for our website (www.olmc.church) encourages visitors to “Find your place in God’s plan.” You have a place. You have a place here. You have a place in God’s plan.

It seems too simple to say that, but perhaps it’s something you need to hear. You, in whatever state, circumstance, or situation you are in, have a place here. You are dearly loved. You, as you are, are loved by God and – because as lovers of God we love what he loves – you are loved by your OLMC family.

There are no “pariahs” in our parish. No “better thans” or “worse thans." No “outcasts.”

I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, but as we will read next week:

For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made
- Wisdom 11:24

For as much as social media, advertising, and our current culture try to convince us otherwise, God’s word on this matter should shape our hearts and minds more than popular opinion.

God, in his great mercy and glory, made you in his image. He made you out of love: he made you by love, and he made you for love. This means that loving the other is our life’s work, our purpose. Pitting ourselves against others, then, putting ourselves over and above others, is a betrayal of God’s for-the-other love that is ours only by his mercy.

Reflect on Jesus’ parable of the Publican and the Tax Collector, which we hear this weekend, to get a better sense of this picture — The Pharisee, thinking he had earned God’s favor, condemned those who (in his mind) didn’t deserve it, while the tax collector was humble enough to seek (and receive) God’s forgiveness in spite of his unworthiness.

Whose heart was left aflame from his time in the temple? Who truly encountered the living God? Who, would we expect, was made fit to embody God’s mercy for the wider world? Maybe this helps us to make sense of Jesus’ saying that, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, while he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Be exalted.

In the Peace of Christ,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ