Rooted in Christ
every tree is known by its own fruit
Announcements for February 26, 2022:
Pope Francis has asked that Ash Wednesday be observed as a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine. Check out our Ash Wednesday Schedule of Masses and Services.
If you have old blessed palms, you can drop them off in the church narthex. We will burn them in front of the church on Monday at 2:45pm.
We will pray the Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent in the church at 6:00pm. Soup Supper will follow in Gordon Hall.
Save the date for our parish mission. Father Llane Briese will preach our Lenten retreat on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings March 6th-8th at 7:00pm.
Visit the OLMC Parishioner Portal for all of our recent announcements.
If you need anything at all, please be in touch with me.
Dear Saints,
(I sent out my Lenten pastoral letter this week. You can find it in this week's bulletin. Be sure to check it out as you take a look at our Lenten schedule of activities.)
Our Gospel passage this weekend presents the conclusion of Jesus' Sermon on the Plain. To say that he ends it with a flourish is something of an understatement.
Jesus hits his disciples with three images in rapid succession: one blind person guiding another straight into a ditch; noticing a splinter in your brother's eye, and not seeing the wooden beam in your own; and every tree being known by its fruit.
Jesus' preaching here is a pictorial commentary on the Pharisees' teaching and agenda. Let me offer a brief run-through of what he's saying.
Firstly, Jesus is saying to beware of rival teaching, of agendas that aren't his. The Pharisees might offer themselves as teachers to the crowd, but their guidance, which lacks God's vision and falls short of his purposes, will leave you in a hole.
Secondly, Jesus' verbal sketch of the splinter and the beam reveals the Pharisees intention to ratchet up observance of the law's tiniest details, all the while missing its main point. Their agenda sought to create and maintain, through legislated practices, the separation of Israel from the non-Jewish nations. The design of God, however, was to make Israel the light to the nations: Refusal to go God's way was a single massive disobedience - a wooden beam in the eye, so to speak.
Finally, Jesus' plant and fruit images really get to the heart of the matter. Actually, that's the point. God's agenda, his plan to produce truly human beings, is a renewal agenda that must go down deep. It must touch and transform the heart. Anything less is fruitless, or as useful as tying figs on thornbushes.
In sum, our full flourishing comes from being rooted in Christ. The Good News is that Jesus not only pioneers the truly human way, he also makes it possible for us. With God's holy Spirit at work in us and working through us, we can go the way (and bear the fruit) of radical and ridiculous generosity - the way of holiness and justice, the way of worship and service, the way of prayer and love - no matter what.
I love you, my friends, and I look forward to seeing you very soon.
Christ's Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
The Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Sermon on the Mount
Sebastiano Ricci, 1725