From the Pastor's Desk | September 3, 2023

Samuel Omogo Foundation

To quote Fr. Omogo, “A blessing is a blessing when we share our blessings with others.”

It was a pleasure and a joy hosting Fr. Omogo for the weekend! His authenticity and enthusiasm are contagious! To everyone who felt inspired to contribute to this worthy cause, thank you for your generous hearts and love for the Lord. Fr. Omogo’s song and saying have stuck with me since he left, “a blessing is a blessing when we share our blessings with others”. That sums up God the Father very well. Our God is not a god who requires things or takes things. Rather, He is a Father who is constantly giving to us - so much so that He gave His very life for us. Thank you for imitating the heart of the Father in your generosity!

Storms

To state the obvious, the storms a week and a half ago were awful. There are many people who still continue to suffer devastation, loss of life, loss of health, and loss of resources. Let us continue to pray for them as they work through healing and rebuilding. Also, keep in mind that St. Vincent dePaul is a great resource for those in need, especially immediate needs. I am thankful for a very active and well run St. Vincent dePaul society here at St. Martha parish!

Fr. Mike and Tuesday Morning Mass

Since my arrival, Fr. Mike has been traveling all summer visiting his children, family, and friends. Now that we have come to the unofficial end of summer, Fr. Mike is back. He will be helping with sacramental assistance (daily Masses, weekend Masses, confessions, etc.), is available for spiritual conversations, and will be helping with various programming throughout the year. He and I will rotate both daily and weekend Masses.

Worship Aids

You will notice this weekend that the bulletin is now the worship aid as well. Our bulletin publisher, Diocesan Publications, will now take on the role of printing these dual purpose booklets. Combining them with the bulletin helps in a couple of ways: 

1. It takes the wear and tear off of our copy machine and reduces our paper costs. Printing hundreds of weekly worship aids takes a heavy toll on the machines in the office.
2. It ensures that (most) everyone picks up a bulletin and takes them home. 

The bulletins are still available to be taken home, so please do so! We will have enough bulletins for everyone. From time-to-time, especially during Holy Week when the readings are much longer, we will have to print worship aids as we did before.

Passing the Baskets / Collection

Just a reminder that, beginning next weekend (9/9-10/23), we will return to passing the baskets at offertory. Again, my sincere thanks for your continued giving and support! Your hearts are very generous. St. Martha has made a huge investment in our kids with the significantly low tuition in the school; something I desire to continue. Because of this most worthy commitment, every dollar given is all the more important to help offset costs and to ensure quality programming in faith formation, our evangelization efforts, and our sacramental life.

This Weekend’s Gospel 

Jesus says some very strong words in today’s Gospel, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow-me.” Our reaction to those words should rightly be fear. The cross is scary. The cross ultimately killed Jesus. Yet, He asks us to take up our crosses and follow after Him. That should make us shutter, shiver, and shake with fright. If it does, then I would say that is a good sign that you are a normal human being.

Jesus’s entire life was on a trajectory toward the cross. When you read the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), you often hear the writer say that Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. His entire life was on a trajectory upward toward the hill of Golgotha where He would hang on the cross for three hours until His ultimate death. Jesus came to accomplish a mission, and that mission was the salvation of our souls and the destruction of sin and death. That mission cost Jesus His life. But, the mission and ultimate victory doesn’t end there…

As we move through life, the world presents many crosses before us, too many to name in a bulletin article. If you spend time in prayer or just thinking about your past, I am sure you could name the crosses that you have had to endure. Precisely because of our humanity and our tendency to avoid pain and suffering, we try, at all costs, to avoid the crosses of life or at least minimize their effects.

Jesus can say these words, He can give us this command to take up our crosses for two reasons:

1. Our God is a good Father. No father - no father who genuinely cares about his children - would ask his children to do anything that he wasn’t willing to first do himself. No father would knowingly send his children into harm’s way. Jesus not only tells us to take up our crosses, He first does it Himself and, in so doing, shows us how to and that it can be done without fear and trepidation. As Pope St. John Paul II often exclaimed, “Be not afraid!”
2. Jesus is Lord. Just looking at the textbook definition of the word “lord”, it means someone having power, authority; a master, or a ruler. Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth. Jesus is Lord of all creation. We profess every Sunday that we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ…through Him all things were made. Only the Lord is able to transform the cross from something despicable, scary, and intimidating into something salvific, transformative, and grace-filled. And He does! The resurrection proves this!

As scary and as intimidating as the cross might be, I think, in these words of Jesus, we actually get a sense of the heart of the Father. In the middle of the crosses I’ve had to bear, it has been difficult for me to see God’s hand at work because I get so caught up in the pain, my own brokenness or weaknesses, or because whatever I am going through just seems like too much. I can honestly say, however, that looking back on the crosses I have had to endure, I can see the Father’s accompaniment and hand at work. I can honestly say that in the midst of the cross, God has never let me down, and, because of these crosses, I have been all the more united to His son - Jesus Christ.

As you pray this week, pray into the crosses you have had to endure because of whatever circumstance. I am sure the fear and intimidation were real. Ask the Father to show you where He was in all of it. I think you will start to see with the eyes of faith that the Trinity was there - God was walking with you. And, through all of it (and this is precisely the point), we realize that everything is grace, most especially the cross. Without God and the grace He bestows upon us, we couldn’t do it - we couldn’t carry our crosses. The cross is the means by which we are united all the more to Christ and ultimately to the Father.

Hail the Cross our only hope! 
Fr. Ryan