The Pastor's Message

Dear Parishioners,

Last week, we heard Peter’s profession of faith followed by the First teaching of Jesus about His upcoming arrest, death, and resurrection.  This week, we hear Jesus teaching His disciples for the second time about these same events.  This teaching occurs after the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, in the presence of Peter, James, and John.
 
Once again as Jesus is telling His disciples about the events coming, they do not know how to respond, so they discuss among themselves about who is the most important.  Jesus is not gone yet, and they are arguing about who would take His place to lead them.  This is a very human response, and it leads to gossip and sharing inaccurate information.  We do this often in our lives when we speculate about partial information that we have and the story changes as it is told repeatedly.  Like the disciples who were afraid to question Jesus about the true meaning of His message, we may discuss partial knowledge of things with others out of fear in questioning the source of the original facts and message.  The further the message gets from the original source, the more inaccurate the details become from the facts of the story.  The story gets embellished with personal opinions and conjecture.

Jesus challenges them to be humble in not seeking places of honor but serving the needs of others.  This is how we show that we love Him as we show our love for our neighbor.  We are called to serve the needs of all who come to us.  This is not always easy, but it is necessary as we follow the Lord in our life.

Fr. George P. Blais
 

Dear Parishioners,

This week we hear Jesus asking two questions; “Who do people say that I am?”, and “Who do you say that I am?”  These questions seek to have us make a clear confession of faith.  We do this each time we proclaim our Creed when we say, “I believe…”

When we pray the Creed, it is important to not just say the words, but to really understand the words that we are expressing.  This understanding helps us respond to the question whether our actions are in line with our faith as is presented in the second reading from St. James.  Faith without action is not necessarily a display of true faith. 

Jesus then speaks about His upcoming arrest, death, and resurrection.  Peter does not want to hear this talk because of his love for Jesus, but Jesus rebukes him and tells him to trust in God’s plan.  With this explanation, He is letting us know that He promises us eternal life but does not guarantee an easy life.  He tells His disciples and us that we must pick up our cross and follow Him.  Life is difficult; however, He shows us the way to carry our cross with grace and dignity and He will walk with us as we carry our cross.

During our life, we are faced with evil in the world, natural disasters like fires, floods, and earthquakes, as well as illness, financial struggles, relationship struggles, and many other everyday challenges.  Jesus has shown us the way to pick up our cross and follow Him.  When we say with our lips that we believe and trust in God, then our actions need to display this faith and we need to be examples of strength and inspiration for others.

Fr. George P. Blais