Dear Parishioners & Visitors,
Whether a married couple work together to renovate a room by choosing flooring, new paint for the walls and ceiling, whether a musician learns a new piece of music on her oboe, or whether our Wednesday lunch cooks in the parish hall create a menu for 40+ people, all are calculating just how best to plan and accomplish their goal. The goal to be achieved requires preparation which requires focus, steady persistence, elbow grease, and God’s grace.
Jesus emphasizes the carrying of one’s cross and following Him. Therefore, Jesus’ call to “renounce all possessions” is clear; disciples of Jesus cannot be disciples if their goal is their possessions and the accumulation and selfish use of those possessions. Renouncing possessions means leaving off whatever hinders the full expression of our life in following Jesus Christ. This is true of material, emotional, or spiritual possessions which are not in tune with the Will of God.
Any mission we accept from God has its time and, therefore, there is a need to be met in a limited amount of time. Moreover, there is a time for putting that which we have prepared into action. Even though our preparation may not be perfect and mistakes will occur, remaining steadfast in purity of intention in accomplishing our varied missions in the life of the Church is what is crucial. This weekend we celebrate the canonization of a religious sister on mission, namely, Saint Teresa of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). We know of her love for the hungry, sick, outcast, lonely, and dying; we also know, by her own reflections and writings, that she lived in interior darkness and doubt during her life. Like the rest of us, St. Mother Teresa was a broken human being who, in the midst of her own stuggles and failings, remained faithful to renouncing whatever got in the way of loving the “least” among us.
St. Teresa of Kolkata, pray for us.
In God’s loving kindness,
—fr. Chris, O.P.
