Dear Parishioners & Visitors,
In today's second reading Saint Paul exhorts us to rejoice. Why should he be reminding us of something that seems so unimportant? Should joy be an essential part of our Christian life? Joy should be at the heart of every Christian life. The joy that exists in our lives is but a reflection of the inner joy in the heart of Jesus who is constantly inviting us to follow him in the path of salvation. Joy is the natural response of the souls that discover that God loves us in the person of the Messiah with a love beyond commitment. Through the incarnation of the Eternal Word, God came into the life of the world to bring radical change, an empowerment to conquer sin and death. And in the face of this, we cannot remain without a proper response. And that response is joy; a joy that is not born out of simple human fulfillment but a joy that comes from the knowledge that God loves us in the person of Jesus, who came into our world to offer us a path to forgiveness and eternal life. We, the baptized, are therefore constantly reminded in Jesus of our dignity and condition.
We are no longer tied to the bonds of sin and death. We are children of God blessed and called to eternal life. No Christian can be on the path toward salvation without joy in their lives. Rejoice and be glad!
-fr. Alberto Rodriguez, O.P
