SOLEMNITY OF SAINT PIUS X
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
25 AUGUST 2019
Saint
Luke does not reveal the identity of the person who asked Jesus the question
“will only a few people be saved.”
However, we can make two assumptions.
First, that person has probably been following Jesus in his journey from
Galilee to Jerusalem. He or she has more
than likely eaten and drunk in his company and listened to him as he
taught. Second, that person is more than
likely Jewish. A Jewish person asking a
Jewish rabbi the question of how many will be saved would expect the rabbi to
answer that a few – the descendants of Abraham – would be saved. That is in contrast to the vast majority of
the world’s inhabitants who were Gentiles and considered outside of the realm
of salvation.
Jesus does
not answer the question. Instead, he
says that salvation is not limited to a few chosen ones. Salvation is for everyone. However, salvation is not forced upon
anyone. Those who seek to be saved must
enter through the “narrow gate.” On his
way to Jerusalem, Jesus knows that he must pass through the narrow gate of his
suffering and death, before reaching his resurrection. He invites those who are walking with him to
embrace that message. He is looking for
intentional disciples, and not just people who claim to know him.
Today, we
celebrate the Solemnity of our patron, Saint Pius X. We ask his intercession as we respond to his
call to walk more completely with Christ as his intentional disciples. His motto, “To Renew All Things in Christ” is
our motto at the beginning of this century, as it was his at the beginning of
the twentieth century. To assist us in
this task, we have developed a strategic plan for the next five years for our
parish. Under the leadership of Brett
Bauer, we enjoyed broad consultation as we focused on the task of
evangelization. Now that we have completed our building project, the Lord is
calling our parish to evangelize, to spread the Good News of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. We can evangelize through
prayer, service, sacrificial giving, faith formation, and community life. The Strategic Plan outlines five specific
areas to strengthen our role: Liturgy
and Worship, Faith Formation, Stewardship, Engagement, and Operations.
The
Strategic Plan is available on line. You
can obtain paper copies at the parish office.
Being responsible stewards of parish finances, we avoided the expense of
printing hundreds of copies and putting them at the doors of the church. Please read the Strategic Plan to be part of
walking together as intentional disciples through the narrow gate. We know that the concept of evangelization is
not widely understood by Catholics. For
that reason, we will begin our newly-initiated themed year as the “Year of
Evangelization”. To kick off this first
year, we have set aside a special evening (Wednesday, September 25) to host a
well-known speaker, Mark Hart, to give us a better understanding of how we can
be effective evangelists. Mark has many
years of experience in ministry and will help us understand our role as
evangelists more deeply.
As members
of this parish, we are walking together with Jesus Christ on our way to the new
and eternal Jerusalem. The Lord is
challenging us to become more intentional disciples, to trust that his love
transforms us. As we share our joy at
the good news of his kingdom already in our midst, we will face our own narrow
gates, as he did. We will face the
skepticism of those who think we are crazy to initiate this effort at the time
of the clergy abuse crisis. The Letter
to the Hebrews reminds us that any difficulties we may face can be seen as
discipline – as the Lord renewing our spiritual energy and strengthening us to
embrace the message of salvation. We respond
to his call in today’s Gospel to enter the narrow gate of the Lord’s passion
and death, confident of the power of the resurrection.
No comments:
Post a Comment