Believe

Dear sisters & brothers in Christ,

I pray that you are blessed and that your celebration of The Resurrection was joyful. As we move into the Easter Season, we move from preparing ourselves for the death & Resurrection of Jesus, to preparing ourselves to share that Good News with the world. It is a dramatic shift from what we believe to what we share and teach the world to believe. Last Sunday Jesus told Thomas, “Cease your unbelief, and believe!” Now Jesus prepares us to take over the mission that His Father entrusted to Him. It is the work of evangelization.

Why is it that we Catholics have such a knee-jerk reaction to that word? After all, we would not be here if someone had not shared the faith with us. The entire history of The Church is filled with the work of evangelization. I will admit that a lot of it wasn’t pretty, and I would never argue that the ends justifies the means, but at least people ended up with a true treasure. And while the Gospel has been preached far and wide, the work of evangelization is not done. There are still those who have not heard of Jesus, not to mention all those who have drifted away from the practice of their faith and need to be brought home.

This work of spreading the Gospel belongs to each and every baptized child of God. Each of us encounters people in our daily lives who need to know about Jesus. While we should all feel comfortable talking to others about our faith, no words can replace the act of living the Gospel, the practice of what we preach. It’s easy to say love your neighbor, but nothing can compare with demonstrating the love of neighbor. If you want to fulfill the great command and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, simply wake up each morning and commit yourself to living the Gospel.

Finally, there may be some of you who are being called to the priesthood or religious life. This parish has a long history of parishioners becoming priests, brothers, and sisters. I realize the priesthood has gotten a lot of bad press recently, but it is still an amazing and grace filled vocation. While I believe in empowering the laity and their ever increasing leadership role in The Church, I still believe that priests have their place in the future of The Church. If you feel like you might have a vocation then I encourage you to pursue it and discover if you are truly being called by God. Speaking of encouragement, one thing I believe we could do more of is to encourage our young people to consider if they are being called to the priesthood or religious life. In fact, I have personally seen parents discouraging their children from doing so. I had a mother leave a former parish I was at because her son was expressing an interest in the priesthood. I realize that it requires sacrifices, but it also come with a lot of rewards.

In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick