From the Pastor&#039;s Desk: May 14, 2023

From the Pastor’s Desk: May 14, 2023

As we move through the Easter Season, today the Church takes us back to the Last Supper, giving us a chance to dig deeper into its meaning. Throughout His Last Supper discourse, Christ's constant refrain is: “If you love me, you will keep my commandment.” The command “to love one another as He loved us,” is the fundamental commandment of Christian charity and Jesus’ parting words to His closest disciples. They are special words because to love God and to be faithful to His commandments is our baptismal call rooted in the reality that Christianity is the religion of the community and unity of humankind. “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him!” The origin of our existence is born from the experience of being loved which enables us to love others. Saint Augustine says the Lord loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love. God’s love for each of us is as real and tangible as the love of a mother for her child and the love of a lover who gives all for his beloved. God made us for love – to know Him personally and to grow in the knowledge of His great love for us.

By accepting the message that God is love, people have a common foundation on which they build in order to overcome differences and break out of their own selves. The love of God not only reveals to us our own dignity, but it also helps us understand that others possess the same dignity.

In the context of love, this Sunday, we also celebrate Mother’s Day. Let me share with you a story: “A man was boarding an airplane one day. As he came on board, he happened to notice that the head of the plane's cockpit flight crew was a woman. That was no problem. Still, it was a new experience for him. As he found his seat, he noticed three people sitting immediately behind him. One was a young boy about six or seven years of age. Next to him was a man in his early thirties. And next to the man was a woman in her early sixties. The man could not help overhearing the conversation among these three persons as the plane made final plans for departure from the gate. It was not long before he realized that they were the woman pilot's family. The boy was her son. The man was her husband. And the older woman was her mother. Suddenly he realized why the family was on the plane. This was the first time the woman pilot had been the head of a flight crew! They were there to honor her promotion. The plane taxied down the runway and poised itself for takeoff. The engines began to roar, and the plane gained speed quickly. Within seconds they were airborne. As the plane began to ascend the bank to the south, the six-year-old boy began to applaud! "Way to go, Mom. Way to go!" (Norman Neaves)

Together with Fr. Jaison, let us applaud the moms of our parish. "Way to go, Moms, way to go!" Truly, this Sunday all our moms and all those who serve us like moms deserve all the support and applause we can give them.

I pray and thank the heavenly Father for the gift of motherhood. For mothers who were brave enough to give birth, who loved through many growing-up years, who taught about God and love and being good, who often got no thanks, whose heart was often broken, who always forgave and forgot, who encouraged when things went bad, who always had time to listen, who worked so hard to make things go, who make the world so much better. May they continually be inspired, protected, and blessed through the heart of the Mother of God– Mary most blessed.

“The one who is truly obedient does not wait for a command, but as soon as he knows what his superior wishes to have done immediately sets himself to work, without expecting an order.” St. Albert the Great

Have a blessed week filled with God’s Love! I pray that during this week each one of us will have an opportunity to identify a holy moment to show how much we love Christ, by being faithful to His commandments.

With prayers, Fr. Andy