From the Pastor&#039;s Desk: Mar. 13, 2022

On every Second Sunday of Lent we reflect upon the story of the Transfiguration. It is the powerful moment when God expresses the fulfillment of His relationship with His people. The Gospel tells us that Jesus went up the mountain to pray and was transformed! On the mountain of transfiguration in the company of two great Hebrew figures - Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, Peter, James and John witnessed the glory of Jesus’ identity as the “Chosen Son.” The transfiguration in turn gives us a foretaste of the fulfillment we all await: the glory of resurrection and eternal life.

The season of Lent is a time of growth for us in our relationship with Christ as we prepare for the celebration of the glorious event of the Resurrection. It is the time when through our desert and mountain top experiences we are empowered by the gift of prayer, penance, and acts of charity to be transformed and to share in the identity of chosen sons and daughters of God. We are destined to share in His glory! "Realize it, my brethren; everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; . . . God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in the body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also." — Blessed John Henry Newman.

Many of us ask the same basic question during Lent – Why do we Catholics not eat meat on Fridays during Lent? The “why Friday?” question is pretty obvious - it is one way we commemorate the passion and death of Our Savior Jesus Christ. But the question of “why meat?” may need more explanation. Meat has often been (and continues to be) a luxury in many cultures and associated with celebrations and feasts (e.g. Thanksgiving turkey, Easter ham, Fourth of July brat, burger and a steak). A day devoted to remembering Christ’s Passion doesn’t seem like a day to feast. From the dawn of Christianity, Friday was kept as a day of abstinence, in memory of Our Lord’s passion and death. Therefore on the day when we are remembering the cruel way in which Our Lord was killed, we abstain from meat saying: Christ died for me, out of love for me and the whole world, today I do want to abstain from food for my mere enjoyment. On this day, when I remember that I owe everything in this world and in the next to Christ and His love, I make this tiny sacrifice in solidarity with Him.

This weekend in our parish we celebrate the Rite of Sending and Acceptance for our brothers and sisters who journey through the RCIA process to join us in full communion with the Catholic Church. On Sunday, I will commission you to go to our bishop who in turn will call you “elects” in the process of the journey of faith. This is a moment when the Church celebrates the direct action of the Holy Spirit in our midst as the bishop declares that those who stand before him have been elected by God and are so recognized by the Church. Your journey is a powerful witness to all of us and a reminder that we all are beloved sons and daughters in whom God delights. Dear Candidates- please be assured of our ongoing prayerful support!

A blessed and grace-filled Second Week of Lent, everybody!

With prayers,

Fr. Andy