Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
When we read the Sacred Scriptures or hear them proclaimed at Mass and in prayer we are exposed to the various genre (literary forms) from both the Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek languages. Today’s Gos pel presents us with such in our Lord’s about avoiding evil at all costs. It sounds like He is encouraging us to disfigure ourselves lest we fall into sin. This is not the case.
Our Lord employs this quirky genre of hyperbole (exaggeration) to make a point, namely, we should avoid anything that harms our relationship with God. This is what we mean by “fear of the Lord”.
Very often we are unaware of things which strain that beautiful relationship, for instance: Time. Every moment, every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every….is a gift from God to us. He alone knows how much of that time is allotted to each of us. It begs the question: “how do I use the time gifted to me? How do I make a return to the Lord for the precious gift of time I have received?” Time itself is amoral, neither good nor bad, but what we do with it determines how we will spend timeless eternity. At the end of the day when we make our daily examination of conscience recall how wisely or foolishly we have spent our time. It can never be reclaimed.
Speaking of time and right use of it, your parish needs you to make good use of time by fulfilling the numerous lay ministries that build up our communal life; immediately we are looking for an organist who can temporarily fill in at St. Bernard’s while our present organist is recovering. Upon her return to the keyboard there will be need for a sub from time to time; always, we are in need of cantors, lectors, altar servers, both youth and adults, (some, and I hate to say it) snow shovelers, help with grounds (weeding and shrub cutting), and assistance with numerous projects that all our properties entail. So if you feel you can devote some of your time and talent to the betterment of your parish please give the parish office a call.
God bless,
Father Langan
