OLC Children Celebrate Halloween at the 10:00 A.M. Mass......

Dear Parishioners,
 
The gospel this week reminds us that Jesus did not seek to complicate people’s lives.  We tend to think that the people of Jesus’ time were less sophisticated or less busy than ourselves, but nothing could be further from the truth.  The ancient world imposed a much more difficult life than we can possibly imagine.  All modern conveniences that we take for granted were entirely missing from their lives.  Let alone the acquisition of one’s daily bread, which was also not to be taken for granted.
 
Jesus had no wish to impose further hardships on His Jewish brothers and sisters and today’s gospel reminds us of the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching.  In the face of aggressive questioning by a scholar of the law, Jesus simply says, “Love God and love your neighbor and everything else will fall into place”, but the love Jesus speaks of suggests a very powerful emotional bond with God and neighbor, which is, for most of us, a lifelong challenge.  To focus one’s heart, soul and mind entirely on these two things is daunting for any human being.  Our hearts, souls and minds can be very fractured places. Often times even inhospitable places.  Many people spend a lifetime unable to be happy in and of themselves let alone loving God and neighbor unconditionally.
 
We see before us a gospel of less than six sentences yet overwhelming in what Jesus is asking us to do.  The scholar of the law could not have been happy with the answer Jesus gave him.  We, however, should see it as a powerful reminder of how much work each one of us must do to truly become a child of God and the living embodiment of Christ’s love and witness to a world in need.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is put between a rock and a hard place. He is asked…Do you agree that paying the Census tax to Caesar is lawful?  Seems like a yes or no question, right?  But he is asked this with malice by two groups with different views.  The Pharisees and the Herodians, are enemies and only come together to try and trap Jesus into an answer.  If he answers yes, he angers the Pharisees who do not want the tax and if he answers no, then the Herodians and the Roman authorities come after him.
 
However, Jesus is not fooled by their hatefulness and gives them an ambiguous answer basically saying, give back what is Caesar’s and give to God what belongs to God.  This might be difficult to decipher. What is Jesus saying exactly? We need to have civil rights to society but also our loyalty to our God? Two different obligations, that should be kept completely distinct.
 
So, where is our allegiance?  Our heart and soul belong to God.  Yet we live a life of competing powers and influences trying to sway us, capture our hearts.  We are in a constant struggle with outside influences competing with our loyalty to God.  Navigating through all these struggles is not easy and we must seek God’s Wisdom and Grace to put us on the righteous path of following the Gospel in a world full of obstacles and others with different views on the same issue.

OLC celebrated our Annual Pet Blessing on Sunday, October 15, 2017 at the 10:00 a.m. Mass.  Here's what happened as we celebrated the “Feast of St. Francis”.

Dear Parishioners,

Some of the parables which Jesus proclaimed have a great sense of urgency, which becomes obvious as the story unfolds.  Here the urgency is magnified by the violence and tragedy upon which the story is built and, as with all crime stories, we always ponder the same question, “Did they really think they could get away with it?” and, as happens in so many of these situations, apparently, they did.

Those who heard the parable answered without hesitation that justice would be swift and severe to the perpetrators.  Jesus used the parable to remind His listeners that life doesn’t always go the way we planned it and also the commitment to our faith should be swift and strong so that we are strengthened in our moments of greatest need and Jesus of course is the cornerstone of our faith experience. We must also remember that Jesus knew His time was limited and wanted to call those who would most utilize the Kingdom of God to spread His message on earth and in His own words, “Produced its fruit”.  

The Gospel reminds us that we must never take life for granted and give thanks to God each day for what we can accomplish in union with Jesus, our Lord.

In Christ,