 Fr.
Tom's Tomes June 25, 2006
As we gather for Mass this weekend we continue with the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time readings. We have finished with the Easter Season and Pentecost and then the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Trinity and the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. From now through the end of the Church’s Liturgical Year we will be in Ordinary Time. We however should never be misled by the name of this season because our faith should never just be ordinary. As I mentioned in my homily last week Jesus is always working within our lives. When we receive the Eucharist, Communion, we invite Jesus into our hearts in a very special way. Jesus works to transform our lives to become more like his. He is constantly working to help us become more loving individuals to reach out to help others. Helping others needs to be a part of who we are. We need to help those who are around us. Those to whom we reach out can be family, friends, neighbors, those who we go to Church with or complete strangers. Each day all of us have an opportunity to touch the lives of many other people. As we come into contact with others we can share the compassion, kindness, and love of Christ. We need to be more and more aware of others and not be afraid to desire to help them. To be a Catholic Christian means we will be ready to offer assistance to others without counting the costs. When encountering others we need to approach the other person with a newness and freshness of heart. So often it is easy to remember how a person has been in the past or work from preconceived impressions about a person. It is important every time we approach a person to think the best of the person and to look upon each new time with a willingness to see the change in the other person. Jesus in his working with the people was willing to see the good in each of them. Even the Scribes and Pharisees he approached openly. They were out to get Jesus but he continued to try and help them out. Are we willing to help out others? How often do we talk about individuals because of what they have done to us in the past? Are we willing to see that individuals are able to change? Are we willing to allow people to change? Our attitude may get in the way of others changing and growing in God’s love. Two weeks ago I mentioned in my column I was going to let people know of different things which need to be accomplished here at St. Columban’s parish. I did ask for a few volunteers to straighten out the music books and missalettes in church. So far I have not had any takers on this task. I would also like for someone to volunteer to write thank you notes on behalf of the parish for different contributions which have been made. If you are interested please let either myself or Kim know. I think it is important to use the skills of all parishioners so as we continue to go into the future more and more opportunities will be available through reading my column. God bless you and have a blessed week. |