25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

09-21-2022From Fr. Antony's DeskFr. Antony Arockiadoss

Dear Family!

“As this world (Earth) is not for those who are without wealth, so that world (Heaven) is not for those who are without kindness” (Thirukkural 247 written in my mother tongue around Jesus’ time). This is the focal point of this week’s liturgy. We continue to take great care on our financial security, we work hard at it. Do we take enough care on our spiritual security? This paves way to reflect about an important social evil of our time - Financial Slavery.

Are you stressed out? Are you obsessing over something? Are you keeping secrets on your financial details from your spouse? Do you feel that you can’t get ahead in life? Do you feel inadequate or inferior because you don’t have certain things? (God, Money and Me with Brian Jewell). We witness serious imbalances of finances in our modern world. We want to talk about these imbalances since they touch on moral issues of justice, the dignity of people and their rights.

To compliment the aforementioned ‘Thirukkural’, a famous saying of Jewish rabbis is worth pondering - “The rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in the world to come. Our true wealth is not in what we keep, but in what we give away.”

"Let those of us who possess earthly wealth open our hearts to those who are in need. Let us show ourselves faithful and obedient to the laws of God. Let us be followers of our Lord's will in those things that are from the outside and not our own. Let us do this so that we may receive what is our own, that holy and admirable beauty that God forms in people's souls, making them like himself, according to what we originally were.” St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke, Homily 109.

I have been encouraging the parish to take part in active ministries by introducing two clusters of ministries; Liturgical Committee (Deacon Enock) and Sacramental Committee (Deacon Larry). Today I invite you to prayerfully consider being part of the STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEE. The following ministries are part of this committee: Money Counting Teams, Building and Grounds, Church Sanctuary Guild, St. John Vianney Vocation Club and Baking Ministry.

My sincere thanks to all the volunteers who have been helping our parish to run these ministries up until present day and all the new volunteers who are joining them. Your one hour a month service to your parish will invigorate new life to these ministries and help us grow as a community.

Fr. Antony