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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
One of the most famous agnostics of the nineteenth century
was General Lew Wallace. General Wallace was born in
Brookville, Indiana and died and is buried in Crawfordsville,
Indiana. General Wallace was famous, and powerful, and
wealthy. Throughout most of his life, General Wallace made a
profession of mocking Christianity. While riding on a train one
day, a friend of General Wallace, another agnostic, Colonel
Robert Ingersoll, challenged General Wallace to write a book,
“exposing Christianity for the fraud that it is”. Wallace
accepted the challenge. The General, being an extremely
thorough man, began a massive investigation to expose Christ as
a fraud. To do that, he had to first read the Bible. Secondly,
he did some background reading. Finally, he went to the Holy
Land, and for the first time in his life, he started talking to
everyone, even little people who had great Faith, and not just
to the university sophisticates of his age, the literati. And
at the end of his research, as you may know, General Wallace
wrote the book,
Ben Hur,
which became the basis for the movie of the same name. In that
book and in the movie, one of the sayings that is very important
is one that came at the end of Jesus’ life when the centurion
said, “Truly, this is the Son of God.” After writing that
book, General Lew Wallace, famous Hoosier, did something he
never thought he would ever be able to do. He got off his high
horse and was able to declare Christ as God’s Son. He became a
believer.
I love conversion stories. To me, they attest to the
power of God over our stubborn, human will. And General Lew
Wallace’s story is one of the best. God took a proud, agnostic
writer, and using another agnostic, led him not only to
conversion, but to write a book that has influenced and inspired
many Christians all over the world. We all have our conversion
stories. They are not all as exciting or dramatic as General
Wallace’s, but all of them are good stories when we take the
time to listen. God is so active in our world even today! He
is even active in each one of us!
I have so enjoyed getting to know and love this year’s RCIA
class. Each one of their stories is an amazing account of God
bringing them right where He wanted them to be. And our
community is the grateful recipient of their newly-professed
Faith. On behalf of our entire community, I congratulate
everyone who was Baptized and Confirmed and made their First
Holy Communions at the Easter Vigil. It was a very good year.
We look forward to all of the good that our new brothers and
sisters are going to do in the Church. I’d like to thank Jeanne
Derksen, Joan Scimeca, John Mahon, Fr. Joshua, and all of our
presenters and sponsors in our formation process for RCIA.
Everyone’s help proves once again that it truly takes a
community to do RCIA right. And man, I have to tell you that if
I had a friend, or a relative, or a spouse, or anyone that I
cared a great deal about, that were thinking about doing RCIA, I
would certainly encourage them to do RCIA here at St. Maria
Goretti. As this year’s RCIA class finish up their Mystagogia
sessions in the next couple of Monday evenings, it is already
time for us to start thinking about who is going to be in next
year’s class. If you or someone that you know are thinking
about joining the Catholic Church next year, the first meeting
of the Pre-Catechumenate will be on Monday evening, August 6th.
We’ll remind you again of the date and give you the time and
place, when we get a little closer to the date. The time to
start thinking about it is right now. The time for all of us as
Catholics to be inviting people is also right now.
Easter and the RCIA folks remind all of us that our
conversions are NOT over yet. God is still working on each one
of us. We must continue to change our hearts and change our
ways towards Jesus. Let’s do that together during this Easter
season!
I offer my thanks to Frank and Karla Cockman, Greg and Lee
Starr, and all of their committee heads and volunteers who put
on a wonderful Spring Fling this past Friday night. The evening
made me so proud to be a part of St. Maria Goretti Parish.
Thanks to all who attended and who supported the event with
donations and by buying raffle tickets. We did a lot of good on
Friday night!
Have a great weekend!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
One must never confuse error and the person who errs.
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