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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord. We
recall that day when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by His
cousin, John the Baptist, and His gift to us, in the Sacrament of
Baptism. This is a great Feast Day. Today also concludes our
season of Christmas. Tomorrow, Monday, we’ll go back into Ordinary
Time, with Week 1.
Today we also say ‘goodbye’ to and thank our Associate Pastor,
Fr. Joshua Janko. There are receptions today after both our 8:00 AM
and our 10:00 AM Sunday morning Masses for Fr. Joshua. Please stop
by and wish him well. Father reports for duty this Tuesday, January
15th,
at St. Alphonsus Church in Zionsville. We wish Fr. Joshua well in
his new endeavors and pray for his peace, happiness, and health.
This week we begin our annual observance of the Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity. It is very easy for all of us to get caught up
in our own worlds, and forget that the Body of Christ the Church is
still deeply divided. Those divisions, that are now hundreds of
years old, need to be healed. The division of the Church is killing
us. It is a scandal and an embarrassment to non-Christians. We
must all keep praying for and working towards, the reunification of
Christ’s Church. This week, beginning on Friday, we set aside to
pray specifically for the Ecumenical movement, for reconciliation
and healing, and for all sides to put aside their pride, and get
back together. It’s time that Christians stopped fighting
Christians, and work together to fight the real enemy, Satan. Think
of how much more we could do united together, than what we are doing
in our divided state.
And before we dare to pray for unity among our separated
brothers and sisters, perhaps we would do well to start with unity
and peace in our own community. If we want unity among Christians,
then let’s start with unity among ourselves first. Who do you need
to forgive? Who do you need to make peace with? Sometimes, we can
be so busy paying lip service to unity with our non-Catholic
brothers and sisters, that we forget that unity in the Church has to
begin with each of us. Every one’s invited to be part of Jesus’
Kingdom. And that includes everybody in our community too.
The early Church Fathers wrote a great deal about unity.
Even St. Paul in his letters makes it clear that those who damage
the unity of the Church commit serious sin. The unity of the Church
is sacred. We are supposed to be working together to build up the
Church. Heaven help those who daily tear it down and destroy its
unity. By our Baptisms, we all enter into a eternal membership in
the Church. And with that membership, comes the responsibility of
building up the Church and keeping it strong in its unity. We all
also have the responsibility of restoring unity to a divided and
wounded Church. My brothers and sisters, this is NOT the way it is
supposed to be. God has never desired the division of His people.
Quite the opposite, God calls us together in our Faith, in our Hope,
and in our Love.
The reality today is that we, as good Catholics, have more in
common, more unifying us, with good Baptists, and good
Presbyterians, good Lutherans, and good evangelicals, than what we
have in common with bad Catholics. We need to work together to
bring every one into “the fold”. There is one Church. We pray that
every Sunday when we pray our Creed. This week, let’s not only pray
about Christian Unity, but let’s live it out.
I’m really looking forward to the “Guess Who’s Coming to
Dinner?” Dinner on Saturday evening, January 26th.
If you’ve never attended this fun event, why not try it this year?
It is a very fun evening AND you’ll get to know your fellow
parishioners a little better! Come and join us! With this event,
the more we have, the more fun it is going to be. See the details
listed inside this bulletin.
Have a great week! We have a very short period of Ordinary
Time this year before Lent begins. Ash Wednesday is in just a
couple of weeks on February 6th.
Let’s start planning for it now. God bless!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
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