Lenten greetings to you all! One of my favorite Gospel accounts is the story of the “Woman at the Well,” which only appears in St. John’s Gospel. It is a beautiful story of redemption. Redemption–isn’t that what the season of Lent is all about? Can you imagine doing something so ordinary as fetching water at a well and having it change your life forever? Let us dive deeper into this encounter with Jesus. It is not simply an enjoyable story; Jesus is speaking to us through it.   

The main character is a sinful, disreputable Samaritan woman. She is a symbol of all of humanity, someone who would spend her life pursuing her own appetites and desires. She is a Samaritan, already an outcast of the Jewish society. She finds herself at this well at midday (highly unusual) because the well was a meeting place for women. Possibly everyone knew about her “living arrangements”–living with someone to whom she was not married.

Being alone at the well symbolically represented her own loneliness; her own questioning about what life was all about. She was looking for a life of value and meaning, yet she could not break away from her past. She was blinded by her own sinfulness. Now, she finds herself at the well with Jesus, a man who acknowledged her in a new way by going against the norms of Jewish law.

As she encountered Jesus for the first time, at this unexpected place, and listened to Him and even questioned Him, her hardened heart began to soften, and her deepest thirst began to surface. In this encounter, as this Samaritan woman came face to face with the loving gaze of Jesus, she also came face to face with her own sin. She had her first real Christian experience! Our Christian experience will often begin with a humiliating wave of self-disgust. It is usually the last thing a person sees in himself. And it often happens that the first thing Christ does for us is to compel us to do what we have spent our life refusing to do–look deeply at ourselves.

The Samaritan woman was staggered by Christ's ability to see into her inmost being. She was amazed at His intimate knowledge of the human heart, and of her heart in particular. It is not that the Lord sees only the evil there, or sin lurking in the human heart. He sees also the “sleeping saint in the soul of every person.” He is like the surgeon who sees the diseased thing, but who also sees the health which will follow when the evil is taken away.

The essence of our identity and worth, the source of our dignity, is that we are loved by God: “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son.” This whole story is about Jesus’ benevolent love for sinners. It is about the new life offered to all of God’s people if we but only seek to meet Christ with the openness of the Samaritan woman. 

Through her encounter with Jesus, as she asked for the life-giving water, she began to experience a new life, a life that began to fulfill her deepest longing and a life that would lead her out of her loneliness and sinfulness. She began to discover her truest identity–the sum of the Father's love. That is what Jesus came to reveal to her.

Imagine if this woman would have scurried away after Jesus revealed her sin. Imagine if she would have run away because of fear and embarrassment. She would have never received what Jesus offered to her even in her sinful state. What did He offer her? His deep love and mercy! Can God’s love be more wonderful? 

How often have we run away from God because of embarrassment or shame or guilt? How often have we run from God when He showed up in some unexpected place in our lives? In this story, the Lord was reaching past the barriers, inviting her into a relationship that would forever change her understanding about herself, offering her far more than she could ever imagine. God was there for her in this unexpected place, in this unexpected moment.

Following her encounter, she could not resist sharing her newfound freedom and friendship with Jesus to others. She became the voice of the benevolent lover, Jesus, because that is what happens when a sinful heart has been changed from drinking lifegiving water. This ordinary sinner learned a great lesson from Jesus; she taught others about the blessing that could be theirs if they allowed their heart to encounter Him.
This season of Lent is a time for breaking down the barriers to God’s presence in the surprising, even unimaginable corners of our life. It is a season for contemplating the tremendous love that Christ has for us sinners, and His desire to meet us at the well.

Do you have the courage to meet Jesus there? If you do, you will not be disappointed! 

Rev. Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School

Blessings to you this Lenten season! Last Sunday, we heard the account of the Temptation of Jesus. This Sunday we will hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. This amazing moment in the life of our Lord (which Peter, James, and John were privileged to experience) was not just another day in Galilee. 

The scene of the Transfiguration of Jesus takes place on a mountain because mountain tops in Scripture are places where something important happens and where God is encountered. Here are some examples: In the Old Testament, Abraham is willing to sacrifice his son on a mountain; Noah’s ark comes to rest on Mt. Ararat; the law is given to Moses on Mt. Sinai; Jerusalem is built on the top of Mt. Zion.

Mountains are places of encounter with God. In the New Testament, Jesus gives the law on a mountain: the Sermon on the Mount. He dies on Mt. Calvary. Jesus leads Peter, James, and John to the mountain top where He was transfigured before them. This transfiguration was meant to help the disciples make sense of the previous predictions of the Lord’s suffering and death. His suffering and death is what will lead to glorification. Jesus would lead them back down the mountain on to the road up to Jerusalem where He would give witness to them, not just by word, but by example.

In the transfiguration, Jesus showed them clearly – indeed all of us – that what we suffer in this life in the name of Jesus will be gloriously transformed in the Resurrection on the last day. In other words, as the Transfiguration helps make sense of the Lord’s own suffering, it too will help us make sense out of ours as well. In reality, all people in some way will experience suffering, both physical suffering and emotional pain. It is part of the human condition. We all have crosses to bear, every single one of us. Often times, we just try to manage them, doing so on our own.

Coming face to face with our own crosses, we can easily forget about the glory that will be ours in the Resurrection. Instead, we want to run as far away from suffering as fast as we can. Don’t we? But the God the Father said, “Listen to him!”

Denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Him will lead to our glory. But how quick we can be to avoid suffering! Listening to the words of Jesus, inviting us to be champions of the cross, is not easy. St. Paul speaks about those who are enemies of the cross of Christ. An enemy of the cross of Christ is one who cannot see beyond the cross to the GLORY that awaits us. In predicting His own passion, Jesus knew the apostles would need something to hang on to, to give them strength. And so, do we!   

If we are listening to Him, the crosses we carry will be transformed in a glorious way, even as we carry them. They may not go away, but how we carry them will be different. Even in the midst of our suffering, we will experience new life ... allowing us to carry our crosses courageously and joyfully.

When we embrace the cross in our life, we are no longer its enemy. If we bring our sufferings to the Lord, we open ourselves up to a great intimacy with Him, and find our lives transformed. Embracing our crosses transforms our fears into hope, our sadness into joy, our weakness into strength, and our lives as ordinary men and women into disciples who can receive His love in the midst of the struggle! This ultimately will reveal that we have 'listened to him.'"

My dear friends, believe in God’s promise and the power of His grace to transform your sufferings, sadness, fears, discouragements, and disappointments into wellsprings of grace and glimpses of glory.

Have a blessed Lenten season!

Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School
 

On Ash Wednesday, as ashes were imposed on our foreheads, we heard the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” This is the hallmark of the season of Lent, not just for the catechumens in the Church, but for all of us. In the Scripture readings for this First Sunday of Lent, we find ourselves with Jesus in the desert facing the temptations of the Evil One. For much of my life, I thought of Lent as a season of only looking inward, a time of taking personal inventory, a period of self-examination, taking an honest assessment of myself, looking at my failures and sinfulness. There is nothing wrong with looking at Lent in this way. These types of self-assessments are important for any of us to grow in holiness. But there is more, so much more!

Like for Adam and Eve in the Creation story, we too are tempted by the Evil One. These temptations are often very subtle, convincing us that God is our rival and that He does not want what is best for us … that we can do better by ourselves. Satan plays on our passions and desires to want us to be like God. When we give in to this unwanted advice from Satan, it leads us to sin. So, yes, it is important for us to look interiorly at ourselves. But at the same time, it is more important to keep our gaze fixed upon Jesus.  

In the Gospel accounts of St. Matthew and St. Luke, Jesus is tempted by Satan in three different ways. Satan was preying upon three human passions – power, authority, and worldliness. These too, are our strongest passions. They are the strongest passions of the human person. They were the passions of Adam and Eve which led to their fall in the Garden of Eden and the beginning of Original Sin.  But notice that each time Jesus was tempted, He interiorly (meaning, in His heart) turned to gaze upon the Father’s love. That is how He could avoid giving in to the temptation. Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation because they turned away from God’s love and God’s desire for intimacy with them. Yes, we know that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. But Jesus overcame the temptations, not because He was God, but because He turned to the love of the Father. A heart that gazes on Pure Love, will overcome all temptations.

That is why it is important for us keep our gaze fixed upon Jesus as we reflect upon our own sinfulness and this call to ongoing conversion. But looking at our own sinfulness is not fun. Nor is it easy. In fact, it can be very difficult. However, it is what you and I are called to do during this season, regardless of whether we are already Catholic or desiring to come into the Church. We are all converts this season, asking the Lord to lead us into a new life of grace with Him.

If we are in touch with our passions, our desires, and our feelings, both the ordered ones and the disordered ones, we will most likely be familiar with the temptations that surround them. (Sin comes out of disordered passions and desires. Think about the sins we frequently confess.) When we find ourselves in our most vulnerable moments, those are the times of greatest temptation. If this self-examination is done in the light of grace, we will see and experience the power of Jesus’ redemptive love. As St. Paul writes, “For if by the transgression of the one [Adam], many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.” This is what we hold onto when we look at our sinfulness through the light of grace. When we do this, it gives us the resolve to change: to grow in faith, to cultivate new hope, and to be more fervent in our love. This is the “REPENT” part to which Jesus invites us.

But there is the other part of the summons. “Believe in the Gospel.” The Gospel is the greatest love story ever told. It is about the Father sending His son to tell us how much we are loved and forgiven. In the words of Pope Francis, “Tenderness and mercy are the heart of the Gospel. Otherwise, one does not understand Jesus Christ, or the tenderness of the Father who sends Him to listen to us, to cure us, to save us.”  To “believe in the Gospel” means that we trust in the tenderness of the Father who sends Jesus “to listen to us, to cure us, to save us.” Trust that in your own desert experience this Lent, Jesus is with you, helping you to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. And through it all, it is there that we will rediscover our true self in Christ Jesus.  What an opportunity for grace! My friends, have a blessed Lenten season!

Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School

The Season of Grace is upon us! Are you ready? Fat Tuesday (certainly a very different experience this year because of the continuing threat of COVID-19) will lead us into the celebration of Ash Wednesday.  It has been my experience that each year when Ash Wednesday rolls around, our congregation grows in size. The number of people coming to receive ashes is quite extraordinary; although, the traditional swarm of Catholics may be much less this year due to the current public health crisis. Why is it important for you to receive ashes on Ash Wednesday? What draws you to this spiritual exercise?

For me, this is the beginning of a beautiful time of the liturgical year. It is not just a penitential season, but a season of grace. The history and beginnings of Lent are not quite clear. The Sacred Scriptures do not mention Ash Wednesday or the custom of Lent specifically. However, the practice of repentance and mourning in ashes is found in 2 Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:1; Job 2:8; Daniel 9:3; and Matthew 11:21.  In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus witnessed towns full of people reject salvation even though they had seen so many of His miracles there. He denounced them for not repenting: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.”

So, in some sense, this is what takes place on Ash Wednesday and during the season of Lent. We repent in spiritual sackcloth and receive ashes. Receiving ashes also takes us back to the Book of Genesis. Ashes are a symbol of death in the Bible. God formed humans out of dust: “…then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”  When we have the ashes traced on our forehead (this year using cotton balls and swabs due to COVID-19 precautions) these words are often used. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” We may also hear the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Both proclamations orient us to the season of Lent.

Lent has likely been observed since apostolic times, though the practice was not formalized until the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. Christian scholars believe that Lent became more regularized after the legalization of Christianity in 313 A.D. St. Irenaeus, Pope St. Victor I, and St. Athanasius all seem to have written about Lent during their ministries. Most scholars agree that by the end of the fourth century, this 40-day period of Easter preparation known as Lent had existed, and that prayer and fasting constituted its spiritual exercises.

Historically, these 40 days of Lent were meant to be a time of preparation for catechumens coming into the Catholic faith. These are the final days of preparation for our brothers and sisters in the RCIA process. But what about us who are not preparing to enter into the Catholic faith? We, too, should see this time as a 40-day retreat, answering the call to conversion in our own lives – a time of repentance. The Prophet Joel sets the tone for us: “Even now, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning: REND your hearts, not your garments, for gracious and merciful is He.”

This is a season for growing in holiness. How many of us want to grow in holiness? An important question! If this is our desire, then it is important to begin the season of Lent asking the Lord to lead us to holiness of life. “Lord Jesus, lead us to holiness. It is you, you alone who can convert our hearts so that we become like you. Convert our hearts to be like yours, Lord Jesus.” I invite you to pray this every day with expectant faith and trust, and who knows where the Lord will lead you.

Let us look at Lent as a season of Grace. Like those coming into the Church at Easter, we too, are called to be converts … looking at our own lives and our own sinfulness in the light of grace, a time for turning away from our thirsts for the things of this world to what really matters in life.  There is a line from Good Friday … one that was so very instrumental in Mother Teresa’s life and should be for our own journey. As Jesus was hanging on the cross, He said: “I thirst.” These two words really should be the framework for these next six weeks for all of us. Meditate on these two words! “I thirst.”  Jesus’ “thirst” was far more than a thirst for water. It was a thirst for love …. our love … our hearts … our lives … and yes, even our sins. God, not only thirsts for us, but He thirsts for our sins. Imagine that! Pray with that! In this Season of Grace, will we give our sinfulness to Jesus so that HIS thirst will be satisfied through HIS merciful love for us? Will we give our sins to Jesus so that we may be forgiven and made whole?

During a train ride to Darjeeling for a retreat on September 10, 1946, St. Teresa of Calcutta had an overwhelming experience that changed her life completely. Her mystical experience made her more aware of Jesus’ inner thirst for our love. She explained to her sisters: “I thirst,” Jesus said on the cross when Jesus was deprived of every consolation, dying in absolute Poverty, left alone, despised and broken in body and soul. He spoke of His thirst – not for water – but for love, for sacrifice … Jesus is God: therefore, His love, His thirst is infinite. Our aim is to quench this infinite thirst of a God made man.

Let us stand alongside the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. John and look upon Jesus on the Cross. Let us hear His faint, parched voice expressing His thirst and understand that He is expressing His deep love for each of us. Like St. Thérèse of Lisieux and St. Teresa of Calcutta, let us try to satisfy HIS unquenched thirst by dedicating more time to Him in prayer and by showing our compassionate love to those who are suffering and alone during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I wish you all a Blessed Lenten Season.
Rev. Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School

This week we celebrated Catholic Schools Week in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Every family wants their son or daughter to excel in school; to be the best version of themselves; to “Shine Brighter” as a disciple of Jesus! That is exactly what St. Elisabeth Ann Seton Catholic School offers our families. Students “Shine Brighter” because they are in a safe community; they are known and loved, and they are formed to be faith-filled leaders strengthened by the love of Christ.

SEAS students learn to experience God’s grace and presence in their lives through their relationships with family, friends, and teachers. The loving and supportive relationships they experience are reflections of the love and life-giving dynamic of the Trinity. As a parish and school community, we celebrate our successes and achievements. We share grief and downfalls. We unite together in solidarity, and even challenge each other to become better reflections of the Divine. We are preparing our young men and women for life as successful scientists or authors or engineers. But more importantly, our faculty and clergy prepare our students for a lifelong relationship with God that spans from this life into life eternal.

A friend of mine (who retired after teaching 2nd grade in a local Catholic School for almost 30 years) recently wrote in a social media posts: “When I was teaching second grade, I sometimes felt sorry for my colleagues in the upper levels. They didn’t receive the kind of love notes that appeared on my desk each morning. One of the most memorable was a thank you card from one of my more rambunctious students. His message of gratitude sticks with me: ‘You teached me things I never knewed.’”

Okay, so maybe my friend did not quite succeed in the spelling and grammar departments, but the meaning of the little boy’s message is crystal clear: To learn is to experience something wondrous! One of my favorite fictional characters is the wizard, Merlyn. He teaches young Wart (later to be crowned King Arthur) by turning him into different animals and, in doing so, offers first-hand knowledge of their lives. In T.H. White’s trilogy, The Once and Future King, Merlyn describes a benefit of knowledge: “The best thing for being sad…is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails…Learn why the world wags and what wags it.”   

I like to ask our teachers and catechists what excites them about teaching children. Inevitably, someone responds by describing the joy of uncovering something new! Opening up a parable or teaching of Jesus, inviting contemplation on a perplexing problem, piquing curiosity about “what wags the world” – all are tremendous experiences that stimulate the mind and expand the spirit. The role of a Catholic school teacher is not only to impart academic information, but also to set an example for what a healthy and holy life looks like. The Congregation for Catholic Education places a spotlight on the vocational nature of teaching: “Teaching has an extraordinary moral depth and is one of man’s most excellent and creative activities, for the teacher does not write on inanimate material, but on the very spirits of human beings.”

Wow. Think about that! The teacher writes “on the very spirit of human beings.” While I continue to wish that we had the financial means to compensate our teachers more justly for their contributions to our Church and society, I know there are few professions that reap the kind of rewards they receive. One love note can make the headaches worth it. One smile can remind a teacher that they are writing on the very soul of a human being! 

This year our SEAS students – like all of us – are seeking answers beyond their usual subjects of math, reading, and science. Questions like: why can’t we have our normal school activities? When will this pandemic end? Why would God allow this to happen? Perhaps what all of us are seeking more than anything else during these times is the little word of Hope.

In a year where so many questions beyond those found in textbooks are being asked by our students, I am so grateful for the extraordinary leadership that Mrs. Kathmann and her administrative team have provided. They have been a great source of hope for our teachers and our little scholars. I am amazed by the ways our faculty and staff have consistently gone above and beyond to creatively educate and to provide words of hope. Please join me in praying for our SEAS school community and giving thanks for the tremendous work that they have done. Let us all give thanks to the Lord for the great gift of Catholic education at Divine Mercy Parish! 

Rev. Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School

Are you a follower of Christ or just an admirer of Christ? This distinction between followers of Christ and mere admirers of Our Savior is explained in a recently published book by Rod Dreher entitled, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents. He tells the story of an artist who is painting images of Bible stories on the wall of the village church. The artist laments his own inability to paint a true representation of Christ. He says that his images comfort believers, but do not lead them to repentance and conversion. The painter says regretfully, “We create admirers. We do not create followers.” 

Dreher traces this distinction between admirers of Jesus and followers of Christ to the nineteenth-century Christian existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who wrote that “the admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, will not reconstruct his life, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength to be what he admires.” 

In other words, as Dreher puts it, “Admirers love being associated with Jesus, but when trouble comes, they either turn on him or in some way try to put distance between themselves and the Lord. The admirer wants the comfort and advantage that comes with being a Christian, but when times change and Jesus becomes a scandal or worse, the admirer folds. The follower recognizes the cost of discipleship and is willing to pay it.” 
I have heard some Christians congratulate themselves on being good Christians because they have not murdered anyone or robbed a bank. Murder and robbery involve a couple of very important commandments, but there are eight more commandments in the Decalogue besides those two. The Third Commandment, for example, says “to keep holy the Sabbath.” For Catholics, that means to go to Mass every Sunday. Does a person really love God if he or she goes to Mass only when it is convenient but not every Sunday? Is such a person truly a follower of Jesus, or just an occasional admirer?

Here is a more difficult test of discipleship. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave us this commandment: 
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. 

As children of our heavenly Father, we are commanded to love our enemies. Indeed, this remarkable teaching is what distinguished the first Christians and set Christianity apart from other religions. If followers of Christ really loved their enemies, this love would be contagious, more people would to be inspired to become Christians, and we would live in a peaceful world. Unfortunately, too many people who call themselves Christian do not live by this fundamental commandment. As G.K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” 
Are you a follower of Christ or just an admirer of Christ?

If you think that you are very good at loving your enemies and therefore are a true follower of Christ, I pose this question to you:
If you voted for Joe Biden for President, can you say that you love Donald Trump and his supporters?
If you voted to re-elect Donald Trump, can you say that you love Joe Biden and his supporters?
The question makes people uncomfortable because we tend to equate love with a warm feeling of affection. Loving someone does not mean, however, that you must agree with them or even like them. Love involves something much more profound than that. Saint Thomas Aquinas said that “to love is to will the good of the other.” 

Even if you do not have warm feelings of affection for your enemies, you can still pray for and seek the good for that person. In politics, rather than seeking the destruction of your opponents, people with different views should earnestly strive for the conversion of their adversaries through reason and persuasion, not through violence.

Our country has been rocked by violence from both the left and the right over the last several months. As a nation, we have strayed far from the Judeo-Christian roots of our founders. The first amendment of the United States Constitution protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” We need to reemphasize the word “peaceably” in exercising that right. 

Just a little over a month ago, we celebrated the birth of Our Savior, whose coming was foretold by the prophet Isaiah: “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:5). Christ is the Prince of Peace. If we want to live in a peaceful world, we must be true followers of the Prince of Peace, not just admirers from a distance. We must love one another, even our enemies, for God has written a law upon our hearts (cf. Jeremiah 13:33), which is fulfilled in love (Romans 13:8-10), hence, the Law of the Heart is Love, who comes to us now in this Eucharist. 
May God give us this grace!

Rev. Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School

Greetings of Christ’s peace and love! I pray that these words find a place in your hearts to dispel the frustrations, sufferings, grief, and loneliness of those who have lost loved ones due to the coronavirus pandemic. Christmas has been a great reminder of God’s infinite love for us in the incarnation of Jesus. Born as our Savior, He came to bring light, joy, and peace to the world! 

This message of God’s constant and caring presence is reflected in the inspiring acts of frontline and other essential workers this past year. Their sacrifice and heroism have been a source of courage and perseverance during months of hardships, uncertainties, and other challenges. The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines is a blessing of renewed hope and a much-awaited answer to people’s prayers and aspirations of getting back to our normal life.

The outlook for the new year is hopeful but depends on us to make it a reality. It allows us to turn the page of time and history to brace ourselves for what better things it offers us. One good thing the pandemic taught us is that we are all in this together, and the best answer to its disastrous effect is our unity and solidarity. Pope Francis said recently in the backdrop of a divided and polarized world, that “a crisis can be overcome by the antibodies of solidarity.” This was the central message in his recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, – the call to global fraternity and social friendship, that all people will live together as a family, as brothers and sisters to one another, treating each other with dignity and equality.

Furthermore, in his message for 2021 World Day of Peace, Our Holy Father promotes a culture of care as a path to peace, urging us against the prevailing culture of indifference to the sufferings of others, of waste, of hatred and confrontation, to practice the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church. Let this culture of care start in the family, the fundamental nucleus of our society, where we first learn how to live together and relate to each other with mutual love and respect. 

The new year brings a sense of renewal, a chance to reflect on who we are as people of faith and how we might become better followers of Christ. The lessons of the past year highlighted our global interconnectedness and solidarity, our belief in the sanctity of life, and respect for the dignity of every human person. We learned that showing our love for one another, friend or stranger, can be as simple as wearing a mask. The inconvenience of such practice is far outweighed by the opportunity to show our regard for the wellbeing of one another. 

The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God ushered in the start of the new year. Now is a perfect time to invoke the loving intercession and maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary to help us join together in mutual resolution to live the Gospel values of faith, hope, and charity, as well as to grow in our commitment as responsible stewards of God’s many gifts to us, and to pursue the common good for all people. 

After a year of so many limits, God is asking us to dream of renewed happiness, even in seemingly unworkable circumstance and unresolved issues. God is asking us to let happiness descend in our belief in Jesus Christ, who descends to earth not to bring fear or destructive judgment, but to bring HOPE. God is asking us to accept happiness not as a packaged product, but as an enlivening gift that helps us to see possibility. And even more than an insidious virus or poisonous injustices, it will spread, if we, like Jesus, take every opportunity to share it with others.

Be happy. Live it. Share it. A New Day has dawned, named Jesus Christ. May God bless us with the peace, joy, and hope 2021 brings, even with the uncertainties and trials on the horizon. 

Happy New Year!
Reverend Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor