Dear friends,
It is Independence Day weekend. This weekend marks also the beginning of our new pastoral year 2020-2021. I thank God for His blessings upon our parish family as a whole and upon each one of you and your loved ones. I would like to thank you for the support you have shown toward our Parish throughout this past pastoral year. Amidst the challenges of every kinds, especially the Covid-19 pandemic, you tirelessly held your parish in your hearts. Thanks to your prayers, generosity, and support we were able to finish peacefully the 2019-2020 pastoral year.
In today’s gospel reading, Christ reassures us when He declares, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father.” Hearing these words at the beginning of a pastoral year strongly conditioned by uncertainty and amidst extremely trying times of this pandemic brings consolation and comfort. Jesus invites us to trust in Him and to look up to Him as everything seems to fall apart and to be meaningless. It is to Him that we must go for relief and consolation. Christ declares that other words when he says in the gospel of John, “No one comes to the Father except through me” because He is the Life, and the Truth, and the Way. Thus, there is no need for His disciples to seek consolation and support away from Him. He invites us to come to him with our loads and burdens. He wants to team up with us as we bend down with the burden of our sinfulness, fear, worries, and brokenness.
Christ glorifies His Father for revealing His grace, love and mercy to the humble ones, those little ones who rely solely on the Son to whom the Father has handed over all things. Today, amidst the challenges of life and the fears of the beginning of a pastoral full of uncertainty, it is only in Christ that we find hope for a bright future. His humble, loving and merciful heart holds us and gives us assurance to move forward because we know and proclaim that Christ lives in us. We can then understand why He says, “my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” Teaming up with us, He actually is the One who bears the whole load on our behalf and for our sake. When we go to Him, we find true rest, perfect consolation, and true peace.
Wishing you all Happy Independence Day weekend, I invite all and each one of us to offer to the Lord this new pastoral year in our parish. May the Lord who invites us to bring our loads to Him help us embrace His companionship and strive to courageously live the gospel. May the Holy Spirit inflame us with the desire to commit with faith to responding to the call of discipleship. And let us continue to pray for one another and for our parish family.
Fr. Emery