Dear friends,
These past weeks we have been reflecting on our Discipleship Path with its acronym STARS. As disciples, we are called to Serve, we are transformed to Transform others on the journey of discipleship, we Accept each other and we embrace our diversity as opportunity to grow, we Reach out to those outside of our church doors, because disciples proclaim and bear witness, and finally we Share the treasures God has given us for the building up and the spreading of the Good News of the Kingdom. This acronym summarizes the whole vision we strive to embrace and to imprint in our parish culture.
Today after meditating on the first step of our discipleship path, which is to SERVE, I would like to invite all and each one of us to embrace and to meditate upon the second step of our parish discipleship path, namely to TRANSFORM. To do so, I invite all of us to reflect deeply on the meaning and the weight of the Lord’s following statement: “My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I send it.” Stop a little bit and think for a moment. Let the echo of these words resound over and over again within you and digest them. The Lord tells you and me, all of us that He sends his word to us to produce effects.
At the beginning of this pastoral year, as we embark on the journey of discipleship, I would like each and every one of us to go inward and seek to grow in faith and discipleship as we long for eternal happiness with Him in his kingdom. The Lord tells us today that the kingdom of heaven is not and should not be considered an entitlement. Jesus plants the seed of grace that transforms us in our hearts to help us grow. This will happen if only we do something. Otherwise, it will die. If it lives in us, it will grow. For this to happen in us, we have to be intentional, make intentional efforts to grow. This is because that growth is not accidental. It involves making a choice that Jesus is more important to us than anything or anyone else. It means choosing to believe that he has come to teach us the way to God, and choosing to follow him faithfully. Indeed, growing in God’s grace involves patience as we await the fullness of the kingdom. We are called to open up to God’s grace to transform us and to enable us to transform those around us through the example of our lives totally given and consecrated to making disciples. Just as God has given us the sun and the rain to make seed grow, so if we put forth effort spiritually to let God transform us, God will supply the means necessary to produce an extraordinarily abundant harvest in our lives. Our willingness and determination to be transformed by the grace God pours upon us will lead us to produce fruits.
As we open up to God’s grace that transforms us into courageous disciples called and sent to make disciples, we continue to pray for one another and for our parish family.
Fr. Emery