From the Pastor - 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In our First Reading from the Book of Isaiah, God reminds us that He does not think in the same way that we do. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts.” That is quite clear in our Gospel today from Matthew, which relates the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.
In the Gospel parable, God (who is represented by the landowner) does something which from our human perspective may seem unfair and unjust. What we must keep in mind is that the landowner did not treat anyone unfairly. He may have seemed more generous to some than to others, but again that is from our perspective.
We can be absolutely certain that God will never be unfair to us. The Lord may bestow greater blessings on others, some of whom again from our perspective may seem less deserving. God is a righteous God. Through stewardship we acknowledge that everything comes to us from God. All our blessings may seem to be more or less than we deserve, but if we are grateful for what we have and what we are, we will then recognize God’s generosity and His grace.
The important thing to us should not be and cannot be whether we are first or last. What is central is that we are part of the Kingdom of God. That should be sufficient for us. We get into trouble when we conclude that God should think the way we do.
Pastoral Pondering
From the Survey: We need more opportunities to get to know our priests and deacons. Saying hello after Mass does not provide enough of an opportunity to get to know them.
I certainly agree with this assessment. While it is nice to meet and greet folks following the Masses, it is not really enough time to get to know someone. This has been a topic that the Stewardship Committee has considered. Some thought has been given to “fire-side chats” or even neighborhood get togethers where a more informal discussion can take place. The recent men’s gathering provided some of this back in July. I think all of us are open to such opportunities. The difficulty at times is finding the calendar space to pull it together. We are certainly open to suggestions, so if you have some ideas in this regard, please email them to me!
From the survey: There always seems to be a problem getting things scheduled at the parish. We need more space!
This has been a recurring theme. I truly admire the office staff who try to juggle everything and respond to the many demands placed upon them and our facilities. The reality is that we have outgrown our parish facilities. Part of the Pastoral Council’s task in formulating a new pastoral plan is to assess what we have and what we need for the future. This of course takes planning and eventually, funding. With that being said, we are also considering ways in which to maximize the space we have. Some time has been devoted to investigating how the Kerin Center gym might be used more effectively. It could be divided into three large spaces with the addition of moveable walls. This of course is not an inexpensive venture, and we really need to evaluate whether such an investment makes sense knowing that we need an additional building sooner than later.