From the Pastor – Second Sunday of Lent

February 26, 2018

From the Pastor – Second Sunday of Lent – February 25, 2018

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) posts notes regarding all the Books of the Bible. In its introduction to Paul’s Letter to the Romans (our Second Reading), the USCCB says, “Of all the letters of Paul, that to the Christians at Rome has long held pride of place. It is the longest and most systematic unfolding of the apostle’s thought, expounding the gospel of God’s righteousness that saves all who believe; it reflects a universal outlook.”

Paul’s Letter to the Romans is in fact the longest of his letters in the New Testament (Romans is more than 7,000 words; that is much shorter, of course, than the shortest Gospel, Mark, which is still more than 11,000 words.) However, as stated by the Bishops, the Letter to the Romans explained in a more detailed way Paul’s theology and spirituality than any other letter.

Regardless the length, today’s reading contains a statement with which many of us are familiar, but which has great meaning: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The significance of that is that if we are on the side of righteousness, which should be a major goal of our Lenten experience, there should be nothing to threaten us.

We understand that we will be judged. Paul’s point is if we are judged “not guilty” by God, who can bring an additional charge with any merit? Or, if Jesus is our advocate, promoting our benefit, then who can condemn us? This is the time to place our trust in God, and in His love.

Pastoral Pondering

Since New Year’s Day a group of men in the parish has been participating in Exodus 90 and a group of women in Proverbs 90. The purpose of both is to help those participating focus on what Scripture calls “the higher gifts” (1 Cor. 12). It is very easy for us to get caught up in the “things of the world” (1 John 2:15) and to forget those things that are eternally important.

In the men’s program, participants receive daily email messages with a passage from the book of Exodus and a brief reflection. The meditation for Day 45 focused on the Sense of the Sacred. In Exodus 19:1-15 the Lord instructs Moses to teach the people of how they are to prepare for their encounter with Him at Sinai. The people are to wash themselves and their clothes, fast, and pray. They are also warned not to come close to the mountain or even touch it under pain of death. They are also told that they are to be God’s “own possession”.

In the reflection, the writer ponders how important it is to realize a sense of the sacred in our lives, especially in the way in which we approach Holy Mass and the House of God. The Israelite took great pains to observe God’s instructions to Moses. We too are called to realize that what we do at Mass is different from anything else that we do in the world.

Unlike the Israelites who were forbidden to even touch the mountain, we are invited to actually receive God into ourselves through the Eucharist. However, we have to be mindful that such an august gift requires an appropriate response on our part. How we prepare to assist at the Holy Sacrifice should be no less important for us than preparing for their encounter was for the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai. This is the point of the meditation I mention above. As the meditation’s author points out:

“Americans have lost the sense of the sacred. Rarely do we stand in awe before the Lord and ponder our insignificance before Him.  Consider for a moment our own parish Churches; in most places, the days are gone when people treated the sanctuary with great sensitivity and respect; days when people rarely entered the sanctuary unless properly vested and prepared. The Hebrew people were advised to wash their garments and prepare to receive the Lord. Today, grown men can be see attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass ungroomed, wearing flip flops, shorts and a tank top and, God forbid, if they are questioned or challenged about their appearance, they scowl and are incensed, demanding they not be judged. ‘At least I am here,’ is the shallow defense presented.

In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we are presented to God, who abides spiritually in the Sacred Scriptures and substantially in the Eucharist, present “under the appearance of bread and wine”. A Catholic who desires the relationship given above, to be “my own possession” as God said above, will properly discern what is before him and will humbly present himself to the Lord properly prepared and as ready as he can be. Anything else is an offense against God and is a sacrilege!”

Over the next few weeks, I will be writing about different aspects of reverence that will help us all more fruitfully experience our encounter with God.

From the Pastor

From the Pastor - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By John Putnam • October 16, 2026
Today's readings remind us to be mindful not only of who we are, but also Whose we are. In today's Gospel, the Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus by asking whether it is lawful to pay the tax to Caesar. Their question is meant to force Him into choosing sides. But Jesus refuses to be drawn into their narrow way of thinking. Instead, He asks whose image appears on the coin. When they answer, "Caesar," Jesus responds, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." Those words remind us that while we have responsibilities in this world, our first allegiance belongs to God. Everything we have comes from Him, and through Baptism we have become His sons and daughters. Our time, our talents, our treasure, and our very lives are gifts entrusted to us by the Lord. May we use them each day in grateful response to His goodness, remembering that we belong to Him above all else. © Catholic Stewardship Conference, 2026 Pastoral Pondering With the mid-term elections coming up and early voting beginning this past week, I thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone the importance of Catholics voting and engaging in civil life. On November 3 we will elect members of Congress, state officials, and many local officeholders. Midterm elections draw fewer voters than a presidential year, yet they shape the laws under which we live: the protection of human life, the freedom of the Church to teach and serve, the strength of the family, the care of the poor, and the education of the young. To stay home is not neutrality. It leaves those decisions to others. The Church has long taught that citizenship is part of charity. The Catechism says that co-responsibility for the common good makes it “morally obligatory… to exercise the right to vote” (CCC 2240). Pope Francis put it plainly: a good Catholic does not stand apart from politics, but offers the best of himself so that those who govern may serve the good of all. Voting is one ordinary way we do that. It is also a moral act, not a team sport. Our identity in Christ comes before any party label. The U.S. bishops, in *Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship* (scan code), remind us that we form our consciences by the Gospel and the Church’s teaching, then vote in light of that formation. A well-formed conscience does not support a program that contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals. Some acts are always gravely wrong: the direct taking of innocent human life, including abortion and euthanasia; attacks on the nature of marriage; religious persecution; and the deliberate degradation of the poor. Other issues—immigration, wages, housing, care of creation, criminal justice—also belong to the common good and require prudent judgment about what will help people. Not every issue carries the same moral weight, and rarely does one candidate embody the whole of Catholic social teaching. We weigh, we pray, and we choose the path that best protects human dignity and advances the common good. A few practical steps help. Read the bishops’ guidance and, where available, nonpartisan comparisons of candidates’ records and stated positions. Pray before you vote, perhaps with the family. Discuss the issues with charity, remembering that the person across the aisle is also made in the image of God. Then vote. If you cannot get to the polls, use whatever law the state provides. Participation does not end at the ballot box: write your representatives, serve the poor, and keep the Church’s voice in the public square after Election Day. Here at St. Mark we will not tell you whom to support. That judgment belongs to your conscience, formed by the faith. We will urge you not to surrender that conscience to habit, fear, or party. The Lord who will judge nations also judges how we used the freedom we were given. May we use it well.

From the Pastor - 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By John Putnam • October 9, 2026
This reflection pertains to the regular readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. We have been given so many gifts and blessings by our Heavenly Father. Yet, in our fallen state it is all too easy to take them for granted. Our readings today teach us that we must live with an intentional awareness of our many blessings and use them gratefully to glorify God. In our Gospel passage from Matthew, Jesus uses the image of a vineyard to teach the importance of using our blessings well. He tells the story of a landowner who plants a vineyard and leases it to tenants before he goes on a journey. Instead of tending the vineyard, the tenants mistreat the servants in the vineyard and even the son of the landowner, whom they kill. When the landowner realizes what the tenants have done, he puts them to death and leases his vineyard to tenants who “will give him the produce at the proper times.” By Baptism, we have received the gift of salvation and membership in the Kingdom of God — we are now “tenants” called to work in the “vineyard” and produce fruit for its owner, our Heavenly Father. Jesus makes it clear that if we squander the gift of salvation, we will lose it. It is a sobering truth. So, let us use our intellect to think on these gifts throughout the day and resolve to use all our gifts for God’s glory. ©Catholic Stewardship Consultants, 2026 Pastoral Pondering Why St. Francis still matters to the Church On October 4 the Church honors St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most beloved and most demanding saints in our history. He is not merely a garden statue or a gentle friend of animals. Francis is a living reminder of what the Gospel looks like when it is taken at its word. Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone around 1181 in Assisi, he was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. After a brief taste of knighthood and a season of pleasure, he heard Christ speak from the crucifix of San Damiano: “Francis, go and rebuild my house, which, as you see, is falling into ruin.” He took those words first as a command to repair a crumbling chapel. The Lord meant something larger: the renewal of the Church herself. What Francis restored in the Church Poverty as freedom. Francis stripped himself of inheritance, status, and even the clothes on his back. He called Lady Poverty his bride. That was not a romantic gesture. It was a protest against a Church and a society grown comfortable. Every generation of Catholics needs that protest. When we confuse the Gospel with respectability, Francis stands at the door of the Church and asks whether we still believe that Christ is enough. The crucified Christ at the center. In 1224, two years before his death, Francis received the stigmata on Mount La Verna—the wounds of Christ marked in his own flesh. The Church has always taught that holiness is configuration to Jesus crucified and risen. Francis made that teaching visible. He did not invent devotion to the Passion; he embodied it so completely that the Church could not look away. A family of religious life. From one poor man came the Friars Minor, the Poor Clares with St. Clare, and the Secular Franciscans for men and women living in the world. That threefold family still serves the Church on every continent: preaching, serving the poor, praying, and keeping the memory of the Gospel simple. When we speak of “Franciscan” today—whether a friar, a sister, or a parishioner in the Secular Order—we are naming a way of belonging to Christ that the Church has never outgrown. Creation as gift, not possession. The Canticle of the Creatures—“Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth”—is not nature poetry. It is theology. Francis saw every creature as a brother or sister because all things come from the same Father. Pope Francis took that insight into Laudato Si’. Care for our common home is not an optional hobby for Catholics. It is part of the same conversion that led Francis to kiss the leper and to call the wolf of Gubbio his brother. Peace that costs something. In 1219 Francis crossed battle lines during the Fifth Crusade and stood before Sultan al-Kamil. He did not win a treaty. He witnessed to a Lord who is Peace. The Church still needs disciples willing to speak of Christ without hatred and without watering Him down. Francis did both. Why this matters here St. Francis matters to the life of the Church because he keeps returning us to the essentials: Christ poor and crucified, the Church always in need of reform, the poor as our brothers and sisters, creation as a hymn of praise, and joy that does not depend on having more. He is not a saint for specialists. He is a saint for anyone who has grown tired of a faith that costs nothing. As we keep his memorial, I invite you to do one Franciscan thing that is within reach: give something away that you do not need; speak peace where there is friction in your home; spend a few minutes outdoors thanking God for what you did not make; or pray before the crucifix and ask, as Francis did, to know Jesus and to make Him known.  The little poor man of Assisi still rebuilds the Church—one converted heart at a time. May he rebuild ours.