The Test of Faith, Patience and Love

Dear Parishioners, 
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     In our daily life, we face challenges, we experience situations that often test our faith, our patience and our capacity to love and serve others. Today’s reading from St. Mark’s Gospel (Mk 7:31-37) gives us a profound view of how we can live our faith in a more authentic and meaningful way, especially in the context of our labor on behalf of the parish and the different apostolic ministries (Communion to the sick, feeding the poor, etc.). 

     We are told of how Jesus heals a deaf man with a speech difficulty. This act of mercy allows us to learn about the importance of listening and of communicating effectively with God and with our brothers and sisters in faith.  

     In our daily lives, it is easy to become trapped within the noise and the distractions of the world. This challenges our capacity to hear God and others causing us to become overly concerned with the voices and the noises vying for our attention misleading us as the sources of the divine, making us forget the divine spirit of God comes to us in the smallest and gentlest whispers, “After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” for the Lord was now present in that gentlest of whispers. (1 Kgs 19:11b-13).

​     This Gospel passage invites us to open our hearts and our ears to the gentleness and the littleness of life and nature in order to tune ourselves to the voice of God and to become more sensitive to the needs of others. 

     In our labor as a parish community, this passage reminds us of the importance of making sure every space is inclusive of all the members of our parish, regardless of color, race, economic status, etc. This implies the calling to love with a heart like Jesus’. A heart that remembers that the sin does not define the sinner and that all of us are sinners; equal in God’s eyes, therefore brothers and sisters---all sinners who nonetheless keep striving for holiness.

     In our apostolic mission, this passage challenges us to serve as Christ’s instruments of healing and reconciliation. To put our ego aside and put on the armor of God, Jesus Christ. Like Jesus, we are called to open the ears of the deaf, to help the voiceless speak and to knock on the hearts that are closed with the message of the Gospel. The message that even the deaf hear and moves the speechless to find their voice to proclaim the love that opens all hearts, that of Jesus Christ, his words, His actions, His compassion and hope. 

Fr. Luther