“It is better for you to lose one of your members
Matthew 5:29-30, from Today’s Gospel
than…”
Is it Bishop Zurek or Father Tony who needs to lose the sin of “spiritual worldliness and clericalism”, at St. Mary’s Cathedral;…❓
…In hopes that I will “look beyond the barriers with magnanimity, to see the presence of God and his actions even in people I do not know, in new pastoral approaches, in uncharted mission territories”, Fr. Tony, with true synodality, asked me, “Where am I❓ Do I know the reason for my joy and offer it as gift to those I meet❓”; subsequently my answer at this moment is that the reason for my joy is hearing “a tiny whispering sound” emanating from my conscience that says, “‘…beware of the temptation of closed circles!”, caused by “spiritual worldliness and clericalism“, where only a small group of daily Mass goers are told that a Mass has been canceled, and ‘Go, take the road back to the desert’ of Facebook, thus letting yourself ‘be moved, even “hurt”, by the voice, the experience, and suffering of others: of our fellow believers and all those around us’ who come to St. Mary’s Cathedral for a scheduled Mass that has been canceled”;…
…for how can seeing “your face, O Lord” be the “reason for my joy” if I’m not, “Open, with an open heart’, to offering “it as gift to those I meet” as well as to “all those around us“;…
…likewise, if I don’t, “Shine like lights in the world,” how will I, “hold on to the word of life“;…
…consequently, “spiritual worldliness and clericalism“, is not a sin that either Bishop Zurek or Father Tony has to tear out or cut off and throw away for me to have a “reason for my joy”; for it is only when I lose my, not their, sinful member of “spiritual worldliness and clericalism” that I can save my whole body from going to Gehenna; and isn’t that “the reason for my joy” , and the reason I “offer it as gift to those I meet” here on my blog❓