In today’s “Our Rector’s Ramblings”, Father Tony asks me, “But just what are the benefits of parish membership” at St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral ❓…
Father Tony tells me that he believes “that the main benefit” of membership at St. Mary’s Cathedral “is becoming known.”; however, hasn’t he often said in previous homilies that he hopes he is never assigned to his home parish of Panhandle because he is “known” there, and he believes that would lead to him encountering those who could be, “Hard of face and obstinate of heart;…
…furthermore, wasn’t it my becoming “known” by Bishop Zurek as being among “the few” that had him writing a letter to the Faith Community at St. Mary’s Cathedral saying that I was, “not part of them” , causing me to fix my eyes, “on the Lord, pleading for his mercy“;…
…nevertheless, could not these, “weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and constraints” from being “known”, (if they are
for the sake of Christ)”, be also among the benefits of membership;
for isn’t it “when I am weak, then I am strong“;…
…subsequently, I sing out, “Alleluia, alleluia”,
because “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Christ”,
and he has been sent “to bring glad tidings to the poor“;…
…and just as, “Despite the international agreements which prohibit chemical, bacteriological and biological warfare, …laboratory research continues to develop new offensive weapons capable of altering the balance of nature”, should I not expect that the benefit of being “known” will also lead to those who will take “offense at“ me; but, “Along the way”, can I not “discover how to set (my) ministry free from the things that wear (me) down and rediscover its most authentic core, the proclamation of God’s word and the gathering of the community for the breaking of bread”, which is what I believe are the true benefits of membership at St. Mary’s Cathedral❓