Greetings in Christ, all! A blessed and holy Lenten season to you.
This week, we will continue our Lenten Homily Focus on the Corporal and Spiritual works of Mercy. For this weekend, we will look at two Spiritual Works of Mercy: Forgiving Injuries and Bearing Wrongs Patiently. To forgive someone does not mean we pretend it didn’t happen. It doesn’t necessarily mean our relationship with them is restored. Forgiveness is a decision to release someone from the effects of their sin as far as the forgiver is concerned. This can help us avoid the cycle of reliving the event over and over in our minds, making the wound fresh again. When we decide to forgive, we decide that, with God’s help, each memory of our wound(s) will result in us saying, “Jesus, I forgive that person.” We will do this until the power of our past no longer decides our present.
To bear wrongs patiently means that we trust that God can bring good from our pain. It means we understand that every living human hurts others, at times on purpose, often by accident. It’s an agreement we make with the people in our lives that frees them from our desire that they be perfect.
Both of these are huge challenges, but challenges that are not optional for us Christians. We who seek to be like Christ need to act like Christ and in this case, that means we forgive and we bear wrongs patiently. Pray that Fr. Le and I preach these essential truths well!
This weekend, on Friday night and Saturday morning, I will be traveling down to Toledo, Ohio. A bunch of Catholic schools are getting together for a baseball tournament. I will pray Mass with them, give a talk and then head back home.
I have a big favor to ask…your Parish Family needs your help. We are looking for a number of volunteers who speak Vietnamese and English. Many of our Catholic family are Vietnamese and we need help translating so that we can love and serve them well. Catholicism has a noble and amazing history in Vietnam and has produced Saints and Martyrs for a very long time. We are blessed to pray with such amazing people. If anyone reading this is fluent in Vietnamese and English, we could really use your help. If you could, just call our parish office and let us know that we can call you if we need help. This would be a great blessing to us.
So…that’s it! One more week of Lent, one more week closer to Easter! May Jesus bless our efforts to be like Him. I’m so grateful to Jesus that I get to be your priest,
Fjk