Paul was a parishioner at St. Joseph’s for around 5 years. He attended weekly mass and holy days his entire life. Paul graduated from RIT where he studied mechanical engineering technology. He held several positions at Xerox in his more than 25 years before his retirement, including technical writer and project manager. He was known to be a dedicated dad who loved to build things and watch sci-fi, fantasy and action adventure shows and movies.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta tells the story her encounter with a very sick woman on the street in desperate straits. As is typical for Mother Teresa, she stopped and helped this woman in every way that she could. She did everything that love could do. Mother Teresa cleaned the person and put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of Mother Teresa’s hands and said two words in her native language, Bengali: “Thank You.” Then she died.
On this the last Sunday of the Church year, the Scriptures draw our prayerful attention to the end times – the end of our own lives when we go home to God. At the conclusion of the story of every person on earth, when each is alone with himself and with God, only love will be significant. And we can never love others unless we feel a certain reverence towards them. From the Gospel, the life of each one will be considered a success or failure according to the commitment of the person in the elimination of six situations of suffering and poverty: hunger, thirst, exile, nakedness, sickness, imprisonment...: Did you feed the hungry? Did you shelter the homeless? Did you care for the sick? And our answer will be….
Our prayerful question is one of accountability. What are we doing with the talents God has given to us? Have we buried our talents, or have we used them to make a difference in the lives of others? What effect have these Covid days had on our accountability to use our God-given talents in the service of one another?
I would invite for your reflection two of the beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit…The poor in spirit are those who know they stand in need of God’s redeeming love. Our wealth doesn’t come from are material assets; our real wealth comes from God’s healing love for us. To tap into God’s unending love for us, we need first to recognize our need for God’s grace. This is to say we need to recognize our poverty of spirit which moves us to find an inner blessedness that is God’s gift to us. Blessed are those who have to rely on God for every breath they take. The greatest spiritual deception of all is thinking we are self-righteous; that our spiritual will power is the source of our holiness. That is the biggest illusion of all. The spiritual life begins with our need for God. Left to ourselves, we are poor; we stand in need. The grace of this situation is that it can lead us to trust not in ourselves, but to trust in God. And so, the beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
During the first week of each month, Phillip the Van collects non-perishable foods to share with our Foodlink partners in downtown Rochester as well as Penfield Hope. For many years, we have delivered to Bethany House, Dimitri House, Sr. Regis Food Cupboard, and St. Andrews. This month we focus on holiday favorites and especially brownie mixes for Penfield Ecumenical Food Shelf. Please drop off your donations at the west entrance to Church any day before 5:00pm, on the back pew. Thank you for your generosity!