From Father Carlos...
Dear friends from Saint Frances Cabrini and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception parishes,
We continue our journey through the season of Easter and we continue praising the Father for the gift of the Resurrection of His Son Jesus. It is important that we consider how foundational it is to our Faith the fact that the Lord has been raised from the dead, as Saint Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthians:
“But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty, too, your faith” (15: 12-14.)
The Resurrection of the Lord is the Good News we bear as Christians to the world. The fact that God has power even over the darkest of all situations, death changes our perspective of reality in this world and gives us hope for life in the world to come. It teaches us that God can draw goodness out of even the most painful and challenging of circumstances:
“We know that all things work for good for those who love God who are called according to his purpose. […] What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:28;31.)
This Sunday, May 16th, I celebrate my first year anniversary as a Priest. As I go back to the time when I first began to think seriously about the Priesthood, I remember that the word “Good News” was an important one in my discernment. I wanted to become a bearer of Good News and to follow the one whose person is Good News itself, Jesus Christ. In the past year, I have met brothers and sisters from our parishes in joyful and hope-filled times of their lives as well as in sad and challenging ones. Yet, one thing has been true all throughout these encounters and that is that Jesus Christ has been the Good News that saves, heals and restores life.
As Christians, we are all called to share the Good News of Christ to the world: the Good News of the Church, the Good News of the Sacraments, the Good News of the commandment that the Lord has given us as the path to salvation: “love one another as I love you” (John 15:12.)
The Lord said in the Gospel, “without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5.) If we truly believe in the seriousness of these words, then we should feel the urgency to remain in Christ in order to live and the need to bring others to Christ so that they too may have life.
There are many of our brothers and sisters who are not coming to Church these days while having the ability to do so. Have they heard the Good News of Christ and his Church? Have we embodied this Good News to them in order to draw them back (or for the first time) to the sacraments and the living out of their faith? Have we truly believed ourselves the Good News that is Christ?
As I continue growing into the gift of the Priesthood that I received on May 16th of 2020, I continue going back to the relevance that the word Good News had in my own discernment process. I also become more aware of the need to embody the Good News that I preach and the times that I have failed to do so already this year: “But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7.)
May the Lord assist us with his grace to accomplish his work in the world!