Alleluia! He is risen!
This Sunday's Mass video is now available on our parish website.
Trouble with the video link button?
Watch directly on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1EwJ2jgldj0
TEXT OF MSGR. ENKE'S HOMILY
Welcome friends and St. Edward Parishioners, to this weekend’s Eucharist as we continue to worship apart yet always together.
The words I’d like to focus on today come from our gospel and they are the words of Jesus to His disciples: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.”
It would not be long after Jesus spoke these words that our First Reading and its contents come into play with its account of the work of those first apostles Philip, Peter and John in Samaria. One sentence stands out: “There was great joy in that city.” The reason there was that great joy there, was they believed Jesus’ words “that whoever loves me will be loved by my Father.”
It is no less true all these centuries later. Jesus remains our source of joy today right here in Licking County and far beyond. Nothing – no pandemic, no virus can deprive us of that joy.
I urge you as we begin yet one more week of restrictions to look beyond them to the joy the Lord brings to each of us and all of us.
There is a hymn, once a poem that beautifully captures the source of our joy in this Easter season. It was originally titled: “Wheat that springeth up green.” It goes like this:
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
In the grave they laid him, Love whom we had slain,
Thinking that he’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
Up he sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my Risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By your touch you call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
Yesterday, our Reboot St. Edward’s Committee began its work on how and when we return to our church. As we slowly return to celebrating Mass together physically, and as we try to figure out the best way to keep people safe, we know life will be different. In the coming weeks, we will communicate with all parishioners via email and the website as we finalize our plan and restrictions for a gradual re-opening of our church. Much of this is a "wait and see" approach, as we ensure we are cautiously making the best decisions for the health and safety of our community.
I ask for your prayers and patience as we move forward to be able to celebrate the fullness of our Roman Catholic Faith.
Msgr Paul P Enke
Pastor