September 2007 Message
“Be on watch throughout the course of the year; fix your mind on your Lord’s Passion, for He is the fortress of our souls, the place of safety for righteousness where the fruit of our good works is protected”.
St.John the Solitary (5th.cent.)
Happy New Year!
As you well know, September 1st marks the beginning of the Church year. This is a carryover from the Roman calendar in use at the beginning of the Christian era. Of course, for the Church, the year is much more than a calendar marking the passage of time. It is that sacred cycle beginning in September and extending through August that unites us with Christ, the holy persons and salvific events that constitute our identity as believers. These commemorations unfold as an epic poem in which we must discover our own unique place. In a certain sense, the year is Christ Himself. The lyric develops in Gospel readings, hymns, fasts, feasts and festivals. All of this is presented as if it were happening immediately, in our presence. As individuals, we must be there.
At the center of the cycle stands the Cross and the events that liberated us from oppression. Everything that comes before it points to it and everything that follows it lives in its shadow. At the beginning of the year on 14 September, we commemorate the Great Feast of the Elevation of the Cross. The Church offers this Feast as a sign post indicating our destination. As a community, we must go there.
The Cross was once referred to as the center of the world because the crucified Jesus dwelt there, and with Him, all who suffer, the poor and the despised. This is the only place from which we can proclaim the Risen Lord. St. John insists that our attention be fixed on the Cross as our only really safe place. From her, Christ liberates us from sin - that is to say the root of all disruption of friendship and the source of all injustice. From her, Christ makes us truly free – that is to say He enables us to live in communion with Him, and this is the basis of all human fellowship and love. As a parish, we must struggle to realize this freedom.
The New Year has only one purpose, Christ and Him crucified. The best way for us to celebrate it is to discovering His presence in each other. The year ahead will offer us many opportunities to grow in grace and forge a unity of love that reveals one family. I am honored to begin this New Year together with you. The question is not how we will get through the year but rather how the year will get through to us bringing us of age as people who know that God is love and that His love makes us one family.