Every
year several priests have a new assignment on the closest Wednesday on July 15th. This year 11 priests moved in their
mission. Two priests retired,
three pastors went to a different parish(es), three priests received their
first assignment as a pastor, and three ordained men have their first
assignment as an assistant priest.
We
priests have chatted with a chuckle and a joke as each of us move at some
point. The joke is that one third
of our parishioners love their priest, one third of our parishioners do not
like their priest, and one third of our parishioners don’t even know who their
priest is!
I
mention this because there should be one essential piece for each parish in our
community, our diocese, or country and around the world: Jesus Christ. Each person should fall in love with
our savior and Jesus Christ is #1.
Our priest, our bishop, our pope, our events, our money, our employees,
our volunteers, our music, our servers, our EMs, our sacristans, our groups or
our talents are not #1.
I
remind myself that the first commandment in the Ten Commandments shows that God
is first: “You
shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is
in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for
I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but
showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my
commandments” (Exodus 20:3-6).
I
also like to remind you, that I will not be here forever (though I hope I will
be here for many more years)—but Jesus Christ will always be here.
As we
must continue to invite, welcome and support our brothers and sisters to come
back or join in their first time to our Catholic churches. This mission is not for us, but for
God.
God
Bless!
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