Pastoral Messages from Fr. Rick: 1-30-22
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Utah Legislature is in Session – Join the Salt Lake Diocese Office of Justice and Peace in following some key bills through the lense of Catholic Social Teaching. If you have not already done so, please consider signing up for the Prayer and Action Network for regular updates. https://www.dioslc.org/offices/life-justice-and-peace/prayer-and-action-network . Recall that Eucharistic Prayer V3 states: “Grant that all the faithful of the Church, looking into the signs of our times by the light of faith, may constantly devote ourselves to the service of the Gospel.
Prophets All.
Today’s readings tell us that both Jeremiah and Jesus were designated or called from before their conception to the role of prophet. In describing the role of prophet, The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CC) states in paragraph #64:
Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their hearts.22 The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the People of God, purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the nations.23 Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope. Such holy women as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith and Esther kept alive the hope of Israel’s salvation. the purest figure among them is Mary.24
All of us at our baptism were anointed into the offices of priest, prophet and king. A full consideration of the lives and missions of these two prophets also shows that they are strongly resisted and persecuted. In the gospel it specifically says that the people want to take Jesus out of town and hurl Him headlong off the side of the hill. Our role of prophets and truth tellers (CCC # 898 – 905) will surely put us in positions of contention and conflict throughout our lives.
CCC 898 “By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. . . . It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer.”
899 The initiative of lay Christians is necessary especially when the matter involves discovering or inventing the means for permeating social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life. This initiative is a normal element of the life of the Church:
Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them the Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they in particular ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the common Head, and of the bishops in communion with him. They are the Church.
How and how often do you find yourself challenged by the Gospel and challenge of Jesus?
What prophetic message have you accepted as your personal calling? When did you reject the calling?