Not Another Kind of Clay

Dear Parishioners,

With a heavy heart, I want to inform you that Fr. David has taken a Leave of Absence from active ministry for Personal and Medical reasons.

I ask that you keep Fr. David in your prayers.

I also ask that you keep the Parish and me in your prayers as we will not be getting a replacement for Fr. David.

May God bless us all!
Fr. Citino

 

A reading for your reflection.
 

Not Another Kind of Clay

But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” (Luke 18:13)

When the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of the priest, the first thing is says is that he is taken from among men. So much so that even the eternal high priest Jesus Christ wanted to be born of a woman, subject to the Law, a pilgrim through the valley of this transitory world, the Son of Man, a man, making himself like us in everything. The priest is a man. He is not made from another kind of clay than the rest of us. He is your brother. He continues to share the lot of man after the hand of God has rested on him in the form of the  bishop’s hand. The lot of the weak and the weary, the lot of the discouraged, the unsuccessful, and the   sinner.

But men are offended when someone appears to do God’s business and still is only a man, They want messengers who speak more brilliantly, heralds who preach more persuasively, hearts that burn with a hotter flame. They would gladly receive God’s representative, provided he always had the upper hand, had an answer for everything, could handle every problem. But what is the terrible and happy truth? Those who come are weak men, who live in fear and trembling, men who themselves must pray over and over, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” men who themselves musty keep beating their breast, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

And still they preach the faith that conquers the world and bring the grace that makes redeemed saints out of lost sinners. God sends men.

Karl Rahner, Meditations on the Sacraments, 61