The Pastor's Pen

 

April 3, 2022, Fifth Sunday of Lent

The Goal In Sight: Lent often takes on a life of its own, but we cannot forget its purpose which is to help us to be better prepared to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with minds and hearts renewed. One week from now we will be beginning our observance of that one week of the year that we designate as “holy” when in our liturgy we remember the pivotal events that took place in Jerusalem from the triumphal entry of Jesus into that city and his passion, death, and resurrection which followed. In Jerusalem, the Lord passed through death to life, and it is this mystery that we not only recall but in which we actually participate by having “died” with him through our Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so that we may rise with him to new life in the joy of Easter. We are best prepared to enter Holy Week and celebrate the Sacred Triduum if through Lenten repentance and conversion we have left some of the less than Christian aspects of ourselves behind and been renewed in gospel-guided living. At Lent’s beginning, we were invited to die to self as we received ashes and were instructed to turn away from sin so as to be faithful to the gospel. As Lent moves more swiftly toward its end we must assess how well we have done thus far. If we have to admit that we have not been as disciplined as we might have been, nor have we progressed as far as we might have hoped, we should not give up easily by consoling ourselves with the thought that there is always next Lent! The point of being reminded by ashes that we are destined to return to dust is to increase our awareness that the time to repent and change for the better is always now not later!

So if necessary let us redouble our efforts in this fifth week of Lent and on through the days of Holy Week right up to the evening of Holy Thursday when Lent officially ends. Let us begin to assess the fruits of our self-denial and calculate what we are accumulating to share with the poor when our Lenten alms are collected on Holy Thursday evening. What are we denying ourselves so as to have more to share with the poor? What is the cost of 40 café lattes or the same amount of wine or liquor? How much would a meal taken out at a restaurant each week have cost us or a day at a spa? If we didn’t forgo anything at all or ended up indulging in what we said we would give up then we perhaps owe more than the costs of these indulgences not less! The point is that the collection of alms on Holy Thursday is supposed to represent 40 days of self-denial, so it requires giving more than a dollar or two or nothing at all lest we end up compounding our debt to God by neglecting the poor! So as over the next 10 days, we find ourselves literally in the final quarter of Lent, let us make every effort and take whatever extra care necessary to be sure that we can end this penitential season having truly died to ourselves so as to be better able to rise to a new life with Christ especially as he is found in those who are in trouble or need.

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion: On next weekend palms will be blessed and distributed and the Passion of the Lord will be proclaimed at all Masses. Baskets to collect old palms which you may have at home are located at the entrances of the church and will be there through Palm Sunday. This Palm will be properly disposed of as it is burned in the Easter Fire on Holy Saturday evening.

Plan Now for The Sacred Triduum and Easter:

Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper – 7 PM, followed by prayer before the Blessed Sacrament concluding with Night Prayer at 10 PM

Good Friday: Morning Prayer at 9 AM, Service of the Lord’s Passion at 3 PM, Stations of the Cross at 7 PM

Holy Saturday: Morning Prayer at 9 AM, Solemn Vigil of Easter at 7 PM

Easter Sunday (Please note change in Mass Schedule for Easter Only) 8 AM, 9:30 AM, and 11 AM ( no Sunday evening Mass on Easter Sunday).

The Annual Report: While the pastor will accept responsibility for its delayed release, thanks are due to the parish staff, Bud Breault, Diane Davis, and Kelly Spodris for the annual accounting of our parish income and expenses for the fiscal year ’20-’21 which is available at the entrances of the church. All are encouraged to take a copy, and to divide the costs incurred in operating and maintaining the parish by 2600 registered households to come to understand what fairly sharing in the upkeep of the parish would entail per household on a weekly, monthly or annual basis. To those who are doing their fair share and even so much more, we all owe a debt of gratitude for their generosity; to those who are not yet doing all they might, we would ask them to prayerfully consider doing more; and to those who are not giving any traceable contribution on a regular basis to the parish, we must all ask why not as it is this kind of negligence, though often mistakenly assumed benign, which is largely responsible for the demise and eventual closure of parishes as sadly witnessed over the last two decades in our own and other Dioceses of the United States. As members of Christ the King Parish let us all care deeply about the well-being of our parish now and into the future so as to support it to the best of our ability.