Author: Nathalie Godet

Dear Friends,

Last Sunday’s bulletin had some info about starting a “Parish Vocations Committee” (PVC) here at St. Matthias, led by our Pastoral Council. Today, the fourth Sunday, known also as Good Shepherd Sunday, is an auspicious day to inaugurate it. Today’s gospel is about Jesus the Good Shepherd.

The word ‘vocation’ (= calling) applies to all of us – no matter who we are: husbands or wives, religious men or women, priest or deacon, single person, young or old. The Church teaches us that the vocation of every Christian is to be holy. In Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and be Glad), Pope Francis reminds us that God calls all Christians to be saints — not statues of saints, but real people who make time for prayer and who show loving care for others in the simplest gestures. He wrote about “the saints next door” and said he likes “to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick….”

I wish all of us to grow more aware of our call to be holy, but we also need to be aware that we have a responsibility to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life. To this end, the PVC will create awareness through various means. I thank Joe Percoco and MaryBeth Vetter for agreeing to lead it and you will hear them this weekend and the next.

This past Thursday was Earth Day! It was on April 22, 1970, that 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife.

Though Earth Day is a popular secular observance, the Catholic Church brings a distinct perspective to the discussion of environmental questions, by lifting up the moral dimensions of these issues and the needs of the most vulnerable among us. This unique contribution is rooted in Catholic teaching calling us to care for the whole of creation and for “the least of these.” (Mt 25:40). The Catholic bishops’ pastoral statement on the environment, Renewing the Earth, is worth reading. The appeal of Pope Francis in Laudato Si (On Care for Our Common Home) is addressed to “every person living on this planet” for an inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. Parishes, dioceses and other Catholic organizations continue to discuss issues affecting the environment that is civil and constructive, that invokes the virtue of prudence in seeking solutions, and that is more responsive to the needs of the poor, both here in the United States and abroad.

Our St. Matthias community is very conscious of these and other social issues. We have a long-standing partnership with the Center for FaithJustice (CFJ) whose resource persons enrich our Confirmandi class through “Service WorX” each year. May Jesus the Good Shepherd help us to shepherd people and environment according to God’s plan in the Bible.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

Dear Friends,

As you know, our 2021 RCIA class is very large with 25 adults. Thank you to those of you who picked up their names and prayed for them. Most of them were present at the Easter Vigil and received one or more of the Sacraments of Initiation. Those absent will receive on another day. “Congratulations to our neophytes.” Now, that is a word we don’t hear often. A “neophyte” (its Greek root means the newly planted) is a term used for those who have been initiated as full members of a religion like Christianity or Judaism or one who has joined a religious order. In our context, a neophyte is one who has been incorporated into the fullness of the life of the Church as the Body of Christ. Now these new members enter into the final phase of the RCIA process which is known as Mystagogy, which simply means learning about the mysteries. The RCIA instruction no.244 says: “This is a time for the community and the neophytes together to grow in deepening their grasp of the paschal mystery and in making it part of their lives through meditation on the Gospel, sharing in the Eucharist, and doing the works of charity. ….”

What is interesting is that the Church’s focus of the mystagogy is the Community into which these new members have been incorporated! It means that mystagogy is a time for us all to grow in understanding the paschal mystery. The entire purpose of the RCIA process is to lead the participants into a relationship of communion and intimacy with Jesus. As the community of St. Matthias, we are an important part of mystagogy.

Our RCIA process is coordinated by Phyllis Stone with her teammates Anne Marie Francis, Gondee Tibay, Mary-Frances Reavey, and Carmen Calvimontes.  They have been doing an amazing job every year, but it has been very challenging this year due to the pandemic. And I wish to thank them sincerely for rising up to the challenges and carrying out this ministry of faith formation and evangelization of those who wish to be part of the community of faith in Jesus Christ. They are true models and torchbearers of faith.

But let us remember that we all are called to be models and torchbearers of Christian witness and experience to the neophytes as well as to all those we meet in our daily living. The Sunday Mass is key to a successful mystagogy because the three ways mentioned above – meditation on the Gospel and sharing in the Eucharist which leads us to the works of charity – are meant for the whole community’s full, conscious and active participation.

I have a request: you may know some adults who may be not be baptized, or who are baptized but not received Communion or Confirmation. Why not speak to them about receiving these Sacraments of Initiation? Why not invite them to join our RCIA process? That is another sign of you becoming a
witness to Jesus.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

Dear Friends,

By now it is well known that the Sunday after Easter is celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday. St. Faustina, a poorly educated daughter of a humble Polish family, kept a 600-page diary of the apparitions she had of Jesus for years. Her entries focus on God’s mercy, the call to accept God’s mercy and to be merciful, the need for conversion, and the call to trust in Jesus. It had been Jesus’ own wish, she wrote, to establish a feast day: “I [Jesus] desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls. . . . I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy.” When St. John Paul II canonized her in 2000, he proclaimed the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday, thereby widely promoting the devotional practices associated with Faustina’s visions, already popular in many communities.

Some have asked me: “Father, are we bound to believe in such revelations to individuals like St. Faustina?” Let me answer with a quote from the most authoritative document of the Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Throughout the ages, there have been so-called ‘private’ revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history” (#67).

Thus the Church is very clear that the revelations experienced by Saint Faustina were of a private nature, which are not essential to anyone’s acceptance of the Catholic faith. Yet, the Church promotes this popular devotion because God’s loving mercy, the focus of Divine Mercy Sunday, is the very heart of the gospel. The devotion to Divine Mercy fosters the virtue of trust in God’s mercy that finds its fulfillment in the liturgy of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.

We know Pope Francis has been an ardent promoter of divine mercy. His first book as pope is titled: The Name of God is Mercy. This year is the 90th anniversary (1931-2021) of the first apparition to St. Faustina. The Pope used this occasion to exhort all to “pass on the fire of Jesus’ merciful love.”

And yet, today’s gospel is about doubting the resurrection of Jesus by one of his own disciples! Presenting the famous profession of Faith from Thomas, “My Lord and my God,” the Gospel illustrates how Jesus showed his mercy to this doubting apostle and emphasizes the importance of faith and surrender. We are invited to be liberated from doubts and reservations about our faith, first by verbalizing our doubts and trying to get answers from those who know, and second by surrendering our lives to the Risen Lord of Mercy.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal