A Message from Fr. Murray

The Gospel this Sunday includes one of the hard sayings of Jesus. It corresponds to another of the hard sayings that we heard from him a few weeks ago, i.e., that the disciples were to go only to the lost sheep of Israel. (The people who believed they were not saved because they could not fulfill every rule of the law.) One of the themes of Matthew was the importance of the Jewish community hearing that Jesus was the Messiah. From the beginning of his [public ministry, he was focused on the people of his community and did not travel outside his own country. Interestingly, where he lived was close to an intersection of many countries and commerce. It would have been natural for him to see many people from other lands. However, the project started locally, like his mustard seed example, namely the twelve apostles and the disciples.

The first effort was to bring the message to the Jewish community and to teach them that God wanted to restore them to their original intention, the nation that other nations would see as the bearers of the message of God. However, before they could go out to the world, it was necessary to bring his people on board. On the surface, for us this is an ugly scene. However, this type of word play and challenge would have been part of the culture. In truth, the woman one-ups Jesus with her humility and that is what wins the day. In other scenes, (the woman at the well in John, the Roman Centurion in Mark) Jesus is moved by the need and the humble way that the request is made from “outsiders”. Humble faith, it seems, triumphs over all things, when it comes to Jesus. It is a good lesson for us, and to remember that persistence is also part of the story for the woman and for us.

This past week we celebrated the patroness of our parish, Mary in her Assumption to heaven. It is the church’s belief that Mary, at the end of her life, was assumed body and soul to heaven as a gift from God for her extraordinary act of obedience and generosity in allowing God to use her as the vessel for the birth of his Son, Jesus. Here is the basic teaching. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus as follows:

We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by God that the immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever virgin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven

This actually builds on the dogma of the immaculate Conception, that Mary was born without the stain of original sin. Dogma is a revealed truth. Around the 4th Century, the cause for Mary’s assumption began to be advocated. Over the years, the understanding grew until we have this definition that is above. This is a fascinating study of how holy thoughts slowly come to be recognized a divine revelations.

Peace,

Father Murray

Building news. This week we signed the contract for the chapel painting. The cost is $19,000.00 dollars. We will also have the front doors done. The work will be done in December by a local painter who contracts outside work for as long as he can and then comes indoors to work over the winter. We also plan to move some of the benches from upstairs to the chapel and arrange

them somewhat like the benches in the front part of the church. I hope this will accomplish a greater ability to move around in the chapel for those in wheelchairs or with walkers.