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Pastor Weekly Message For February 13, 2022
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February 13, 2022Jesus Is Lord!
Dear: Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today the Church celebrates World Marriage Sunday in tribute to husbands and wives as the foundation of the family, the basic unit of society. When we think of marriage, words like love, faithfulness, trust, sacrifice, forgiveness, perseverance, along with many other values come to mind. For us in the Church, the idea of sacrament and covenant embraces all those as we consider the loving and graced relationship of one man and one woman in a union that is faithful, fruitful, and forever. From the beginning of the world, no other partnership equals this blessed gift of our Creator.
A “domestic church” begins with the Sacrament of Matrimony — man and woman become husband and wife. Pope John Paul II spoke of a Catholic couple’s call to holiness within that sacrament when he said,
“Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds them to their eventual souls, with whom they make up a sole family — a domestic church.”
He also explained the husband and wife’s responsibility to recognize and to act upon their role as “givers of life” in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”):
“As the domestic church, the family is summoned to proclaim, celebrate, and serve the Gospel of life. This is a responsibility which first concerns married couples, called to be givers of life, on the basis of an ever greater awareness of the meaning of procreation as a unique event which clearly reveals that human life is a gift received in order then to be given as a gift. In giving origin to a new life, parents recognize that the child ‘as the fruit of their mutual gift of love, is in turn, a gift for both of them, a gift flows from them’” (No. 92).
As babies are born and families grow, the parents, considered the first and foremost educators by the Church, are called to pass on the Catholic faith to their children. Blessed Mother Teresa explained this experience in the domestic church very simply. She said, “The best and surest way to learn the love of Jesus is through the family.”
On the cover of the bulletin are parishioners Trevor and Rosemarie Abbud on their wedding day. Trevor and Rosemarie attend Mass each Sunday with their four children, and their oldest children attend Saint Mary School. Rosemarie serves as the coordinator of St. Mary’s MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). Even with young children, both Trevor and Rosemarie find time to be adorers at the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel. They are one of our many Saint Mary’s families who beautifully witness to the Sacrament of Marriage and ensure that Jesus is the center of their “domestic church.”
Recently the Abbud Family filmed a “We Love St. Mary’s” video to share how “welcoming” St. Mary’s is of having children at Mass. It cannot be said enough: “We love children at Mass.” The church is “Our Father’s House”, and He wants all His children loved and welcomed.
On this World Marriage Sunday, let us pray as a parish community for all married couples, that the Lord may abundantly bless them with “grace upon grace” to grow in love with Jesus and one another. May all members in our “domestic church” echo the words from Joshua 24:15: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Have a blessed week!
In Jesus and Mary,
Father Jeff Kegley
Pastor