A Letter from Fr. Paul - Sunday, October, 17

Our annual collection for our sister parish in Guatemala is taking place this month. If you have not yet contributed, please consider doing so.

Next weekend, Bishop Mark Rivituso of St. Louis will be the celebrant and preach at the 10:30 Mass. He will also baptize his grandniece and daughter of Emily and John Wisniewski. We welcome him to St. Pius X and congratulate the Wisniewski and Pokorny families.

If we had a chance to go first class or steerage on a boat, what would we pick? The normal, human response would be to grab the first-class berth. That is what James and John ask Jesus for in our Gospel today: to sit on his left and right in his glory. But Jesus tells them, and us, that if we really want to be his followers, we have to be content with steerage, that is, being the servant and slave to others.

While he was in a Nazi prison, the Lutheran theologian, Dietrich  Bonhoeffer, presented an interesting way to reflect on this Gospel challenge: “Cheap grace” is turning to God when we are in deep trouble, asking and trusting that God will help us. A true follower of Jesus, he says, turns to God when GOD is in deep trouble, that is, when God is grieving or homeless or hungry or thirsty or persecuted or… In other words, a true follower of Jesus doesn’t just use faith in God to get the first-class berth for themselves; a true follower is responding as a servant or slave to God, present in the most needy and vulnerable around them. A true follower is taking up the cross, as did Jesus, by helping others.

Jesus did grant the wish of James and John, but it was not what they originally were thinking of. As we read the Gospels, Jesus often asks someone, What do you want me to do for you? May our answer be, make me better able to serve others and bring your love to them. Then we are truly being a faithful follower of the Master.

Church sign of the week: By entering this church it may be possible that you’ll hear "the call of God." However, He probably won’t call you on your phone, so thank you for turning it off.