1 in Christ
Brothers and Sisters,
It has been a very busy week! Last Tuesday night I was very honoured to be able to represent the Maronite Church and attend a special Ecumenical Gathering at St Elias’s Melkite Church in Guildford under the theme of “1 in Christ”. This gathering brought together people from seven different Churches. The representatives from each of the Churches were given an opportunity to talk about their different traditions. Pondering on this wonderful experience made me reflect more and more on our Sacred Tradition. Sacred Tradition is God’s revealed word handed down by the living teaching authority established by Christ in the Church. This includes both written tradition (Holy Scripture) and unwritten tradition received from Christ and handed down orally by the apostles and their successors. This tradition is like a lantern that shines in the dark opening up our eyes, hearts and minds to the truth in the same way that the eyes of Bartimaeus were opened. Over the years each Church has developed its own liturgical and spiritual traditions and added its own charisms to enrich it. When you put all these lanterns of tradition together, the light of our Lord Jesus shines even brighter in our lives. Their unity radiates the splendor of his love for us so that we too can radiate the same light and love and truly become “1 in Christ”.
The light of our Lord continues to be radiate in our parish touching all our parishioners and especially our children. This week 107 children who are preparing for their Holy Communion received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is a very big step for them as they develop their relationship with Christ and also with their neighbour. It is very important for parents to continually be an example for their children and lead them to Reconciliation. As we approach Easter it would be a wonderful idea to come together as a family to receive this sacrament. As a priest my heart is filled with joy when I see families waiting together to receive this sacrament.
The light of our Lord shone brightly on us on Friday in a somewhat different way than what I would normally be used to. It shone through the gathering of our parish family for a game of golf. This has helped us to raise much needed funds for our Community, Youth and Pastoral Centre. On behalf of the parish I would like to thank the organizers, sponsors and participants of the Golf Day. Your support is a blessing to our parish and is a true example of how we can be “1 in Christ.”
On a final note, time is passing by very quickly and we are now one week away from the Season of our Lord’s Passion. At this stage, we should be asking ourselves if have allowed the light of Jesus to enter into our lives this Lent like Bartimaeus? If not, there is still time.
Fr Tony Sarkis
Challenge Yourself!
Brothers and Sisters,
This Sunday we arrive at our fifth station in this Lenten journey; the station in which we reflect on the Gospel of the healing of the paralytic. The friends of the paralytic when faced with all the chaos that surrounded the home at Capernaum were truly challenged to find a way to get into the house to see Jesus. However they used their brains and the masculinity and did what they did to see the Lord. Their strength didn’t come from their brains nor did it come from their masculinity! Their strength came from their great faith. They believed without a doubt that Jesus could heal their friend if he chose to. And yes Jesus did choose!
In our own lives today there is so much chaos, so much noise. We are challenged to do well at work, to own the best house, car and clothing, to eat the finest food, go on a holiday every year and so on. These are all wonderful things but in our effort to achieve all this, many times they allow us to use the excuse that we are time challenged or time poor. We allow the daily routine of our lives from trying to find a way to reach Jesus because we are so busy and because simply we just can’t find the time.
Even in our parish life, we sometimes get too consumed in the work that we are doing that we forget the main reason that we are carrying out this work. We allow the noise and chaos surrounding us to stop us from seeing Jesus. This noise and chaos can come from the gossip that we make up, spread and listen to. It comes from peoples dissatisfaction with anything and everything that we do and it sometimes stems from this sense of competition that we have to out do one another. We get so caught up in these things that we forget that Jesus even exists.
Unlike the paralytic and his friends, we have easy access to Jesus. We don’t need to climb through roofs to find him. In fact, we really don’t need to challenge ourselves too much to see him. He is available to us all day, every day in the tabernacle. He is available to us during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. He is available to us during Adoration, confession and daily prayer. What we do need to challenge though is our will and our faith. We need to ask ourselves, is our faith strong enough so that we can find the time to come and see him, overcoming the hindrances that allow us to stumble and create excuses that deprive us from the reason that we are here.
Fr Tony Sarkis
Get up and take action!
Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
In this fourth Sunday of Great Lent we reflect on the parable of the prodigal son. One thing that we can find striking about the prodigal son is that after he fell into the trap of sin, he reflected on the state that he had reached, accepted that he had made a mistake and then got up and faced his problems. As Sister Margaret says above, “he represents each one of us and our fleeting desires.” If we take a moment to reflect on this, we find that this is so true. Each one of us is the prodigal son in one way or another. How often do we get caught up in our own issues and problems? However unlike the prodigal son we dwell on them, we procrastinate and then we fall again without doing anything to fix the situation or the state that we are in. Procrastination is simply laziness and this leads to idleness. We become idle within the realm of our sins. This leads to further issues and problems and instead of facing these, we take out our frustrations on those who we love the most.
Like the prodigal son, we need to get up and take action! We need to take a close look at ourselves in the mirror, then we need to accept ourselves for who we are and get up and do something about it. Our mirror doesn’t have to be the glass mirror that we look into, but the mirror of our thoughts, the mirror of our consciences and the mirror of our souls. In the Epistle today, St Paul tells us to examine ourselves to see whether we are living in the faith. He tells us to test ourselves. Until we do this, we will not be able to face ourselves and we will continue to hide from the truth of our lives.
The Season of Great Lent is the perfect time to reflect on our lives and test ourselves. It is a journey that takes us to the resurrection where our Father in heaven will be waiting for us, he will see us from afar and he will run and greet us with open arms and forgive us for all our sins.
On a parish level, last Thursday, it was wonderful to see our seniors participating in the activities that the Seniors Com-mittee prepared for them. It is also very inspiring to see the number of people that have been walking the way of the Cross every Friday night during the Arabic and English Stations of the Cross followed by evening prayers and adoration of the Cross. These are just some examples of what our parish offers each one of us to really take a close look into the mirror of our lives. Offcourse, always refer to the announcements page in the middle where you will find several talks and activities for young and old which will help you and your families. I thank the many volunteers who work day in and day out in our parish. They have all decided to get up and take action! So what are you waiting for?
