Last weekend we enjoyed another Family Pasta
Night in the hall. Dominic and Isabel DeFilippis and Alex Lupton coordinated
the entire event. Many people came on board to help in the hall, the kitchen
and behind the scenes before and after. Many of you helped with baking and
making the sauce and our Youth Group, under the direction of Betty Alilovic,
set up, served and cleaned up after the event. As most of you know, we had
another flood during the party and I would like to thank all those who helped
me contain the water from entering the hall. Thankfully we were able to
continue with the festivities. I think you will better understand what I meant
in last week’s bulletin when I said that the monthly maintenance collection is
so crucial these days as I continue to deal with the issues of an aging
building and the repairs necessary to correct the problems.
What does the expression “serving two masters”
and “being anxious” have in common? They both have the same root problem –
being divided within oneself. The root word for “anxiety” literally means
“being of two minds.” An anxious person is often “tossed to and fro” and
paralyzed by fear, indecision, and insecurity. Fear of some bad outcome
cripples those afflicted with anxiety. It’s also the case with someone who
wants to live in two opposing kingdoms – following God's standards and way of
happiness or following the world’s standards of success and happiness. Who is
the master in charge of your life? Our “master” is whatever governs our
thought-life, shapes our ideals, and controls the desires of our heart and the
values we choose to live by. We can be ruled by many different things – the
love of money and possessions, the power of position and prestige, the glamour
of wealth and fame, and the driving force of unruly passions, harmful desires,
and addictive cravings. Ultimately the choice of who is our master boils down
to two: God or “mammon”. What is mammon? “Mammon” stands for “material wealth
or possessions” or whatever tends to “control our appetites and desires.”
There is one master alone who has the power to
set us free from slavery to sin, fear, pride, and greed, and a host of other
hurtful desires. That master is the Lord Jesus Christ who alone can save us
from all that would keep us bound up in fear and anxiety. Jesus used an
illustration from nature – the birds and the flowers – to show how God provides
for his creatures in the natural order of his creation. God provides ample
food, water, light, and heat to sustain all that lives and breathes. How much
more can we, who are created in the very image and likeness of God, expect our
heavenly Father and creator to sustain not only our physical bodies, but our
mind, heart, and soul as well? God our Father is utterly reliable because it is
his nature to love, heal, forgive, and make whole again.
I
hope you will all have a fruitful Lenten Season Fr. Phil
