7th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Cycle C
February 20, 2022 5pm, 8:30 and 11am
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
Quite a Gospel
Well, that is quite a gospel passage.
It is loaded with challenging statements, like loving your enemies. One author recommends that we just pray for whomever we classify as an enemy – someone who is against us or dislikes us or tries to make us look bad.
Don’t pray for anything specific. Just ask God to touch their heart in the way that God wants.
And then Jesus says to stop judging. Another tough one.
Maybe we all have some opinions about some people. But at least try to stop acting out of negative perspectives of others.
And, of course, forgive. We’ve heard that before.
We pray about this every time we offer the Lord’s Prayer. Again, not easy, and maybe very complicated, but Jesus still calls us to work at it.
“Be Merciful”
I think it all boils down to one sentence in this long passage.
“Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.” So, we are to be merciful not because of what others may or may not deserve.
We are to be merciful because of God, because that is what God is like. Pope Francis says that there two dimensions to mercy: forgiving and giving.
The forgiving dimension applies to Jesus’ statements about loving enemies and not judging and, of course, forgiving. The giving dimension of mercy applies to what Jesus says at the end of this passage.
“Give, and gifts will be given to you.” “Give, and gifts will be given to you.”
Annual Appeal
Those words are a good segue into what I want to say today about the Annual Appeal for Catholic Ministries.
My bulletin column this weekend gives some helpful information about this, and I am not going to repeat all of that here. I do hope you will read the column.
As usual, it is excellent! May God be merciful to me for my pride!
This Appeal supports ministries that individual parishes alone cannot do. But, all of us together, all 140 parishes as an Archdiocesan Church, we can provide these needed services.
Here are a few examples:
The O’Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks where thousands of our youth can make a Confirmation or high school retreat each year;
Chaplaincy ministry in many of our hospitals, including Hopkins and GBMC;
Campus ministry at some of our universities, such as Towson;
Catholic Charities as the largest private social service provider in the state of Maryland with 80 programs, services, and locations, like Our Daily Bread;
Ministries to Blacks and Hispanics;
Tuition assistance for 350 families who otherwise would be unable to send their children to a Catholic school.
And the list goes on.
Our Goal
This year, the total Archdiocesan goal for the Appeal is $8 million – the same as last year.
Our Lady of Grace’s goal as part of this is $50,800 – about $100 less than last year. Last year, even during the pandemic, our parish gave over $47,000, just shy of the goal.
That was great, and this year I think we can meet or even exceed our goal. Some of you have already contributed to this year’s Appeal.
On behalf of the Archbishop, I thank you for that. And I encourage all of us to consider making a gift.
By the way, I should add that part of what we give comes back to Our Lady of Grace for our own ministry or charitable causes. In brief, we receive back 10% of every dollar donated up to our goal, 40% of every dollar over the goal.
My bulletin columns this week and next week give more detail about all of this. Next weekend there will be an opportunity for giving when you come to Mass.
Conclusion
Okay, I want to conclude with a brief story.
One day a group of retired business executives were meeting. Each of them was invited to give a two-minute talk after dinner about their retirement.
The toastmaster was instructed to rap the gavel when the two minutes were up. Well, the first speaker was still going strong at the end of the two minutes.
However, the toastmaster just couldn’t bring himself to rap the gavel. On and on the speaker droned until the other guests started murmuring.
Finally, the elderly toastmaster gave in. He wound up and brought the gavel down full force, but he accidentally hit the head of the man sitting next to him.
As that man was sinking down under the table, he was heard to say, “Hit me again – I can still hear him.” I don’t want you to be tempted to say tat about me.
So, I will stop here. Thank you very much and may God bless us as a parish and as an Archdiocesan Church.
