2/26/2022 Blooming (and bearing fruit)I have a new tree in my backyard. It has multiple fruits grafted onto it, including plums, apricots, peaches and one other stone fruit that I have forgotten, perhaps nectarines, all selected for their ability to self-pollinate and grow in our warmer climate. We’ll see if this works. I was told that if the major trunk comes to dominate on the tree, the other varieties will die off, so I have to prune it carefully. After it was planted, it was clear that two of the varieties had begun to dominate in growth already. I have no idea, which ones yet, as the tree came without leaf or fruit on it. So, I read everything I could find on the internet on pruning this tree correctly, and watched YouTube videos on the subject, both done in Australia, curiously. With trepidation, I took pruners in hand and did my best to restore some balance, and prepare the tree for spring growth. I admit that I am fearful that I cut off too much.
Within just the last couple of days of my writing this, though, the first white blossoms have opened on some of the branches. I’m getting hopeful that there might be fruit in my future. Again, we’ll see, but it’s hopeful. And that is the point of my story. You do your best, and then you hope. You try, and try hard, and then you hope. You fail, even, and you pick yourself back up, and you continue to hope. You’ve all made the best health choices you could in these last two difficult years. We’ve all had our hopes disappointed with ongoing waves and total and partial shutdowns. And yet there are signs, early and yet still hopeful signs, with falling infections rates, easier symptoms, fewer hospitalizations, etc. Perhaps this time things will work out. Might there be reason to hope? we were to recycle right back into a new wave of infections, perhaps pi, or rho, or sigma? Both Delta and Omicron were surprises. It could happen, dear Lord forfend! What would we do? We’d hope for the future, and carry on. On the other hand, this could be the beginning of something better, even if not entirely as things were before, but much more open and less constrained. Truth to tell, none of us know. But we have dealt with hard times, and we have endured. We have had losses, real and painful, but we have survived. In essence, like my fruit tree, we’ve been pruned. There could be hard times ahead, but we are hardened. We aren’t weak. We can do this. We can hope. I encourage you, in light of today’s Gospel, that we need to bear fruit under both good and bad circumstances. Whatever happens, please do not become disheartened. Be a person of faith and hope. As 1 Peter 1:6-7 says, “In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 2/26/2022 Sharon Garcia1957 - 2022Memorial Mass
Tuesday, March 8 10:00 am Padre Serra Parish Committal Preceding Memorial Mass Friday, March 4, 2:30 pm Conejo Mountain 2/25/2022 Michele Burger1944 - 2022Funeral Liturgy
Wednesday, March 9 11:00 am Padre Serra Parish Committal Following Mass Santa Clara Cemetery 2/18/2022 Seeking Holiness Through the OtherOur Homo Sapiens species has been continually evolving both biologically and socially for over 300,000 years. Some distant time in the past our species had a marked moment in time, as noted by the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre de Chardin, when he said instinct gave way to thought. We became thinking Homo Sapiens (wise man) capable of abstract thought. Throughout our biologic and cultural history as thinking human beings we have often responded to challenges with primordial instinctual reciprocity. You hurt me, I hurt you. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In today’s Gospel Jesus says we are to let go of reciprocal thinking when he says “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Love your enemies? Two thousand years ago this certainly would have challenged the Jewish authorities and the Jewish people. Today, we also may be challenged with our own reactional and emotional response to “love your enemies” and then with reciprocal reaction we may say “No way.” Yet, that is exactly what Jesus asked us to do. Love our enemies. So, who are our enemies? Cambridge dictionary says “a person who hates or opposes another person” and Merriam-Webster defines enemy as “ one that is antagonistic to another.” These may be personal relational definitions and not necessarily militaristic. This could be our lives inside our families, or broken friendships, or with adversaries, acquaintances, in work places or politics, and other everyday life experiences. At times in daily life the words, actions, or emotions of others by way of slights, insults, or misunderstandings may be mistreatment but we are to be aware there are those times the offender may not even know there was an offense. Our ego may play a role creating an enemy. It has been said that in some ways “liking our enemy” may be more difficult than loving our enemy which emotionally may offer some truth. But Jesus does not ask us to “like” our enemies. He asks us to love them. Bishop Robert Barron has said “love is not a feeling or a sentiment, a private subjective conviction” when he quotes St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Love is willing the good of the other, as other.” At times the “other” is the enemy and we are to will them good. How are we to love our enemies? Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel that we are to reciprocate not with revenge but with goodness, blessings and prayers for them. The depth of the cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance and fortitude give us sight and insight into the divinity of the goodness in the “other” whom God sees as divine. We are to know those who hate, curse or mistreat us at the same time receive gifted love and mercy from God. Today’s Gospel speaks of God’s mercy for all. We also are to live and offer that mercy for the wounding actions of others knowing our own wounding behaviors, actions and sins are also looked upon by God with mercy It is in this loving, forgiving and letting go of those who have hated, cursed or mistreated us that we can receive the blessed reciprocity of interior freedom leading to holiness. Deacon Jack Redmond 2/13/2022 Michael “Mike” Harrington1955 - 2022Funeral Liturgy
Tuesday, April 26 10:00 am Padre Serra Parish Mortuary Joshua Mortuary Palmdale |
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