Open the Treasuries of Our Hearts

Dear Parish Family,

With Jesus’ coming into the world, as have celebrated this Christmas season, we have been given so much. We have been given hope that our trials and sufferings have meaning and that through them we come closer to Jesus and do His will. The more we do his will, the more we let Jesus into our lives in prayer and works of love, the more we as a parish family and Church become like the great and radiant Jerusalem in our first reading. The more we take on Christ’s mission, the more we reflect that heavenly light which our Lord shines upon us. This is a great gift.

Today is called Epiphany. There is no better name or purpose for today than to realize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. In my own life, I clearly remember the moment I realized who Jesus is. Accompanying that realization were many questions: Who am I? Who should I be? What does Jesus want for me? How do I live the life Jesus teaches? Prayer is what helped me to find the answers to those questions. In prayer and nourished by the lifegiving grace of the Sacraments I realized who I am, a beloved child of God. That is who we are. I realized where God was leading me, and so I chose to become a disciple, to follow Him. I am not without fault and no one is perfect, and so the Sacrament of Confession is always a place of refuge and healing. There, our sins and failings are washed away, and we are renewed in our discipleship. There, like the magi, we ask “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage?” When we go let us open the treasuries of our hearts and offer Jesus all that we have.

For God has come into our lives, and maybe it has been awhile since we have renewed our promises to follow Him. Nonetheless we have received so much from Him, he gave his own life that we might live life to the fullest. Yet this great gift we have received is not meant just for ourselves, we are called to share it, to proclaim boldly what God has does for each one of us! How we were blind and now we see! How we were lost in the dark but have come into the light! We will face evil and suffering, as sure as Jesus did himself. But he triumphed over darkness and death, and we follow Him! If only we give our lives, our whole lives holding nothing back. If we love with our whole hearts burning with radiant light. If we give Jesus everything we are, then we shall be radiant at what we see, our hearts shall throb and overflow, the sweet richness of grace shall be emptied out before us and we will walk in new life with Jesus to lead us and all the while proclaiming the praises of the Lord!

​We are God’s children, as good sons and daughters let us go forth listening to our good God’s voice, seeking always to do his will, to remember that He is God and we are not, and to open the treasuries of our hearts and give them to our good Lord who knows all that we need.

​Let us encounter Jesus and be disciples.

Riley Paolella
Seminarian