Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Happy feast of Blessed John Henry Newman.
It should be a truism that In order to share the gospel with others, you need to first be able to receive the gospel for yourself. Yet the Accuser — the enemy of souls — would have you believe the lie that you are a lost cause in order to keep you from sharing the hope that is within you.
In a famous prayer, Blessed John Henry Newman models for us how to preach the gospel to ourselves so that we can, in turn, share it with others. He writes,
God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it – if I do but keep His Commandments.
Whatever, wherever I am I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what he is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me – still He knows what He is about. Therefore I will trust Him.
Like Newman, let’s receive hope from our Lord Jesus Christ so that we can, in turn, have our mission.
In Christ,
Fr. Scharbach