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Dear Parishioners, In recent weeks, the weekday Mass readings from the Old Testament have centered on Moses being called by God to lead the Jewish People out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Each time we hear the story we are bound to be struck by how frequently the people were overtaken by temptation and turned their back not only on Moses but on God, Himself. Today, thousands of years later, we realize that we are no different than those first pilgrims. We too turn our back on God. Just as them, we fail to place our trust in God. We remember that Moses, himself, failed in this regard and, as a result, God did not abandon the Jewish people, so too He does not abandon us. He reaches out to forgive and continues to lead us to the Promised Land. This came to my mind as I read of Bishop Ziemann of Santa Rosa. He, like Moses, is a man who has done much good in his life and has led countless people on the journey. However, just like Moses, and many of the people he was called to lead, human temptation overcame him, and he failed to trust God. I hope that when we hear of the human failure of the Bishop and the human failure of any of our fellow pilgrims, we will remember the mercy and the forgiveness of God. One author has written: "Paradoxically, after two thousand years it might seem strange to think of Jesus as a liberator. His words sound so radical - freeing prisoners, letting the captured get away, bringing the Gospel not to the comfortable but to those who are poor, afflicted, marginalized, lost. This is what the Lord’s ‘favor’ looks like: grace, mercy, and new beginnings." It is so easy to condemn people, especially the criminal, the person who had an abortion, the homosexual who is sexually active, the gossip, the person who cheats or steals at work. It is far harder to have the radical mercy of Jesus. Frankly, all too often we look more like pharisees than the disciples of Jesus. Sincerely, |
