Monday Message, June 24, 2024
KNOW
This is the first in a series of every-other-week Monday Messages. It will follow the same schedule as What’s Next.
If you have a fall 2024 Confirmation and you have not yet requested your date or confirmed the date you received with Carlos, please do it today.
When we meet on September 14, 2024, we will be clearing out storage areas at the Catholic Center. At present, we have 27 boxes (of 24 each) English Bibles and 28 boxes (of 20 each) Spanish Bibles. We also have 31 boxes (totaling 1,984) copies of Beautiful Eucharist and 5 boxes of Rosaries. If you want to put a claim on any of these items, please email Carmela. Be specific on your requests please.
Last week at their annual June Plenary Assembly in Louisville, Ky., the bishops of the United States took up a vote on a national pastoral framework to guide ministries with youth and young adults. The document, “Listen, Teach, Send” is intended for use by pastors, ministry leaders, and families pastors. The primary audiences for the national framework are pastors, ministry leaders, and families. Two key goals are a revitalization of ministries with youth (teenagers) and young adults (those ages 18 to 30s) in Catholic faith communities and a renewal of intergenerational accompaniment in families. If you would like a copy of this document, follow the link above.
If you want to join a study group to read and learn about the document, let Carmela know.
RELFECT
Today is the day we celebrate the Nativity of John the Baptist. He is only one of three people whose nativity we celebrate (the others being Jesus and Mary). For everyone else, it’s the date of their death that makes it onto our calendars.
He was born to Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, and leapt for joy at the greeting of the mother of Christ while still in his mother’s womb – a sign of great things to come. He was a child of the desert and grew up and lived as a hermit in the Judean wilderness. He ate a diet of locust and wild honey, and clad himself in camel hair clothing – details which may be reflective of strict commitments to Nazarite law (Matthew 3:4). In his late twenties John left and began his ministry preaching by the Jordan River, yet the wilderness of Judea remained a definitive aspect of John’s identity.
He became a voice in the wilderness, crying out in the desert, “Make straight the way of the Lord.”
Throughout Scripture, John is referred to as the one who “prepares the way of the Lord,” (Malachi 3:1, Mark 1:1-5, Luke 3:4 and 7:27). Isaiah 40:3 prophesies the coming of John saying, “A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” Later, Matthew 3:3 and 11:30 makes clear that John was the man foretold in the prophecy.
But you know all this.
What we often forget is what happened after he baptized Jesus. In those months that followed, John continued to preach forgiveness, repentance, and peace. This was central to his preparing the way. He baptized countless individuals in the Jordan which was a reflection of their decisions to repent and start a new life in Christ. Crowds of people flocked to hear John exhort individuals to abandon their selfish ways. He criticized leaders who broke God’s laws.
In the end, it was his ministry and message of repentance and selflessness that cost him his life. Leaders don’t like to be embarrassed, it turns out, even 2,000 years ago.
Today, let us give thanks for John’s life and ministry. Let us prepare the way for the Lord in our hearts, our homes, our workplaces, and communities.
LAUGH
