ABVM PARISH COMMUNITY

  THE GOSPEL OF CHARITY I am grateful to Father David Noone for visiting us this weekend to celebrate confessions and Mass.   Father Noone is representing Unbound, an international nonprofit which is located in Kansas City and was founded by lay Catholics to provide practical help to the needy in poor countries around the world.   You are probably aware that it is a custom in parishes of the Archdiocese to regularly welcome missionaries and representatives from Catholic aid organizations to bring their message to us and make us aware of the important work they do in the name of Christ, who said “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 26:40).   The appeals made to us by the workers in the field open us to a more universal perspective on the charity works of the Church, and they give us an opportunity to contribute to this work. Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me” (John 1

  THE PURPOSE OF THE PARABLES In today’s Gospel the disciples ask Jesus why he speaks to the people in parables.  Christ was in the habit of speaking in images and stories to the crowd.  He also sometimes spoke this way to the religious leaders.  Jesus answered that “For to him who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” He invites people into the kingdom by the use of parables, which must be heard, pondered, and then put into practice.  Those who do so are wise.  They are open to the Holy Spirit, and are willing to learn and change.  They will receive more and go deeper with God, while those who are stubborn will lose what they already have.  The Jews had much; the true God and his Word.  They had the prophets, the Scriptures, and right worship.  Jesus came to complete this divine inheritance: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Ma

  SAINT PAUL’S TITLES FOR CHRIST The apostle to the Gentiles was so caught up in the love of Jesus that he could write to the Galatians and claim, without boasting or exaggeration, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” In his letter to the Philippians he expresses his burning love for Christ: “Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him...”. Paul opens most of his epistles by referring to himself as an apostle, but in several of them he refers to himself as a “bond-servant” or “slave” of God. In a letter written during one of his incarcerations he begins by calling himself “a prisoner for Christ Jesus.” From this brief review of Paul’s manne