Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,
The apostles John and James make a presumptuous request of Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you . . . Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Jesus masterfully redirects their desire towards its proper end. To desire glory with our Lord is not wrong in and of itself, but the apostles must recognize what that glory entails. Firstly, it involves suffering: Jesus asks them, “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” He is referring to the suffering of his passion and death. True glory always involves suffering. The way of the cross is the only true path to heavenly glory, but the apostles are not aware of this yet. They have not considered that when they ask to reign in glory, they are also asking for a share in Christ’s cross. Secondly, achieving glory requires great humility and self-abasement: “whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” Jesus’ lesson is applicable for all of us who are prone to pride and selfseeking. Without suffering love and humble service, we are not on the path towards heavenly glory but simply vain glory.
I hope you have the chance to stop by our Ministry Fair this weekend. In seeing the different facets of our parish’s life, I hope many of you may be inspired to become more involved. The strength of St. Martin’s is our volunteers— we simply could not carry out our mission without the generous gift of our parishioners’ time, talent and treasure. We all have charisms—unique gifts of the Holy Spirit for the building up of Christ’s body—and the Ministry Fair could be an opportunity for you to discover how God is calling you to build up the life of our parish.
For the second week in a row we went through all of our food bags in Monday’s pantry distribution. Thank you for your continued generosity to our pantry. Every donation is important!
In Christ,
Fr. Dave
