Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,
My message for this Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week is the same as every year: “Participate in your salvation.” St. Augustine said, “He who created us without our cooperation will not save us without our consent.” This week in a special way God calls us to cooperate fully in the work of our salvation. We are not bystanders or on the sidelines during the events of Holy Week; we are participants in a much deeper way than we could imagine. St. Paul writes, “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.” I can’t think of a better way of expressing the goal of Holy Week. If we see it merely as a recounting of historical events, then we have missed the point (“I have been crucified with Christ.”). This is a week that requires the whole of us to be present and active: our mind, our memory, our emotions, our body, our will, our soul, our heart. Our redemption includes the whole of our being, so we bring everything to Christ this week.
Before a big game our coach would tell us, “Leave it all on the field.” In other words, don’t hold anything back; put your whole heart and soul into this game so you have no regrets later on. Similarly, I encourage you to leave it all at the cross. Give all of yourself this week so that God can transform all by means of the only event that saves us: the Passion, Death and Resurrection of his Son.
Please see the bulletin or website to see the schedule of events and liturgies from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday.
In Christ,
Fr. Dave
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