I am sure we have all heard the idiom, “It’s in the mail.” Of course, when we say that something is “in the mail”, we really mean that it is not and probably will never be in the mail. How different it is with the Lord. With God, something that is sent is received (for good or ill) at the same time. It is always our response that is the variable. Our journey of faith is the story of our response to the reception of God’s gift of life, our response to God’s blessing.

In our Gospel, Jesus is “sent by the Spirit” into the desert where he is received by ministering angels after being tempted by Satan. He is then ready to be sent back to begin his ministry of announcing the Kingdom of God, the blessing that we receive from his death and resurrection.

Today, the First Sunday of Lent, we celebrate our Rite of Sending and Election of our Catechumens, those who will be received by our Archbishop for Sacraments of Initiation this coming Easter. These men and women are now rightfully called the Elect, those chosen for initiation. So as we begin the discipline of Lent, we look forward
to the great celebration of the Resurrection and the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist in which we enter into the mystery of the life of the Church.

The rite, itself, is a reminder of a time in the early Church when all those entering into communion in our faith were baptized by the bishop. In this early Church, the role of the bishop was much closer to the role of the pastor in today’s Church. The Rite of Sending and Election in the new Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults is a reminder of this ancient tradition, connecting the Sacraments of Initiation with the Office of Bishop and the authority of the Apostles to call on the Holy Spirit who enlivened the Church at the first Pentecost to strengthen and bless these men and women, new members of our faith.

Please pray for our new Elect as they continue their faith journey to Easter.

Our Gospel this Sunday presents a dramatic encounter between Jesus and a paralytic. Jesus was at home in Capernaum, surrounded by disciples listening to his teaching. Four men who were carrying a paralyzed man appeared, hoping to have Jesus cure him. Finding the room where Jesus was teaching too full, they used a rather creative method for getting their friend to Jesus, opening the roof of the room in order to lower the man down.

Two things, other than the ruined roof, are interesting in this encounter. The first is Jesus’ initial response to the paralytic. “Child, your sins are forgiven.” I am sure that was the last thing the four carriers expected or hoped to hear from Jesus. They certainly had not carried the man from wherever they were from, hoisted him up to the roof of the building, tore apart the roof and then lowered him down before Jesus in order for his sins to be forgiven. What kind of sins could a paralytic have committed? The question should not have been “Who but God alone can forgive sins?” but rather who but God alone would know that the man had sins to forgive?

The second surprising thing about this encounter is that the paralytic has no speaking part. We are sure of the faith of the four carriers but do not know anything about the paralytic until he actually does what Jesus tells him to do: pick up his mat and walk. His active expression of faith is every bit as powerful as that of the four men who had helped him. For the paralytic, the power to overcome the doubt and fear that he would not be able to do just as Jesus said was a great witness to the disciples who had gathered to hear Jesus’ words.

In our lives, many of us have experienced times of paralysis, times when we have not known where to turn, times when we had to rely on the faith of those around us to sustain and carry us forward. There are other times when we have been that person who carried a friend in their time of need. In all of these experiences, it is Jesus who stands before us to both accept us as we are and challenge us to move forward in faith and trust; to take up our
mats and walk. Our response is, itself, a blessing of God.

Last week, we began the year-long celebration of our 75th Anniversary. You will have noticed the large banners announcing our jubilee year and perhaps have even seen the ‘Word of the Month’ in a classroom or meeting room at the parish. Some of you might have begun a journal or begun some type of service to meet our 75,000 hour goal. Our Anniversary Committee is working very hard on planning events to mark this anniversary; a volunteer appreciation dinner, a parish picnic, steak dinner, wine tasting and gala dinner dance along with our other parish celebrations and parties. All of these events are being planned in order to highlight, honor and celebrate the 75 years of ministry, faith formation, education and service that continues in our present community of faith.

The real focus of our anniversary celebration and these many activities and events is a renewal of the spirit that makes St. Margaret Mary so special. Since our founding, the parish has been a place of welcome, solace, inspiration and enthusiasm. The first Promise of the Sacred Heart is “I will give them all the Graces necessary for their state of life.” “Grace” is not just the prayer that we say before meals. Grace is both the experience of God’s presence and the response to that presence. Grace is not something that can be quantified but only experienced. Some people have an erroneous image of grace as being something like fairy dust, sprinkled by God on deserving individuals. In reality, grace is accessible to everyone and is the ever-present reality of God’s love for us. The powerful witness of Margaret Mary Alacoque to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is an invitation to open ourselves up to that grace so that all that we do reflects God’s love. Jesus says that the whole law and prophets depend on the commandments to love God and to love our neighbor. May we have the graces necessary to respond to God’s love by reflecting it back to Him and our on our neighbors.