Pastor's Corner 9/1/19

This weekend's scriptures teach us about the virtue of humility and how to watch out for the deadly sin of pride. Pride is the deadliest of the seven deadly sins. Each of the deadly sins has a false god that substitutes for the one true God. In the case of pride, the false god is self. We can believe that we are better or worse than others and if we believe either of those lies then we become the focus. Someone who be-lieves they are better than others, makes themselves the center of attention. Everything good that happens is about them. Someone who believes they are worse than others, a false humility, also makes themselves the center. Everything bad that happens is their fault. Humility is when we realize that we are not better or worse than anyone else. When we are humble then we replace the false god of self with the one true God. 

In the Gospel, Jesus is teaching us how important it is to be humble and to avoid pride. Those seeking the highest places are being proud because they think they need to be in the highest place to have worth. Jesus is teaching that someone's worth comes not from places of honor but from their relationship with God. The person who chooses to sit in the last place is the one that says I choose to find my identity in my relationship with God rather than finding my identity in the place of honor that the world assigns me. Too often, human beings find their worth in what we do rather than in whom we are to God. Jesus's challenge is to find our worth in God and not in ourselves. 

This weekend we celebrate the blessing and dedication of our new Parish Activity Center (PAC}.  I am grateful that Fr. Matt lwuji is able to join and offer this blessing of the PAC. lt is due to Fr. Matt's leadership that the PAC is in existence. I also wish to express my gratitude to the Building Committee for all of their hard work in the building process. The Building Committee members are Roben Taglienti, Deacon David Ochoa, Dee Scheetz, Steve Walden, Steve Coonan, and Austin Segura. 1 especially wish to express my appreciation to Chair, Roben Taglienti, because this project would not have come to fulfillment without his leadership. Thank you all for your generous financia! assistance in bringing the PAC to reality. We have Open Houses after masses this weekend to celebrate and the Dedication/Blessing is Sunday at 3:30 PM. 

Jesus, help us to grow in humility and avoid pride, 
Fr. Charlie 

Señor, si cada día me dedicara a modelar mi corazón conforme al tuyo, pronto ya no habría más espacio en él para odiar a nadie. Quisiera repetir con ilusión en cada instante esta sincera advocación: "Jesús, manso y humilde de corazón, haz mi corazón semejante al tuyo". Es contra toda lógica del mundo, sí, pues es la lógica de Dios: "el que se humille a sí mismo, será engrandecido", "a quien te golpee una mejilla, has de colo-carie la otra", "amen a sus enemigos", "aquél que diga tonto a su her-mano, es reo de justicia", "tus pecados te son perdonados", "perdónalos, porque no saben lo que hacen", "hoy estarás conmigo en el paraíso".

Dame un verdadero corazón, un corazón del verdadero Dios, un corazón lleno de puro amor. Haz mi corazón semejante al tuyo y concédeme la gracia de imitarlo en cada instante, siendo universal, nunca excluyente, que nunca juzgue, sino que siempre acoja con misericordia, que busque al que no quisiera buscar, que ame al que no quisiera amar, y termine por querer amarle. Quiero aprender de Ti, hasta incluso colocarme por deba-jo de los que me pudieran parecer menores. Me percataré una y otra vez, que tu sabiduría no es como la de los hombres. Que tu corazón va siem-pre más allá de la apariencia, de lo superficial, pues va a hasta lo profun-do, mirando con ojos divinos, enseñándome su hermoso arte. Hazme una persona sencilla, que sepa colocarse como la menor, con corazón sencil-lo, manso y humilde, y sepa mirar a los demás como los miras Tú. Así sea. 

La humildad es una ley del Reino de los Cielos, una virtud que Cristo predica a lo largo de todo el Evangelio. En este pasaje de San Lucas, Cristo nos invita a dejar de pensar en nosotros mismos para poder pen-sar en los demás. ¿Por qué? Los que se ensalzan a sí mismos sólo piensan en sus propios intereses y en que la gente se fije en ellos y ha-blen de ellos. Eso se llama egoísmo, un fruto del pecado capital de la soberbia. Y un alma soberbia nunca entrará en el Reino de Dios, porque el soberbio no puede unirse a Dios. 

Dios ayudanos con humildad, 
Padre Charlie