We are richly blessed

Hi Friends,

"Much will be required of the one entrusted with much..."

This is part of the last line of the Gospel we hear this weekend. I think it is aimed right at us disciples in our time and place. We are very greatly gifted. We have resources in our personal lives, our families, our Church, and our country that most people in the rest of the world can't even imagine. That point was driven home to me last weekend. It was my honor to be able to have the P.I.M.E. Missionary Fr. Vijay Marneni stay with me at St. Ambrose. In our conversations in the luxury of my car and in my rectory, Fr. Vijay told Peter Bucalo and I of his life and ministry. Besides the issues of no transportation except his own two feet, no clean water, no electricity, and other comforts that we enjoy, he has to fear for his life and for the lives of his parishioners daily. In the missionary parts of the Philippines where he ministered for three years priests were kidnapped and killed over money for guns for rebels. In the mountainous and remote areas of Mexico where he is pastoring now, the tribal feuds and drug cartels are so violent that the police where hoods over their faces so that they will not be recognized, and their families be slaughtered as the repercussion. He has murders happen as parishioners leave Sunday Mass.

We need to be thankful for our lives, what we have, and where we live. But we have a larger responsibility to be good stewards of what we've given for the the sakes of those close to us and for sisters and brothers around the world that we
never meet.

"Much will be required.." means many different things to each of us since each of us have been entrusted different gifts. It takes prayer and the discerning help of the Holy Spirit to determine where and how each of us must let go of what we have been entrusted with. But a great place to begin is working on our trust.

Trust is a gift that comes from prayer and practise. Trust is also a rare commodity in our society. We are trained to question authority, to fear the stranger, to be independent. The Gospel calls us to follow the example of Jesus Christ and trust God in all things, letting go of everything else. By prayer and practise we learn that trust is what got Jesus through his trials, persecutions, and death on the cross. He prayed for it and practised trust. He is every disciple's role model for learning and practising trust.

This week let us pray and ask the Holy Spirit for the courage to begin trusting as Jesus requires.

Paz,
Fr. Chuck