As you know, the name Peter comes from the Greek word, Petra,
meaning rock. Jesus named Simon,
"Peter", the rock upon which the Church would be built. Authority in the Church was entrusted to
Peter: whatever you declare bound on earth would be bound in heaven, whatever
you declare loosed on earth would be loose in heaven. The Lord could have
found many ways of establishing His church. He could have entrusted it to the
angels. He could have worked out a
Church of some sort of direct inspiration where every move on earth was exactly
dictated from heaven. Instead, the Lord
put the Church in the hands of people of faith. Good people, like Peter, but
still people with all the limitations of being human. As all human beings,
sometimes the humanity of individuals got in the way of their divine charge. Peter
tried to keep Christ from going to Jerusalem and was called "Satan"
for he was doing the work of the devil.
After boasting that he would never deny the Lord, he did in fact deny
him three times. Peter was a good man, a
man of faith, but sometimes his vision became clouded. He was a man who could walk on water to the
Lord, but then started thinking about what he was doing and started to drown. That
was very much the story of his failings. He often started out well, but then
let his humanity effect his actions. Peter
was a holy man, but still, a man, and as a man he made human mistakes. On the
positive side, Peter was a man who grew in his faith. He was a determined fisher of men. He accepted the obligations and
responsibilities of leadership over the other apostles, many of whom were far
better educated than he was. Think about
Paul who was educated at the feet of the great teacher Gamaliel. Yet Paul laid
his teaching out before Peter to be sure he was proclaiming Christ
properly. Peter’s authority was given to
Him by the Lord and confirmed in the action of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and
through the remainder of Peter’s life.
Peter may have denied Jesus before Pentecost, but after Pentecost, he
embraced suffering if that was what the Gospel entails. Peter, this man of
Galilee, whose longest trip had been to Jerusalem, traveled all the way to
Rome. This man who fled the crucifixion of Jesus, accepted his own crucifixion
asking to be crucified head down because he didn’t deserve to die as the Lord
died. When we consider the human failings of all the Popes who followed Peter,
including those who would be canonized saints, we must recognize the hand of
the Holy Spirit in the very life of the Church. Christ gave His authority to
the rock, even though some of those who exercised this authority let their
humanity get in the way of their responsibility. Still, because we do have a concrete
authority, rock-solid, we know who we are when we say we are Catholic. We know the fundamental beliefs of our faith
and the basic dictates of our morals. We
are so firm in our faith, that even if those in authority should give us a poor
example of living the faith as some of the popes of the distant past did, we
still maintain our Christianity. The
Church still flourishes. Why? Because the Church is far more than
individuals. It is the Body of Christ
guided by the Holy Spirit. Human frailty is not more powerful than Divine
Grace. When I think of some of the ways
in which I, as an ordained leader have let my humanity get in the way of my
responsibility, and yet still witness the wonderful ways the Lord uses me for
others, I realize that God's power is far greater than my own limitations. After twenty years as a priest, I am still
shocked at the way the Lord uses me despite my continual human failings. Many
parents fear that they are acting like hypocrites when they do everything, they
cannot prevent their children from engaging in actions that those parents
themselves had done. But really, they are not hypocrites. They are concerned parents who want to
protect their children from repeating their mistakes. We are entrusted with the
responsibility of leading others to the Lord. We recognize that we do not do
this alone. We realize that we must
allow the hand of the Lord to work his wonders through us. Today's gospel
reading, You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church leads
us to make an act of faith in the Lord who uses human beings, you and me, to
proclaim his wonders, his mercy and his love • AE
...
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time.
All Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church Sunday Masses (8:30 am, 10:30 am and 12 Noon) will be at St. Anthony High School Chapel (right across the parking lot). This chapel that can accommodate more people that our Church. We will continue to follow the social distance guidelines, close pews allowing 6 feet apart, and sanitizing in between Masses.
...
Fr. Agustin´s Mass Schedule
8.30 a.m. English Mass
@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
10.30 a.m. English Mass
@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
5.30 p.m. English Mass
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.
...
XXI Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (Ciclo A)
Y ustedes, ¿quién dicen que soy yo? No es
fácil responder con sinceridad a esta pregunta. En realidad, ¿quién es
Jesús para nosotros? Su persona nos llega a través de veinte siglos de
imágenes, fórmulas, ideologizaciones, experiencias e interpretaciones culturales
que van desvelando y velando al mismo tiempo su enorme riqueza. Además, cada
uno vamos revistiendo a Jesús de lo que nosotros somos, proyectando en él
nuestros deseos, aspiraciones, intereses y limitaciones. También nuestros miedos. Casi sin darnos
cuenta lo empequeñecemos y desfiguramos incluso cuando tratamos de exaltarlo. Somos asín (sic). Lo que importa es que Jesús, el Señor, sigue vivo. Los cristianos no lo hemos podido
disecar con nuestra mediocridad. Y además tampoco permite que lo disfracemos, ni se deja etiquetar ni reducir a unos ritos, unas fórmulas, unas costumbres. Jesús
siempre desconcierta a quienes nos acercamos a Él, y al mismo tempo es siempre
es distinto de lo que esperábamos. Siempre abre nuevas brechas en nuestra vida,
rompe nuestros esquemas y nos empuja a una vida nueva. Cuanto más se le conoce,
más sabe uno que todavía está empezando a descubrirlo. Seguir a Jesús es
avanzar siempre, no sentarse a ver la vida pasar; crear, construir, crecer. Con
Jesús todo nuestro interior queda al descubierto. En Él hay una entrega a los hombres que
desenmascara todo nuestro egoísmo. Una pasión por la justicia que sacude todas
nuestras seguridades, privilegios y comodidad. Una ternura y una búsqueda de
reconciliación y perdón que deja al descubierto nuestra mezquindad. Una
libertad que rasga nuestras mil esclavitudes y servidumbres. Y sobre todo un amor
tan grande que nos atrae y nos invita a abrir nuestra existencia al Padre. A
Jesús lo iremos conociendo en la medida en que nos acerquemos a él. Sólo hay un
camino para ahondar en su misterio: seguirle. Seguir humildemente sus pasos,
abrirnos con él al Padre, actualizar sus gestos de amor y ternura, mirar la
vida con sus ojos, compartir su destino doloroso, esperar su resurrección. Y
sin duda, saber orar muchas veces -diariamente- desde el fondo de nuestro corazón con aquellas palabras del padre de aquel muchacho enfermo: "Creo,
Señor, ayuda mi incredulidad" • AE
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