From the Hermitage
Dear Friends,
Good morning. First on my thoughts today is the imminent diaconate ordination of Seminarian William Wuenschel. Will worked at St. Matthias parish for the last year, assisting us during our weekend liturgies and teaching in our classrooms. Tomorrow he will be ordained a Deacon for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, his home diocese. Please remember him and all those men being ordained during these early summer days. Two weeks from today we will also celebrate the priestly ordination of Deacon Mike Ackerman, also from the Diocese of Pittsburgh who assisted at our weekend liturgies as well as in bringing dynamic presentations on several days of prayer for parishioners and visiting the grammar school classrooms. We pray for both Will and Mike, two remarkable young men giving their lives to the service of Jesus Christ in our Church.
Now to the reflection: today's gospel. While Jesus is preaching about adultery, the real significance of this particular instruction is a calling for all followers to realize that we look more deeply into our hearts whenever we have sinned. Jesus is calling us to look beyond the actual sin to discover what in our hearts has brought us to the particular sin. In the gospel today, Jesus says we have to look beyond the sin of adultery to its cause. He points out that it is lust that will bring a person to this particular sin.
Likewise, yesterday, the posting presented the issue or sin of anger. What is important as we seek to remove any particular sin is the time we take to examine in our hearts why does this particular sin come about. Jealousy, impatience, hatred? We must ask ourselves why we loose tempers, why we explode at times. This is the way that we can overcome sin in our lives.
Have a good weekend. I am off to Pittsburgh this afternoon to be with Will and his family and friends who will join him for his formal incorporation into the clergy life.
Oremus pro invicem!
Fr. Milt
