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June 26, 2021“See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.” - 1 John 3:1
What makes us one . . .
We are called as Children of God, fellow believers, to herald Our Lord’s presence in our community. We are unified with Christ in His presence in our lives, especially as we gather around the Eucharistic table (see photos p. 4). We are so blessed in our linked faith communities of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and St. John the Evangelist as we emerge as a witness to all the Southern Tier, standing strongly and courageously as an Olean Catholic Community of faith united as one Body of Christ.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul helps us understand more thoroughly that the Lord gives each of us many gifts and that we celebrate these with a community as we use them to serve our God and one another. He stated in 1 Cor 12:4-5 – “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord. ” And, he further states in Chapter 12:12 -- As a body is one though it has many parts, ...we though many are one body…[Body of Christ].
In my relatively short period as your pastor, I have truly been blessed to witness your many gifts, even during the restrictions set forth by a pandemic. Nothing can separate us and our witness from the love of Our God, or distract us from our shared MISSION. Your care, your sensitivity, your welcoming ways such as that seen in your hospitality you provide the stranger, those different from yourselves, from which I myself have personally benefited. I have experienced first hand how many of you give of yourselves in volunteer time, using the gifts and talents God has given you in ministry, using these gifts to come to the aid of the individual, the parish, or community. I have seen the love you have shared when someone has experienced a loss through your support in either prayer or sharing your presence through FaceTime, Zoom, a call or through a special note. The Lord’s presence is alive in our hearts and alive in Olean. I have known deeply your love of the Lord as you have shared your stories of how the Spirit has touched your lives and in that sharing you have touched mine.
The gifts you bring forth are linked together from our two beautiful parishes, unique in each of their identities, but like a marriage as two individuals form one often seen in these months of June and July, we are linked as we form one Catholic Community of Faith. As we continue to use our discovered collective gifts given by God more deeply, we experience a bond that strengthens us and makes more powerful all with which the Lord has blessed us. We are set firm on our foundation of faith which empowers us all to be an inspiration and be life giving to all those with whom we interact within our parishes and in our surrounding areas. In using the covenantal relationship of God, we mirror the self-giving characteristics of our Dear Blessed Mother and her caregiver in later life, St. John, as we form communion and are united here on earth in imitation of and through the Trinity in heaven.
Linked together, forever in One Lord . . .
Fr. John
