March
2, 2007
Oil
or Mud
Lenten
Mini-Retreat
Our second session of our Lenten
mini-retreat will be this Tuesday, March 4th at 1pm in St. Anthony’s
Hall and 7:30pm in the school chapel. Sister Susan Smolinsky will give
the reflection at each.
I invite you to take an hour from your busy week and come to the retreat.
Even if you weren’t able to attend last week, please consider
coming this week.
Air
Conditioning
While the last thing we naturally think of during these cold days of
winter is air conditioning, this is the perfect time to upgrade the
air conditioner units in the church. So if you notice some construction
activity during the week, it’s because we’re replacing our
worn out inefficient units with new, more efficient ones. We are able
to fund this project with money from our Millennium Fund -- your gift
keeps on giving!
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past
Columns:
February 24: What are you
thirsting for?
February 17: Who are You
Wearing?
February 10: Just Say No
February 3: The Power of
the Cross
January 27: How I Turned
Out
January 20: Being Safer
January 13: Conversations
in 2008
January 6: Matthew's Magi
December 30: Matthew's
Magi
Christmas 2007
Homily
Columns from 2007
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns
from 2003
Columns from 2002
As
we continue our Lenten connection between baptismal symbols and the Sunday
scriptures, we meet the young David -- before he is king -- and we meet
the man born blind.
At first the connection to baptism
(or to each other) might be obscure, but when we look at what’s
happening to each, we see one similar action: they are both anointed --
one with oil, the other with mud. And of course, during baptism, we are
anointed with the holy chrism oil.
Is it better to be anointed with
oil or mud? Well the symbolism of being anointed with oil, in David’s
case (and in baptism) , is that God chooses people for a particular mission
in life. David was called to be king. In baptism we are called to be “priest,
prophet and king,” as the baptism rite proclaims. In Baptism, we
are told that God has a specific mission for us. During Lent, we examine
ourselves more closely to re-discover what that call is.
The man born blind has his eyes
anointed by Jesus-- though not with oil. Jesus rubs the man’s blindness
away with mud. Sometimes, in order to see our anointed destiny, we need
to have our blindness rubbed away too. When we cannot see our worth as
a child of God, when we cannot see the hope and possibility that God has
put into us, then we can’t know what God has made us for. Lent is
a time when our blindness can be rubbed away so we can see more clearly.
So perhaps it’s not a choice
between oil or mud. Perhaps we need both at different times in our lives.
And ultimately it’s not our choice -- neither David nor the blind
man asked for their annointings. God chose the right thing for each. God
will choose the right anointing for us too.
