April
20, 2007
Yay
Deacons!
Building
Updates
Every week we pray for a new tenant for our old convent building (an
18,000 square foot facility next to our school). For the past 15 years
it had been rented to Nassau County as a police department “backroom
services” building. The police moved out one year ago and we’ve
lost $220,000 in revenue. We have actively marketed the building over
the past year and we’re in negotiation with a possible tenant
which seeks the building for educational purposes. However the program
relies on state funding and we’re waiting to hear when that funding
will be available.
We finally saw the transfer of the title of Saint Anthony’s Hall
from the St. Anthony Society to St. Brigid’s parish. Before we
can offer the facility for rent, we need to work out some insurance
details. More on all of this in the weeks ahead.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past
Columns:
April 13: Here
comes the Pope
April 6: Fresh Oil
March 30: What are your
doing for Easter?
March 23: Can Easter come
too early?
March 16: Which crowd is
yours?
March 9: We believe, yet...
March 2: Oil or Mud
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
The
Acts of the Apostles today describes a real problem happening to the early
church community. There was a divide growing between two language/culture
groups and it was being taken out on widows. Let me explain: as Christianity
spread from its Jewish roots and entered the Greek-speaking world, there
was a lot of tension. It was very hard for some Jewish Christians to accept
the Greek Christians because they had been taught since childhood that
the pagans were “unclean” in God’s eyes. They were not
to associate with them or they risked displeasing God.
But in Christianity there was “no longer Jew or Greek” --
all were to be one in Christ. Well this isn’t easy -- we know this
because we live in a multi-cultural country ourselves, and we know how
difficult it is sometimes to be one with our Catholic brothers and sisters
who come from other countries, who speak different languages, who have
different cultures. So too the early Christian community struggled to
live out the ideal of being one in Christ. And they didn’t do it
so well at times.
Take the widows, for example. The
Jewish community would feed and take care of only their own the widows
-- and ignore the Greek widows. And the Greek community would only take
care of their widows, while ignoring the others. The apostles realized
this was a deep seated problem and they needed to find a solution quickly
that would allow them to keep traveling and preaching, without being bogged
down by the challenge of prejudice.
Their solution: deacons! They ordained
seven men as deacons and put them in charge of the charity work of the
community. This accomplished two things: (a) The apostles were free to
proclaim Jesus and (b) the local community could deal with becoming one
in charity -- an not just in talk.
I thank God for the deacons in
our community. Deacons Jim Morris, Michael Metzdorff, Frank Pesce, Manuel
Ramos and Gonzalo Lopez are men of charity and they serve at masses and
by officiating at baptisms, weddings and wake services and they are involved
in the lives of people on different levels. The apostles had a great idea
which has benefited us to this day!
