Pastor’s Notes

A refrigerator magnet, “Save the Date,” is often the first step of announcing a wedding these days. The official invitation follows announcing what everyone already knows.  “The end is near!” at least as far as the single life.  Two people who had autonomous, independent lives have surrendered them for a marriage, the beginning of a new family.  Something radically new is being born.

Stewardship is the focus of these last two weekends of the Church year here at St. Mary’s. We are a generous community invested in the proclaiming of that amazing Kingdom referenced in the Scriptures for this Sunday.  The reason for this generosity is God’s generous investment in us. It is a double vision:  We find evidence of this investment in our kids, our marriage, religious life, our parents or neighborhood community.  And little signs, signs of God’s accompanying presence through the challenges and transitions of our own or our family’s story become incredibly important.

The liturgy highlights the end times. I have never found the attraction to “end of the world” predictions.  That is until I thought about them through the ‘Save the Date’ announcements. Every thing living has a shelf life.  “End times” is really saying the obvious.  Life’s passion and meaning comes from knowing that is has an end.  I will no longer have to deal with the cancer that has afflicted my husband, or the depression that is ravaging my daughter, or the job that is sucking the life out of me, or the debts that are suffocating me.  Even our sufferings have a shelf life.  There is a wedding banquet after that beyond our imaginations.

The sign this year of that double vision, God’s investment in our human story and ours in the church’s building of the reign of God is the Umbrella. It is the sign of a papal Basilica.  We hold it over the pope when he visits. But is also a sign of what God does for us. He shelters us from the hot sun and deluges that are common to the Arizona desert.  The investment in service and financial support of the programs of a local church and our full conscious and active worship makes all the difference in the world.

There is a wonderful old cartoon about the end of the world that shows a bearded ascetic with his warning sign, which says something like: “The End is Not Coming!” You have to learn to cope with it… along with the rest of us!”  Of course, part of the fun of the cartoon is the question of what exactly we have to cope with — is it the troubles of world? Or just other people?

Thanks for all the outpouring of volunteers and donations for last weekend’s, “Dia Del Los Muertos” Festival. We likely doubled our crowd from last year.  More than 10,000 people joined us through the day.  All of those people from the new Phoenix downtown are a snapshot of the crowd of believers we are becoming. St. Mary’s has always crafted an interesting slice of that amazing Kingdom God builds across the earth. A great return on a fine investment!

A gentle week,
Fr. Michael Weldon, OFM

Thanks to Celebration’s Ted Wolgamot for part of the above reflection.