Final Spiritual Preparations for the Celebration of Easter

My Dear Parishioners,

My second Palm Sunday weekend with you. I am so happy, and I hope that you are also happy.

I continue to congratulate our children who were Confirmed on Thursday and their families. I also continue to thank everyone who helped to make our Confirmation such a beautiful and graced filled encounter with Jesus. Together, let us all continue to pray for our newly Confirmed that the graces of the Sacrament will draw them ever more deeply into the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

This past weekend I received a man into Full Communion with us. He was the sixth, yes, the sixth adult that I have received into the Church so far this year. I will be Confirming all six of them at two different occasions during the Easter Season. This is the most adults received into the Church that we have had in a while and a continued sign of the health and strength of our parish. Praised be Jesus Christ and thank you St. Joseph!

As we enter into Holy Week, we will be making the final preparations for our celebration of Easter. We will be putting the final touches on our church. We will be putting the final touches on our homes. We will be gathering the food for our Easter Dinners. We will be helping the Easter Bunny prepare baskets for our children and our grandchildren.

Let us also make our final spiritual preparations for the celebration of Easter by recalling the most important event of our lives, and that is the event of our Baptism. It is Baptism that washes away the mark of Original Sin and allows the Holy Spirit to then fill our souls. At the moment of our Baptism, we are then truly called children of God through, with, and in, Christ Jesus. Peter [said] to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

This most important event in our lives then gives us a connection to the most important event in the history of the world: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In calling the people of Rome to holiness, St. Paul writes: Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection (Romans 6: 3-5).

Our Baptism is also the gateway to the other Sacraments, and then allows us to fully participate in the Sacred Liturgy that we will celebrate for Palm Sunday. Our Liturgy begins with a beautiful reminder that all of our Lenten practices have been in preparation for this moment: Dear brothers and sisters, since the beginning of Lent until now we have prepared our hearts by penance and charitable works. Today we gather together to herald with the whole Church the beginning of the celebration of our Lord’s paschal mystery, that is to say, of his Passion and Resurrection. For it was to accomplish this mystery that he entered his own city of Jerusalem. Therefore, with all faith and devotion, let us commemorate the Lord’s entry into the city for our salvation, following in his footsteps, so that being made by his grace partakers of the Cross, we may have a share also in his resurrection and in his life. Our Liturgy will then continue with the Proclamation of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, recalling the most important event in the history of the world.

As we participate in the Proclamation of the Passion, we are also reminded of the powerful influence of “the crowd” which can lead to a “mob mentality.” At the beginning of Holy Week, we see the crowd welcoming Our Blessed Savior as their new King. By Friday of that very same Holy Week, we see same crowd demanding His death.

The crowd was demanding His death because He wasn’t the King they wanted. The crowd wanted an earthly king who would make them rich and powerful. Our Blessed Savior instead was a King who was offering them a way to holiness through a share in His Holy Cross. The crowd wasn’t interested in holiness and definitely wasn’t interested in a share in the Cross. Their disappointment then became hatred. I am certain that many otherwise good people got caught up in the crowd and the “mob mentality” that it cultivated. They then found themselves doing something that they afterwards deeply regretted.

It is just as easy today to get caught up in the wrong crowd and a “mob mentality.” This is especially so in our world, where that last socially acceptable form of bigotry is “Catholic bashing.” Which is why it is always important to make sure that we are part of the right crowd. The right mob for us is the Church and the Communion of Saints and those good people in our lives who desire holiness and who want to please God and not the godless. Otherwise, if we don’t choose the right crowd, we too might find ourselves doing something that we too will deeply regret, such as walking away from the Church and so walking away from God. Too many of our own family and friends have done just that, and have walked away, and I believe that they have done so because they have fallen under the influence of the wrong crowd.

Yet, the Resurrection reminds us that even those who have walked away are always welcomed back, just as Our Blessed Savior welcomed back St. Peter and the other disciples who walked away the very first Good Friday. So, this Holy Week, in image of Our Blessed Savior, we have a beautiful opportunity to invite someone who has been away, to again become part of our “mob:” the parish family of St. Joseph’s.

In advance, I would like to thank all who will contribute their time and talents to make our Holy Week a truly blessed experience. I would also like to assure all of my prayer for this week, that this Holy Week will be a time a love and renewal for our families and our parish.

Let us continue to lay siege to Heaven for our country, for our military, for our service personnel in harm’s way, for peace, for our families, for our loved ones, for our priests, for an increase in vocations to the priesthood, and for our parish of St. Joseph as we enter into Holy Week.

Mary, Our Mother of Sorrows, pray for us!

St. Joseph, Patron of the Church and our Patron, pray for us!

Fr. Michael J Pawelko, Pastor