18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
BACK TO SCHOOL!!!
This Sunday after the morning Masses, the school & parking lot will be filled once again with students, parents, & guardians coming back to school. Holy Family School & Preschool is holding its Back to School meetings. It’s a chance to reconnect with fellow classmates, meet new teachers, and be reminded of expectations. Many will bring in their school supplies and check out their classroom and desk. Some will get their cafeteria accounts started. No doubt, there will be a few checking out the new playground equipment. All the little details that are involved in getting a new school year up and running. I know the different school corporations in our area have slightly different start dates. HFS begins this Wednesday August 6th!
One of the first things we will do on Wednesday is gather together for Mass. In part, we always have Mass on Wednesdays and Fridays when school is in session. On the first day of school, we do push the start time back from 8a to 8:30a to give the teachers a few extra minutes on the first day to gather the children. But it’s important that we start with First Things First. Not only because this is a leadership principle for our Lighthouse certified, Leader in Me school, but because worship of God must always come first. There is no ‘first thing’ before God. All we are; all we have; all we can hope to be as human persons comes first from God. And so, all must be rooted in the first fact that we are created by a loving God in His Image & Likeness, who are made for love & communion with God and neighbor. There is no more perfect way to love, honor, & worship God than to “Do this [the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass] in memory of Me [Jesus]” (Luke 22:19). Why is it the best way? Because it is the specific way that Jesus, our Lord & Savior, instructed us. Can we love God – Father, Son, & Spirit – in lots of ways? Yes, and we should. But, we should first and foremost love & honor God – Father, Son, & Spirit – in the one most perfect way that He has told us to – the Mass. Why the Mass? Because it is the source & summit of our Christian Life. It is the perfect celebration of and participation in the re-presentation of Jesus Christ’s Paschal Mystery – His suffering, death, & resurrection – from which flows our faith, our hope, our love. It is in Christ’s Paschal Mystery that we can rejoice in salvation, forgiveness, and new life. It is from Christ’s Paschal Mystery that we can undertake any challenge with Christ in His Cross & Resurrection.
All of this is true on that first day of school. We undertake not just the education of the children’s minds, but the formation of their whole beings and the salvation of their souls in and through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. As we come back to school, this particular parish ministry of our school resumes its partnership with the parents and guardians of the students in their primary duty as first Catechist and formators in the Faith. We undertake the holy labor of not just handing on the precious knowledge accumulated through the ages of humankind in science, math, literature & the arts, but also the rich treasures of God’s own Revelation handed on (tradere – to hand on, the root for tradition) through Christ’s Catholic Church.
Yet, as important as it is to start our Back to School with Mass on Wednesday, is the importance of attending Mass every Sunday and Holy Day with and as a family. Not only does this fulfill God’s Command to ‘keep holy the Lord’s Day’, it reinforces, reaffirms, and recommits the whole family to true Worship of God each week. Resting in God’s peace and remembering who we are as God’s People. It is here together, that we receive the Gifts of God handed on to us in Scripture & Sacrament. It is here together as the Holy Family family.
Welcome back to school – welcome back to your place as God’s People!
Nothing Less than saints for the Holy Family of God.
Holy Family, Learning God’s Plan for Salvation, Pray for us.
~ Fr Jeremy M. Gries
