Second Sunday after Trinity, June 21st, 2020

Second Sunday after Trinity, June 21st, 2020

As I like to say, there is nothing necessarily wrong with anger or being angry.  We all get angry at times.  Sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly, though.  But anger in and of itself is simply an emotion and we all have emotions.  But it is typically what we do with the anger that gets us into trouble.  St. John writes in the Third Chapter of his First Epistle:  "MARVEL not, my brethren, if the world hate you"  (I St. John 3:13)  All we have to do is turn on the nightly news to see proof of this: people fighting; people marching; people looting and burning businesses.  Go ahead and log on to Social Media.  It won't be long until you will see some hateful post against somebody or some group or some idea that another person doesn't agree with.  

And God forbid if two people have differing opinions on something.   Pretty soon the insults begin and the "virtual World War Three" breaks out online.  Hatred  . . .  anger . . . . bitterness . . .  All of these seem to abound everywhere we look.   But St. John shows us the answer.  He writes:  "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (I St. John 3:16)   In other words, St. John is pointing out that the love of God was ultimately shown on the Cross when Our Blessed Saviour laid down His life for us.  He died for us to save us from our sins.  As St. John puts it, Our Blessed Lord laid down His life for us and we ought to do the same.  But how do we do this?   First and foremost, we should remember the words of St. John and place them in our hearts and in our minds.  We should remember always that God never asks us to do anything that He Himself was not willing to do.  Our Blessed Lord laid down His life so that you and I could have eternal life.  Our Blessed Lord allowed Himself to be lifted up on the Cross so that you and I could be lifted up to Heaven.  The least we could do is to show love to those whom we come into contact with.  It is so easy to "dehumanize" someone by only focusing on one aspect of that person.  For example, we look at a person and only see the color of that person's skin.  Or we look at a person and we focus solely on where that person comes from.  We may see someone and focus solely on what family that person is from.  When we are online so we focus solely on the difference of opinion we have with someone else and focus on that difference alone?  The list goes on and on.  Our Blessed Saviour, as St. John reminds us, laid down His Precious Life for all men women through all ages.  And when we look at other people we should do our best to look at them through the "eyes of Christ."  In other words, try to see people as Our Blessed Saviour would have seen them.  "That we should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment."  (I St. John 3:23)

PLEASE NOTE:  St. Margaret Church will NOT meet on Sunday, June 21st, 2020.

St. Margaret Church is still being affected, as is the whole world, by the Coronavirus outbreak.  Specifically, our church is not allowed to meet as we would like due to CDC and State recommendations.  But despite these recommendations, our members still continue to pray to Our Heavenly Father.  Our members still continue to reach out to their neighbors and loved ones.  Our members still continue to be the face and hands and instruments of the Lord throughout these troubling times.  Additionally, Fr. Todd also continues to post his sermons and reflections online.  So, please continue to pray for St. Margaret Church and all the Christian Churches throughout the world that we may continue to stay close to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.    

And please remember that you can still show support to St. Margaret Church by sharing these posts on social media . . . sharing the sermons and reflections of Fr. Todd on social media as well.  In this way, despite any sort of "lock-down," you will help St. Margaret Church continue to spread the Gospel and continue to tell the world about our love for Our Blessed Saviour!

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