Pastor’s Corner — November 27th, 2022
Preaching Series: Homily #1
The extraordinary news of the gospel begins with Creation. Each of us are created by God for God. In this weekend’s homily, I break open the wonderful and awe-inspiring truths of Creation so as to understand the backdrop of all reality: God is Creator and we are the pinnacle of creation. We were created good, beautiful and wonderful.
By the way, some of the content of our preaching series is being pulled directly from Fr. John Riccardo’s book Rescued: The Unexpected and Extraordinary News of the Gospel, which I highly recommend. He writes this about his book:
“God wanted us to live now. He has equipped us with everything we need to be instruments in his hands in order to share the gospel. These are not dark days but great days to be alive. God is not nervous or anxious; he’s chosen you and me for this moment…This book is what God has put on my heart to share with everyone I can because I believe it to be the most important thing right now in the fight for God to get his world back. Why? Because with every fire raging in the country, the world, and the Church, there is an urgent need to pull out of the weeds and recapture the big picture, to acquire again (or perhaps for the first time) a biblical way of seeing reality. As author and minister Fleming Rutledge said, “We need to know the story.” So let’s begin by viewing reality as God has created it, through the lens of Scripture.”
We’re using this book for the series for several reasons: 1) Fr. Riccardo has a powerfully succinct way of communicating divine truth. 2) The way he presents the gospel is genuinely compelling and helps those who read it say Yes to Jesus once more. 3) This book is simple enough that most people can easily read and give away to those who aren’t Christian (or who aren’t practicing). 4) His fourfold summary of the gospel is easy to memorize, which will not only help us get the big picture but also help us explain it to others.
“God Talk in a Culture Without Clothes”
Every once in a while I post an article that highlights sound Christian thinking in contemporary culture. As you probably know by now, I’m a fan of CatholicCulture.org, not because I agree with everything on the site (but there’s definitely a lot I do agree with), but because the main founder Dr. Jeffrey Mirus is one of the most learned, balanced and spiritually mature Catholic commentators out there. He avoids the reactionary, shortsighted, divisive, and rather unhelpful commentary that presents itself as Catholic these days. In light of the content of this week’s homily, here is a simple reflection he wrote this summer called God Talk in a Culture Without Clothes, which is essentially about science, philosophy, and God’s existence. It’s not very long and worth a read for someone who thinks deeply about the relevance of the question of God in society today.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias