Pastor’s Letter: July 6, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: July 6, 2025

4 Jul 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

I hope everyone enjoyed a great 4^th of July! Our patriotic holidays always remind me of my Grandpa James on my Dad’s side of our family.  Grandpa was a WWII Navy Veteran and also one of the most faithful Catholic men I knew growing up. I often share that he was a great example to me of what it meant to be a good citizen and a faithful Catholic. The two seemed so well united in him, and reminds me of the kind of unity that Christ makes possible in our hearts. Of course, we are made for unity—we are made out of love for love…it is God’s desire that we be united with Him and one another.  In John 17 at the Last Supper, Jesus prays that “all would be one.” Not surprisingly, that focus on unity is a great lead in to our review of the Four Marks of the Church—today focusing on a very simple and powerful word…the Church being “One.”

“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” One is a word that most of us learn from when we are very small.  We learn early on that it refers to singularity…so how exactly is a Church with millions and millions of people and thousands and thousands of buildings characterized as one?

“So there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16). The Church is one because her source, Jesus Christ, is one. As St. Paul teaches us, “There is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism…” (Eph 4:3-6). Ultimately, unity comes from Christ who founded the Church. Because Christ/God is a perfect unity, there can be no division within Himself or within His work. So, if Christ founds the Church which is united to Himself, it has that characteristic of singular unity from the start.

How is that unity manifested on a daily basis? We show forth the unity by our Profession of Faith, the faithful celebration of the seven sacraments, and through the unity of our Church hierarchy. The Profession of Faith, as we have been reviewing, is our unified statement of what we believe. Consistently professing the same belief (and living it!) unites us together. Similarly, celebrating the sacraments daily with the same rites and prayers achieves the purpose of the sacraments—uniting us to Christ. As a visible sign, the clergy of the hierarchy in unity with each other offer us a constant reminder that Christ leads His church through the apostles and their successors (more on that in a couple weeks!).

So, Christ cannot be divided…yet people have introduced “divisions” in Christianity which we observe around us—different ways of worshipping and differences in beliefs among various Christian communities. What does this mean? It means we have work to do!  Christ prayed for unity at the Last Supper—unity is His will: “that all be one” (John 17:17-23). Part of our call as Christians is to keep striving to do our part in living that unity. We do this by living lives of faith, virtue, love, and prayer. If each of us concentrates on being united more closely to Christ, then we will all be more closely united together. Let us resolve and make the effort to appreciate truth wherever it may be found, to enter into conversation and dialogue, to pray daily that the will of Christ will be realized…and we will all be truly one with Him!  As St. Paul said so fittingly: “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Phil 2:2).  Know of my prayers for you all this week!

In Christ,

Father Luke