Very often it happens that a Gospel comes up in the lectionary rotation that proves difficult to preach on in a way that is both true to the text and also reasonably easy for us to accept. Even more rare are the times when a difficult Gospel actually coincides with a difficult lesson we need to learn. I always seem to get terrible combinations like a 50 ^th wedding anniversary blessing falling on the Sunday when Jesus tells his disciples that there is no marriage in Heaven. But this week’s Gospel happens to coincide with something that the staff has been working towards for some time now, and it’s an opportunity for us to confront a challenge head on.

In this week’s Gospel Jesus lays out the central importance of the Gospel in no uncertain terms. He tells us that we must prioritize the Gospel above all else, even family. He tells His disciples that carrying one’s cross is a prerequisite for
following Him. In other words, unless we commit ourselves to loving Jesus above all else and embracing the crosses He gives us to carry, we shouldn’t start down this path. We won’t be perfect, especially not at first. But our faith will always provide us with the grace and the strength needed to make these sacrifices.
 
Some of these sacrifices will play out on a personal level, and others are sacrifices which we will carry together as a parish region. The Archdiocese has been discussing how to help pastors and staffs to manage the increasing burden of running parish regions, and one of the recommendations in place now is to work towards collocating the offices if at all possible. What this means for us is that, under advisement from the people downtown who work with parish regions, we will be moving towards centralizing our offices at Our Lady of the Rosary in the coming months. While we don’t have an exact timetable, we are hoping to do this sooner rather than later so that we can work even better together as a team.

I understand that this means sacrifices in the overall number of office hours in the region. But our ability to pray and work together as a single, unified staff will be exponentially greater if we are working out of the same building consistently. We will still make every effort to meet the needs of the entire region, and there will be times when we will most likely take appointments at the other offices for the sake of convenience of parishioners. But unifying under one roof will allow us to pray together every day, work as a team, and make better headway in our mission of saving souls in our region instead of spreading ourselves out over too much territory.
 
I understand that this will be a sacrifice for many. But as Jesus tells us in the Gospel today, we must always prioritize mission over comfort. In the same way that He calls us to set aside even the goods of family and friends for the sake of the Gospel, we must be willing to sacrifice convenience for the sake of spreading the Gospel and bringing others to faith in Jesus Christ.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC