Pastor's Corner: New beginnings

Our Catholic Diocese - an area that includes everything from Livingston south to the Wyoming border and north to the Canadian border, east to the North Dakota border - just ordained a new Bishop Wednesday, June 22nd, 2022.

The Most Rev. Jeffrey M. Fleming will serve alongside Bishop Michael Warfel, our current Bishop, until Bishop Warfel retires in a year or so. The ordination was an impressive celebration of faith and hope. People from literally all over the world were there to pray together and bless our new bishop. This celebration started me thinking about new beginnings - especially in our faith lives.

Bishop Fleming was baptized as an infant (as is the norm in our Catholic faith tradition). His baptism celebrated a new beginning at that time. A new beginning free from the effects of the original sin. A new beginning in his relationship with Jesus Christ and the people of God who accept and recognize Jesus as their Lord and Savior. His (and our) baptism also opened him to the great gift of the Holy Spirit in his life. This is definitely an empowerment and strengthening to continue to resist the reality of sin in our world - a new beginning - at any age, infant or adult.

Later in his life Jeffery, and all who proclaim a Catholic faith, celebrated and received the sacraments of confirmation and First Eucharist. This sacrament of confirmation completed the Baptism he had celebrated many years earlier and empowered him to, serve more fully God and Gods people by opening him more fully to great gift of the Holy Spirit. His (and our) participation in Eucharist unites us and fills us with Jesus himself, who lives within us and strengthens us so that we might continue Jesus' mission on earth - to make disciples of all people so they may know the fullness of life in relationship with God.

The three sacraments mentioned above (baptism, confirmation and First Eucharist) are called the Sacraments of Initiation. With these three sacraments we are welcomed, empowered, and made full members of the Catholic faith and so called to live lives of discipleship, serving God and Gods people.

We in the Catholic faith also have Sacraments of Healing, which help us begin anew our relationship with God. Jeffery as well as all who call themselves Catholic do indeed fail to follow God's will and we do sin. I guess it is safe to say that all humans do this. We are all sinners and need God's forgiveness and grace.

In our Catholic faith we have a sacrament called reconciliation (confession or penance are other names for this sacrament). In this sacrament we confess our sinfulness, ask for and receive forgiveness and promise to amend our lives (with the assistance of the Holy Spirit) so that we can overcome the sin in our lives. From experience I know that this is a powerful time of new beginning in our lives. This sacrament helps us not only experience the forgiveness of God it helps us learn how to forgive others. Freedom from sin and the oppression sin brings to our lives definitely allows us to experience a new beginning filled with joy, hope and peace.

Another Sacrament of Healing is anointing of the sick. This gift from Jesus helps us begin anew when we experience physical or psychological sickness in our lives. This is one of the sacraments that we may receive many times during our lives and so celebrate a new beginning free from illness and the oppression illness brings into our lives. When we participate in this sacrament we are anointed with the oil of the sick or infirm, we listen to scripture, ask for God's forgiveness and healing, and ask for Jesus to come into our lives by receiving Communion.

Anointing of the sick is also participated in when one is close to death. If you look at death through the eyes of faith, death is not an end of life but a new way of living in relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is not an end but a new beginning. When we celebrate anointing of the sick at this time we are again anointed with Holy Oil, we listen to Scripture, we ask God's forgiveness and healing, and we receive Communion. When we receive Communion at this time, we call it "Viaticum," when translated "Food for the Journey." When we look at the process of dying as a journey the phrase "Food for the Journey" takes on a powerful meaning - a journey to a new way of being in relationship with God asking Jesus to walk with us.

There are two more Sacraments that help us with new beginnings in our lives. These are called the Sacraments of Vocation - matrimony and holy orders.

Those of us who are married can attest to the fact that getting married is indeed a new beginning and some of us (like myself) don't have a clue as to what we are getting into when we marry. When we participate in the sacrament of matrimony we ask God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - to enter into our relationship and empower us to become one and live together bringing new life into the world as a result of our love. This is an awesome gift and responsibility which is made more beautiful with the gift of God's grace.

Holy orders is a celebration of new beginning in service to God and Gods people. This Sacrament empowers those who participate in it to serve in the way Jesus modeled at the Last Supper when he washed the feet of the disciples. This sacrament empowers one to take on the responsibility placing God's will and the needs (not wants) of others before one's own needs.

Each of the above sacraments mentioned celebrates a new beginning in our lives. Each calls us to join our lives to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Each sacrament calls us to be bearers of God's Love to the world.

Have a blessed new beginning

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Deacon Tim Maroney

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church