29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parishioners,
In a less than two weeks we will celebrate All Saints’ Day, and for those who have family, friends, and loved ones buried in our venerable cemetery, we might visit the tombs, brings flowers, and hopefully have good and happy memories of those who have been called back to God before us. For some, the pain of loss will still be fresh, for others, the years may have healed us somewhat; however, when our loved ones died, we had to change, adapt, and modify our lives to different extents and in different ways. Those key words – change, adapt, & modify – are not only applicable when we experience a death of someone but are words that we shouldn’t always be afraid of, especially when what we are changing and adapting to, is going on all around us and is not so unique to “just us.” The merge of St. Peter and St. Hubert parishes was announced one year ago, in early November 2023 and is still a relatively new development in our lives as residents of Reserve, Garyville, and Mount Airy. Just as some people ask God “why” when someone dies, it is natural for some to ask God “why” regarding our parish merge, yet God’s Will brought about this, so we should believe, as believers in God, and it is no different with our parish merge. Can we think that Archbishop Aymond, or Archbishop Hughes before him right after Hurricane Katrina, really wanted to make decisions regarding closures and mergers of parishes, resulting in change, adaptation, and modification that were not welcome and wanted? The answer is no, yet they just didn’t make these decisions without the input of informed others, hard data and facts that are real, despite all the commentary by many that the hard data and facts are erroneous and maybe “made up.” None of us would want the job of a bishop because being responsible for the spiritual well-being of people is not easy at all: being a Catholic is subjective – something that can be argued and debated, and we don’t face possible imprisonment by God or the Catholic Church, while being a taxpayer, for example, is objective – we can’t argue or debate paying what we owe in federal and state taxes because of the legal consequences we would face. So the decisions of the bishops and priests of the Church are always subject to scrutiny when people are called to change, adapt, and modify. Let us ask our favorite saints in Heaven, as well as the saints right here in our cemetery, for their intercession in the change, adaptation, and modification we are called to do as members of the Body of Christ. Jesus had to change, adapt, and modify in His life on Earth as our Redeemer and Brother. May we strive to do the same.