Fr. Tom’s Letters

As we move from January to February, we have completed a month that we will long remember. Not only was last Sunday’s snowstorm significant, the cold of the past two weeks has been one of the coldest stretch of days for Long Islanders in recent memory.

January was also a mournful time for several of our parish families. We prayed with twelve families at funeral Masses for their loved ones. Some were seniors, grandparents, and persons married more than 50 years. Five of the funerals were for younger persons, parents of young children, young people who suffered from cancer, and some who experienced very sudden deaths. The parish community and our Ministry of Consolation responded to all these families with great compassion and understanding. Most importantly, we shared our faith in the promise of eternal life and heaven. At Mass on Sunday, we pray for those who mourn a loved one during the Universal Prayer, formerly known as the Prayer of the Faithful.

Our shared belief in eternal life and heaven is such an important element of our Catholic faith. How blessed we are this Sunday to have the Gospel of the Beatitudes. Of all the gospel passages, it is the Beatitudes that I proclaim most frequently (often at Funeral Masses) and is the gospel passage that I know best.

The Beatitudes is the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and may he understood as the first teaching of Jesus. We find the Beatitudes on the opening verses of chapter 5 in Matthew’s Gospel.

At a time when our parish community mourns the deaths of loved ones in our parish; at a time when our nation struggles to understand what is happening in Minneapolis and related issues; at a time when, delayed by last Sunday’s snowstorm, we celebrate our wonderful Catholic school ministry, the need to be healed, to listen, and to be instructed by the Beatitudes.

The Beatitudes can help to heal us in our sadness. “Blessed are they who mourn,” proclaims Jesus. Jesus recognizes the sacredness of our sadness and grief. Our feelings are part of who God made us to be. At the same time, Jesus promises comfort. In the Beatitudes, Jesus is always bringing us forward. He will help us to heal our mourning and grief. The challenge is to open ourselves up to the grace of divine healing in the months and years that follow the grief that comes with the death of a loved one. We pray for that comfort and healing and we assist when we can.

“Blessed are the peacemakers.” How important that we Catholics hear this proclamation of Jesus. In these troubled times the rhetoric of power, greatness, and fear dominates the newscasts. How these words are used and experienced in today’s fractured society have nothing in common with the language, teachings, and Beatitudes of Jesus. In these difficult days, we would do well as Catholics to pray simply with this Beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” The promises connected with this Beatitude, “for they will be called children of God,” is a promise that gives those who work for peace great reassurance and confidence for now and for eternal life.

As we celebrate our wonderful Catholic school, the Beatitudes remind us that Jesus is the first and greatest of our teachers. We are reminded of the presence of Jesus in each of our Catholic school classrooms. Jesus’ teachings are given to instruct, guide, and inform all our decisions. For Catholics, Jesus’ teachings take precedence to our political convictions, our economic practices and policies, our affiliations with political groups and social organizations with regard to contemporary issues such as poverty, immigration, the protection of all human life, health care, etc.

Today’s gospel encourages us to put Jesus’ teachings as the primary teachings for our lives. The Beatitudes help to heal, inform our thinking, and guide our decisions.

Have a peaceful week!