PASTOR’S VOICE
Dear brothers and sisters, we got to mid-year and we see in our province the possibility of a full reopening in stage 3, which could happen this week: such good news! We ask the Lord to help us overcome this pandemic and have mercy on all those who suffer from this virus.
I appreciate all the messages of support and encouragement I received this week because of the announcement I made at the end of Masses in Portuguese this past weekend. We keep going, excited to develop our work of evangelization and support for our Parish: The Virgin Mary goes ahead!
And this weekend we can't forget about our parents: to you who received the Mission of caring, sustaining and protecting, be blessed today with lots of pampering and affection from those who were and are sustained and protected care until today: Happy Father's Day!
Brothers and sisters ―in these times of “a strong wind”― we find ourselves challenged by the Gospel. Humanity has lived through dramas that, like violent waves, have broken through men and entire peoples, particularly during the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. And sometimes the same question that the apostles ask Jesus comes out of the depths of our soul: "Master, do you not mind that we perish?"; if You truly exist, if You are a Father, why do these episodes occur?
Faced with the memory of the horrors of the World War II concentration camps, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI asked himself: “Where was God these days? Why did you remain silent? How could you tolerate this excess of destruction?». A question that Israel, even in the Old Testament, asked: «Why do you sleep? (...). Why hide your face and forget our misfortune».
God will not answer these questions: we can ask Him for everything, except the why of things; we have no right to ask Him to account. In reality, God is and continues to speak; it is we who are not in his presence and therefore do not hear his voice. “We”, said Benedict XVI, “ cannot know the secret of God and of history. In this case, we would not defend man, but would only contribute to his destruction».
Indeed, the problem is not that God does not exist or that he is not, but that men live as if God did not exist. Here is God's answer: “Why are you so afraid? How can you not have faith?». This Jesus said to the Apostles, and He Himself said to Saint Faustina Kowalska: "My daughter, do not be afraid of anything, I am always with you, even if it seems to you that I am not".
Let's not ask him about what escapes our understanding, but let us try to pray better and respect the will of the One who knows and knows everything..., then there will be fewer dramas... the wind and the sea obey him” (Mk 4,41). “Jesus, in you I trust!
A blessed week for you!
FIRST READING IJob 38.1-4, 8-11
The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me if you have understanding.
“Who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb? —
when I made the clouds its garment,
and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”
HOLY GOSPEL I Mark 4.35-41
When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took Jesus with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.
A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.
Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
