Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Back in 1961, when subscribers to the Saturday Evening Post received their April 1st issue, the image that greeted them on the front cover was, as usual, a painting by Norman Rockwell, who created over 300 covers for the Post during a career that stretched for nearly five decades. This particular painting, however, departed from Rockwell’s usual humorous take on life in America, especially since he had painted several “April Fools” covers in the 1940’s. This cover took on a more sober tone. He titled it “Golden Rule” – in which he assembled a montage of about 30 people representing various nationalities, races, and religions from around the world with an inscription taken from today’s Gospel: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The cover of today’s bulletin is a photo of the painting I took during a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Today’s Gospel is a difficult one; a tough Gospel, especially as we attempt to cope with immigration policies and other critical issues facing our nation, especially with a presidential administration determined to upend so many of our national institutions.
Luke’s Gospel puts the Christian ethic front and center with two rather distinctive characteristics. The first is that the Christian ethic is positive. It doesn’t consist in not doing things, but in doing them. In the Golden Rule, Jesus commands us to do to others as we would have them do to us. This concept exists in many other religions as well, but in a negative form which says that “What is hateful to you, do not do to another.” Or “What you do not wish to be done to yourself, do not do to others.” Fair enough, but it’s not very difficult to avoid doing to someone else what you wouldn’t want them to do to you. Rather, we must actively seek to do positive good for others, especially when they might not expect it.
This brings up the second characteristic of the Christian ethic: the extra thing. Jesus described several common ways of conduct and then dismissed them with the question, “What credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.”The question here is, “How much better are we than others?”
Amidst all the bad news we hear day in and day out, whether it’s about the latest events in Washington or a video of some airline passenger on a drunken racist rant, there is good news, too. Lots of it, right here in downtown Hartford. It doesn’t require a lot of effort on our part to show God’s love to others; it simply requires the will to do so.
The past few weekends have been very dicey weather wise, and many of you have been forced to stay home. We’ve had to cancel Community Sunday twice, as well as other events because of stormy conditions. Hopefully, we will be able to go forward with some upcoming parish-wide events, such as Pancake Breakfast next Sunday, March 2nd, after the 8:00 and 10:00 Masses in the Franciscan Center. This event will be sponsored by the students in our religious education program from grades 7 through 10. The donation will be $5.00 per person; children 5 and under are free, $20 maximum for families.
The first weekend in March is also the kick-off weekend of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. You will be receiving materials in the mail inviting you to participate in the appeal.
Blessings on your week ahead!
Fr. Tim Shreenan, O.F.M.
Pastor