My dear parishioners, if God were to offer us little with which to cling in the midst of profound trials except a total trust in him, we may cry out with Christ, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?”  [Ps 22:1]  These words of the psalmist are actually a confession of our revolutionary, unconditional dependence on the sovereign God and the supremacy of his divine gifts!
 
Regardless of one’s age or circumstances, God meets us where we are on the road and how we are in the depths of the human heart! Whereas man is often unwilling and unable to sustain his very own relationships, God is always willing and able to embrace the human person who cries out to him alone or in the midst of a great crowd.
 
God relates to us as a loving father, a loving friend, a lover, and as a loving spouse of the Church. What Our Lord asks is quite reasonable: that every relationship with him counts for something! Anything is better than nothing! Activity is better than passivity! More is better than less! Best is better than good! This, after all, is what we expect of one another in human relationships.
 
Can the human person be compared to an unfinished gemstone, a diamond in the rough? If this analogy is not overwrought, perhaps we may ask: How can the light of God enter an unfinished stone? How can it shine with the love of the master if it remains buried in the ground?
 
Know then, believer in Christ, that by passing through the doors of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” you cannot be unaware that God is your master jeweler. You are avowing to your family and friends that you desire God to cut, refine and polish what is rough and unfinished. Surely our good God has entrusted his beloved Church to share in this work of the refinement of souls.
 
You are asking the master jeweler to carefully craft each facet of your priceless personhood -- not only to enhance the beauty of such a precious jewel, but to enable it to reflect the light from above. Your task is to cooperate with God as a disciple in every facet of your lives.
 
You have declared to the world your choice of the setting of God's Church, the gold buckler bought from Christ and “refined by fire”. [Rev 3:18] Together, they are a most suitable ornament and setting, one which calls forth the beauty of its members, refracting God's light in all directions, reflecting the kaleidoscope of his creation within, and adorning the hand of Christ's Church which wears it.
 
Cut, refined and polished, may you reflect the light from above in serving God’s chosen people and illuminating a dolorous world with the glories of the gospel: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”  [Jn 1:14]  Sincerely in the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Your pastor, Reverend Richard Barker