Dear St. Gabriel Parishioners:
- As we come toward the end of the Church's liturgical year (33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – with next weekend the Feast of Christ the King - last Sunday of the Liturgical Year), our Sunday Scripture readings relate another kind of accountability required of Christians as we prepare for our glorious encounter with Christ. The well-known Gospel text of the master, the slaves, and their talents (Matthew 25:14-30) addresses what we do with the natural abilities or talents that we have been given, those things which we hold most dear, and that which we tend to possess too tightly.
By means of this parable, was Jesus illustrating differing human capacities regarding God’s gift of the Kingdom? The first two slaves understand that the “gifts” they have are freely given by a God who is abundantly generous, and they therefore try to imitate the giver of all good gifts in the very ways that they live out their daily lives. The first and second slaves were shrewd people; they knew how to play the market and doubled their investment.
The third slave lived in fear because his master was a greedy, demanding man who liked his money and did not look kindly upon the foolishness and failure of those in his employ. Deciding to play it safe, the third slave refused to take any risks and thus buried his money. The problem with the third slave is that he refused to take risks; he would not step out into the unknown. Filled with anxiety and fear, he projected his guilt upon his own master. In the end, he loses everything he owned.
Those who have a poor, limited, negative, or miserly image of God and God’s dealings with human beings, will end up treating their fellow human beings in the same poor, limited, and miserly ways. Such people are incapable of seeing the Kingdom of God unfolding before their very eyes and in their own time. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that we must abandon fear and be industrious, reliable, and creative in doing God’s will. To be a disciple of Christ, we have to lose our life in order to find it.
- In the month of November, all the parishes in our Archdiocese of Seattle are conducting the annual tradition of Christian Stewardship. Stewardship is the ability to share our gifts of life with others. We share these gifts out of our love for God and gratitude to God and to build up the Body of Christ in one another.
I’d like to take this opportunity to say a word of “THANKS” to each of YOU and the whole parish, how proud I am for the “good works” that you have done in the past and most especially this unusual year with Coronavirus. May the Lord continue to bless these good works and bring them to the fruitfulness in serving God and our faith-community.
Thank you, for your renew financial commitment in support our parish.
- A big word of THANK to Ron Belisle who celebrated all the Masses at St. Gabriel for me this last weekend. Thank you for priestly ministry and generosity of time to our parishioners at St. Gabriel.
- Lastly, a special tradition throughout the month of November is that, our parish will remember and pray for all our deceased members at Mass, especially those names that have been written on the parish prayer book. Please join us in the daily Mass or at the weekend Mass in these celebrations. It’s not too late to send in the All Souls’ envelop with the names of your loved ones who have passed away and wanting our parish to pray for them.
Christ’s Peace,
Fr. Phuong Hoang