I’ve been able to say hello to some of you in the parking lot in the mornings before school, but I’m very happy to greet you all for the first time, albeit virtually, and to wish you all a very blessed new school year.
This is a year unlike any other years, isn’t it? Virtual classrooms, social distancing. And I don’t think we could have a more relevant first reading than we did this morning. So, relevant to the strange circumstances in which education must occur this year.
Ecclesiastes says, there is an appointed time for everything, a time for everything under the heavens.
“A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.” Most schools years fall into that first category, don’t they? A time for embrace—of being close to each other. The word embrace literally means, being able to throw your arms around a friend or a loved one. And now, about half of our students are not able to join us in person, quite yet. And, sadly, we have to avoid the physical contact we are used to.
It is a time to be far from embraces. Most of our families even are forced to be far from embraces. We can’t just go and throw our arms around our cousins or aunts and uncles or grandparents. And that’s terribly sad.
But, this reading from ecclesiastes reminds us that through all these different changing times and seasons of life and human history, even very strange times like the one we live in now, God is working in our lives. God is bigger, God is stronger, than even our worst problems.
And what is God doing? What is God doing even now in this time of sickness, this time where we must be far from embraces?. God is at work, the book of ecclesiastes says, to put the timeless into our hearts.
What does that mean? That means when we are living through good times, God is at work to make us holy. And when we are going through bad times or difficult times or terrible times, God is at work to make us holy. God wants to make us holy whether we are in peace times or at war, whether we are rejoicing over the wonderful things happening to us, or we are mourning over the very sad things.
Ecclesiastes says that God is at work, often, without us discovering what he is doing. Often, and especially when we are going through difficult times, like we are right now, it is hard to know what God is doing. It’s hard to fathom that anything good can come out of evil. It is hard to see the hand of God. It is hard to imagine just what good God can bring out of social distancing, distance learning, quarantine.
There is an old saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder. In other words, being far from embraces, as ecclesiastes puts it, helps us to value and be grateful for the times that we are able to be together and share embraces. God wants to help us see goodness everywhere and in all people. God wants us to work to bring goodness out of every evil and to love and cherish every person—every human life. Ecclesiastes reminds us to make the best use of the time that we’ve been given, and that always means, looking for God, praying to God, and valuing the things of God.
I’d rather that all of you would be able to join me in church today, but, perhaps, God is teaching all of us to value being in Church more than we did, when we could come here freely.
The theme for this school year is “go out to all the world and tell the good news”, with the help of the Holy Spirit, may we continue to look for creative ways to do that, even with the constraints upon us, to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the time that we’ve been given, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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That we may use the time, talent, and treasure with which they’ve been blessed, to grow in the timeless virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Let us pray to the Lord.
For blessings upon the teachers and staff of St. Ignatius of Antioch Elementary, that they may strive to share their knowledge with gentle patience and endeavor always to bring the truth to eager minds. Let us pray to the Lord.
For parents, the first teachers of their children, that their faith and love may be an example to their children always. Let us pray to the Lord Let us pray to the Lord.
For students: that they may use their God given gifts and talents to apply themselves diligently to their studies, for peace and harmony among them, and the flowering of the Gifts of every spiritual gift. Let us pray to the Lord.
That all of our homes may be places where the timeless word of God is studied, cherished, and practiced Let us pray to the Lord.
For an end to oppression, racism, hatred, addiction and injustice. For those most profoundly impacted by the coronavirus, for first responders, the underemployed and unemployed, and the healing of all the sick Let us pray to the Lord.
For the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N. …for whom this Mass is offered. Let us pray to the Lord.
O God, you know that present life is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you, and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ Our Lord.
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