Dear Parish Family, 
 
   Happy Mother’s Day. Every nation and culture celebrate Motherhood. Mothers gave us life and birthed us into the network of relationships which gives that life meaning, the family. They taught and nurtured us on the way, by offering wisdom, example and practical experience. They picked us up when we fell and unconditionally loved us back when we strayed. There is no-one like a mother, no substitute for her place, no equal to her love and placement in our own formation. Mothering is an ongoing relationship of love and care. Today we respond with love and prayers, respect and reverence, care and devotion.

Jesus’ declaration that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” and “no one comes to the Father except through me” is the thing which our world today finds most difficult to accept about Jesus’ teaching. Jesus is the only person who lived in this world ever to make this claim. In a world of relativism, where people make outlandish and illogical statements of moral relativism such as “that is your truth and this is my truth.” There is only one Truth or it is not Truth, and if we are to believe Jesus, there is only one Truth and He is that Truth.

Of late in both the Catholic media as well as in the secular press there has been a lot of talk about division in the Church. Some of that discussion has even come from some respected Catholic media outlets and websites that are not known for sensationalism or the promotion of division. The secular press really eats up this kind of talk, it makes for some very good copy, or so they think. But all of the divisions over all of the issues that plague the Church Universal today can really be boiled down to one issue within which there are two sides, and it is a division nearly as old as the Church itself. That division is between those who, in the very depths of their heart and soul, believe that Jesus Christ is exactly who he said that he was ‘Son of God’, and that he further established the Church, which he purchased with his own blood, as his bride and his representative and voice on earth, and which he gave the authority through his Apostles and their successors to speak for him and to dispense his Sacraments as the instruments of Salvation to the world.

On the other side of the issue are those who, in the very depths of their heart and soul do NOT believe this, but in the depths of their heart see Jesus as a great moral and social example, and perhaps in our day they may see Jesus as a great advocate for the poor or underprivileged, but they do not treat him as God. As a consequence they may treat the Church and the moral and ecclesiastical laws that she upholds as a political organization that can be swayed like Congress, Parliament, or a political party. They feel that putting enough pressure of public opinion or even mounting a majority vote they can sway the tide of moral and doctrinal certainty held by the Catholic Church. On some level or other, these two camps-those who in their hearts believe Jesus is God and those who in the depths of their hearts and souls do not-have been battling for a very long time. All those of us who do believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be and that the Catholic Church was established by Him with divine authority which comes from Him are to pray and never cease to proclaim the fullness of the Truth of Christ.