Weekly message
from Fr. Chris

Dear SPA Family,
None of us wants to lose our lives and we don’t want this life to become a series of failures and suffering. Probably each of us has a dream to taste happiness and joy. But unfortunately, we also have another dream: to make it easy, effortless, without difficult requirements. Meanwhile, everyday life tells us that there is no easy happiness. But we Christians, fortunately, have a path that will lead us to true happiness. This is how it’s presented in the Gospel of the Beatitude. The Eight Beatitudes is sometimes perceived as a kind of moral code. Instead, it is rather a promise that Jesus makes to his disciples. Indeed, following Jesus can cause fear: will I be happy if I follow this path? Jesus responds to these fears with a firm ‘yes.’ Jesus’ words even imply that those who follow Him are ‘condemned’ to be happy.

Yes, the followers of Christ sometimes lose some of the little happinesses that this world gives, but they gain a great happiness, which is stronger than any loss that may be incurred by choosing this way. Dear friends, let us dwell today on just a few of Christ’s promises: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. I’m thinking about my grandparents here. They sure are celebrating today. Saints who preached to me with their lives and the wonderful love that united them.

The testimony of God’s presence in their lives was so clear that they needed no words to preach the Word. The meek are those who can preach the Word of God with the accuracy of their daily choices - and choose only what is God’s. Notice one more of the eight beatitudes: Blessed are they who weep, for they shall be comforted. Today’s people cry because they are ill, because they have failed in life, because they do not have an apartment, they cry because they were wronged at their workplace. They believe that they will find comfort when, thanks to God, they regain their health, suddenly make a career, get an apartment, and are told about a raise. It’s not just about that. There is comfort in understanding that what we fear, what we run away from, can bring us closer to God. What a pity that modern people who cry do not always cry when examining their conscience. And they’d have to cry more than once. After all, every day we learn anew that not every course of action leads us to win life.

Today’s world and today’s ideologies or social media are often paths to painful failures and disappointments. In order to win life on earth, we need such clear rules of the game as the Blessings - they tell us about the proven principles that lead us to happiness: do not put anything or anyone in the place of God, be quiet, calm, trust in God, try to follow the path of justice, be a person of peace, do not pass by indifferently towards those in need, control your impulses and desires, overcome evil with good and lies with truth. Finally: invite God into your life, share your joys and sorrows with Him.

Perhaps you will say - these indications in the Blessings are unnecessary, too difficult, not for today’s times, after all, today we are brought up stress-free, without effort, without discipline - know that the first people had such hopes before you - they also wanted to achieve happiness without working on it, but failure and disappointment awaited them. Meanwhile, Christ came to give us the way to true happiness, He showed us the way to victory, not only after death, but also here and now. This is the way of love and truth - and they are contained in the Beatitudes. Remember, if you want your life to be truly happy, the Beatitudes are the way to that happiness. And one more important lesson from the gospel: St. John Paul II once said: great happiness costs a lot, because it always costs what is of great value.
Have a blessed week. Fr. Chris

Dear SPA Family,
Galilee is a land intersected by strategic communication routes. A fertile land with a mild climate. A land that tempts to be seized, conquered. It was invaded many times and its inhabitants were taken into slavery. Blood, suffering, harm, tears, occupation, deportations, settling people of other nations, all this took place here. The inhabitants of ‘the land of Zebulun and Naphtali’ were regarded by the orthodox Jews of the south (Judah) as half-pagan. And here Jesus appeared on this despised land, more precisely in the city of Capernaum, a center of flourishing trade, fishing and agriculture, in the vicinity of Greek Tiberias.

Jesus began to teach, but in a different way than the rabbis did. He spoke directly about God as Father, he spoke with power, he called for a change of life, for penance for sins, he healed the sick: a possessed man, a servant of a centurion, a woman suffering from a hemorrhage, Piotr’s mother-in-law. He has done much good in this half-pagan and despised land. Here, too, he appointed his helpers: Peter, Andrew, Matthew and others. Let us keep our thoughts on this calling Jesus. Because Jesus comes to our land as well, to the land of our life and He calls us.

Who would leave his profession if some itinerant preacher said to him: follow me, as he did with Peter. Wouldn’t that be madness, a sign of absurdity? We are attached to what we have already achieved. We don’t want to change it, much less lose it. We believe that God has placed in us a strong desire to do something special in life that belongs only to us. The only question is how to recognize it, how to know that this is it? For some, the discovery of life’s vocation comes easily. Others struggle with it all their lives.
A young girl, Teresa Martin, wanted to be a nun. At the age of 9, she wrote, “I must dedicate my life to be a great saint.” Many signs in her life said she would. She had a kind and loving nature. Her favorite subject in school was Bible history, and she enjoyed catechism lessons. On the day of her first communion, she said that her first communion was a kiss from God. Today we call Thérèse of Lisieux the little flower of the Baby Jesus.

One of my nurse friends told me: I’ve always wanted to be a nurse. As a nurse, she is happy because she fulfills herself in the service of other people and she sees it as her vocation. We are lucky when we discover our career coincides with what we define as God’s will. This is the perfect situation in life. But not always and not everyone is able to easily recognize their calling in life. The greatest happiness is when we discover that what we do is an echo of the vocation, the will of God for a specific profession, marriage, religious order.
St. Peter faced a new calling in his life. This Call of Jesus ’follow me’ caused him to change his life. He had to reconcile his family and marriage life with this new challenge that faced him. So he is a kind of ideal for us, a man open to new challenges.

We have to go where God leads us, he used to say. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” With such a call Jesus came to the inhabitants of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali.
In our hearts there is also such a land of Zebulun and Naphtali. It is invaded and tormented by various hostile forces: diseases, troubles, worries, sorrows. But Jesus also comes to it, and thanks to His coming and His call to convert and follow Him in faith, we have the power of a fertile and rich life.
Have a blessed week. Fr. Chris