Dear Parishioners,

The Feasts of Ascension, Pentecost, and today -— the Blessed Trinity celebrate the idea of Jesus being in charge not only in heaven but also on earth, and not only in some ultimate future but also in the present. Many will shout the obvious objection: it certainly doesn’t look as though He’s in charge, or if He is, He’s making a proper mess of it. But that misses the point. 

N.T. Wright writes in “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church,” page 113:

“We need to grasp firmly that the church is not Jesus and Jesus is not the church - when we grasp, in other words, the truth of the ascension, that the one who is indeed present with us by the Spirit is also the Lord who is strangely absent, strangely other, strangely different from us and over against us, the one who tells Mary Magdalene not to cling to him - only then we are rescued from both hollow triumphalism and shallow despair. 

Conversely, only when we grasp and celebrate the fact that Jesus has gone on ahead of us into God’s space, God’s new world, and is both already ruling the rebellious present world as its rightful Lord and also interceding for us at the Father’s right hand - when we grasp and celebrate, in other words, what the ascension tells us about Jesus’s continuing human work in the present - are we rescued from a wrong view of world history and equipped for the task of justice in the present. 

… You could sum all this up by saying the doctrine of the Trinity… is precisely a way of recognizing and celebrating the fact of the human being Jesus of Nazareth as distinct from while still identified with God the Father, on the other hand (he didn’t just “go back to being God again” after his earthly life) and the Spirit, on the other hand (the Jesus who is near us and with us by the Spirit remains the Jesus who is other than us). This places full stop on all human arrogance, including Christian arrogance.”

As we close out the school year and enter the summer months, I wish to express my appreciation for your support. While we know and believe that God is in charge, your thoughtful giving of your precious time, your sharing of varied and extraordinary gifts, and yes, even your hard earned money over the past year has been a blessing. 

These sacrificial gifts that you have shared enabled us naturally to maintain our buildings and pay our salaries, but more importantly, they have enabled St. Patricia Parish to be energized by the Spirit and to go out in the world and serve the vulnerable and the suffering. Your goodness brought us together in praising and giving thanks to God, and your “sharing of all things in common,” as St. Paul exhorts, helps us do what is most important, the forming of our young children and their families in the ways of faith. 

Even though heaven and earth are very different, occupying a different space and time, they are not far from one another because of your generosity. God’s space interlocks and intersects in a whole variety of ways while mysteriously retaining their separate identities and roles. Your love makes all the difference. Any yes, with your help, I am looking forward with renewed vigor to further reach out to those who hunger for the Lord Jesus both within and outside our community.

Thank you so much, don’t let up! Keep the faith! 

Gratefully,