Musings from Msgr. McDermott

My dear friends in Christ,

I trust we all have our favorite image of Jesus. It might be the Good Shepherd who rejoices in bringing the lost sheep back to the flock on His shoulders. It might be the healer who restores sight, opens the ears of the deaf, and heals the lame. It might be the friend who joins us at table for a meal and shares stories of God’s love.

For most of us, the picture is one of gentleness and compassion. However, the Gospel this weekend reminds us that Jesus is also the stern Word of God who calls sinners to repent. This is the first word out of His mouth in his public ministry: repent!

This is not always a word we want to hear. Why? Because it means we have something to repent of. To really accept Jesus for who He is and to embrace His message demands that we repent, to acknowledge that we are sinners, and that we need to turn our lives around. This is difficult because we can convince ourselves that we are basically nice people, not hurting anyone, minding our own business, saying our prayers and going to church most of the time.

But we are not called primarily to be nice, not that we should purposefully seek to harm others, but we are called to be holy and perfect like our Heavenly Father. This holiness and perfection can only occur in our lives when we are honest and acknowledge we all fall short of our call and the need to repent so that God’s mercy has room in our hearts and it can make up for our limitations and imperfections.

Jesus begins His ministry with this call to repentance because He knows that if we think we have no need to repent, then we may not understand how much we need a savior. This call to repentance is repeated time and time again in the Gospel and in our lives, and the wonderful thing is that as often as we repent, God will forgive, heal, and strengthen us.

To quote GK Chesterton, “We’re all in the same boat, and we’re all seasick.” We all need to repent constantly to live in relationship with Christ. So, let’s not shy away from the fact that we are sinners in need of a savior. Through repentance, confession, and absolution, we grow in our discipleship and therefore become more perfect and holy.

In Christ our savior,

Msgr. John J. McDermott

Diocesan Administrator