Dear Parishioners,
When I was named pastor of Saint Juliana six years ago, my first time being pastor, I felt a lot of pressure. It was all self-imposed. I was 29-years old, it was a big responsibility, and I was afraid of failure. I didn’t want to disappoint or hurt the people I was serving, and likewise the Cardinal who appointed me. I found myself like the dishonest steward from our Lord’s parable today, who says to himself, “What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg” (Luke 16:3). If I fail at pastor, I thought to myself, what will I do with the rest of my life? Ah, yes, my ego was causing me much heaviness in those days.
Dear Parishioners,
The event of the golden calf at the base of Mount Sinai (the scene from our first reading this weekend) is, to me, one of the most significant events in all of Scripture. You’re familiar with the scene. Moses is up on Mount Sinai for forty days, praying with God and receiving the Ten Commandments. The Israelites at the bottom of the mountain panic and create a new god to worship, and then sin with each other as part of their “worship.” It’s wrong on so many levels. Doubt, distrust, idolatry, impurity, greed, power, and so many other sins are on display in the people.
Dear Parishioners,
At this point in the Scripture narrative Jesus has finished his Galilean ministry and is making his way to Jerusalem for his Passion. The Galilean ministry, we could say, was a time of consolation — healings, miracles, teachings, etc. Huge crowds, thus, are following Christ (see the opening line of today’s Gospel). Jerusalem, on the other hand, will be desolation: rejection, betrayal, death. As Jesus is entering this desolation, it's like he wants to warn the crowd. He turns to them and says, effectively, "if you want to be my disciple, you've got to hate your mother and father, renounce your possessions, and take up your cross." Being a disciple is not all roses and sunshine. It’s not always consolation.
Father James Wallace grew up in Winnetka, Illinois and attended Sts. Faith Hope and Charity grammar school, New Trier High School, and then The George Washington University in Washington DC, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science in 2007. He attended seminary at The Pontifical North American College in Rome and was ordained a priest in 2012 for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In addition to being the pastor of Saint Paul of the Cross Parish, he serves as a canon lawyer for the Archdiocese, a dean in Vicariate II, and a professor of canon law and spiritual director at Mundelein Seminary. He is also one of the featured Mercy Home Sunday Mass celebrants, airing Sundays at 9:30am on WGN.
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