April 6, 2025

Dear Parishioners,

Judgment isn’t black and white. We might think from the Gospel scene of the woman caught in adultery that it is. We might think that Jesus forbids us from judging others, since all of us are sinners and therefore not entitled to throw a stone. And, yet, there is room for judgment. There is room for holding opinions, following your conscience, and standing up for the truth. Jesus isn’t calling us to always be neutral, care-free, passionless.

Around election time five months ago, there was a lot of talk about the need to overcome the division; let’s not hate each other over our political and moral preferences; let’s unite; let’s all just be American; and so forth. But the problem with that is who is the judge of what “the common ground” is or what it means to be an American? It’s easy to unite when things are going your way. But what about the person who feels like they are losing? If Christ didn’t stand up for what he was convicted in, he wouldn’t have died on the cross and we wouldn’t have been saved. The Sanhedrin didn’t like him preaching in the temple square. The “don’t-judge-Jesus” would have stopped preaching, would have let this woman be stoned, and would have gone back to Nazareth or Galilee and lived a peaceful life as a carpenter and good man. So, clearly Jesus isn’t telling us to suppress our passion or our convictions for the sake of ‘keeping the peace.’ Remember, one of the causes for Jesus’ death was that he was a disturber of the peace.

And yet, Jesus tells us clearly not to cast a stone. That would be the other end of the spectrum. Suppressing your belief is not the way, nor is retaliating in anger and violence.

So, what is the way? How do we deal with our convictions? You know what I’m going to say–pray about it.

There’s no rush to take action with your passions. Bring it to God in prayer and wait patiently for him to show you the way. Imagine your opinion or your emotion as a seed planted by God in your soul. Suppressing that opinion or acting too hastily on it causes that seed to rot in you, and rotten fruit results (anger, bitterness, gossip). Lifting yourself with that feeling to Christ the Light in prayer, asking him what to do about it, will lead to a beautiful fruit.

Many people are upset about something these days. It’s like we’re that crowd circled around the woman. Good. May we not grasp stones, but open our hands to prayer. And may there be a beautiful harvest for the Kingdom.

+

This Tuesday, April 8th we will be holding a Lenten Taize Prayer Service in the Upper Church at 7:30pm. Friday, April 11th we will have Stations of the Cross at 7pm as well as the Fish Fry in the gym at 5:30pm.

Next weekend on Sunday, April 13th is the annual Blood Drive taking place from 8am until 2pm in the Parish Life Center (the gym). You can sign up ahead of time for a scheduled time slot or you can walk-in without an appointment that day. We appreciate your donation, and thank you to the Holy Family Guild for organizing this effort.

In case you weren’t aware of the news, Dr. Erika Mickelburgh, our school principal, announced recently that she will not be returning to St. Paul of the Cross for the next academic year, as she will be the new principal at St. Viator High School. Congratulations to Dr. M. We wish her all the best and thank her for her outstanding leadership of our school community. We’ve begun the search for a new principal and would appreciate your prayers that we discern appropriately and find the right candidate for our school. As I wrote to the school community, Dr. M’s successor will be pleased to find a National Blue Ribbon school with one of the largest enrollments in the Archdiocese, a beautiful campus, a brilliant faculty, dedicated and generous parents, a vibrant and supportive parish community, and, most importantly, joyful and loving students.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. James Wallace