Pastor's Page:
The Mystery of Suffering and Death
May 2, 2010

"We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: in whom is our redemption, life and resurrection."

When my mother was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, and told that she would likely live no more than a year, she told her family, all of us gathered around her bedside "the Lord is asking me now to walk up Calvary's hill."

We cannot escape from suffering, emotional, physical, and psychological. We will all know the suffering that comes from being overstressed. We can all understand the pain that arises from some
personal failure and disappointment. Confidences will be betrayed and friends may prove hemselves
to be unfaithful. Our job may not bring the satisfaction that we hoped for, and suffering ensues in the daily drudgery. A marriage entered into with romantic feelings and the desire to live life for the other, experiences painful moments of misunderstanding and hurt feelings. Physical illness can come at any time as common as a cold and as uncommonly tragic as a cancerous tumor.



But the suffering that leads to the grave is unique. This suffering can be a complete surrender to darkness, despair and abandonment. Death is solitary, and strips us of every dignity as all that we held precious of our personal physicality is taken away. For the Christian, this suffering and dying is also the ultimate victory of the person and of life. One day the medical staff and the world of science and medicine will exhaust their possibilities for recovery. Then the Church, through prayer and the great sacraments of the body and blood of Christ, and the anointing with holy oil, will take the suffering one into the love, the light, and the life of Christ. These sacramental ministrations are not meant only to comfort the dying one in his sufferings or even to assist her, but to transform her into a witness to Christ in her very sufferings.

She becomes the crucified one, and the crucified one becomes her. "For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith - to know him and the power of his resurrection, and in sharing his sufferings being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3. 8-11)

For the dying believer, God is his or her very life, and everything comes from God and returns to God who is the source of love.

Peace and love in Christ,
Father Bruce

Campaign Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, we are deeply grateful for the many
blessings we have received from your hands. We believe that your Spirit is leading us to build a parish center. Bless our efforts to meet the growing needs of our parish and make us generous stewards of all that has been entrusted to our care. May the dreams that you have planted in our hearts produce an abundant harvest.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen

Transition Website Established
There has been a great deal of discussion about the voluntary separation package and the other changes occurring in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The Diocese has set up a special transition website that has the latest information. Please visit www.drvc.org and click on the Lighthouse icon.