Weekly Letter: Nov. 26, 2023 Bulletin

Dear friends in Christ,

    This weekend is the Solemnity of Christ the King, the final Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Church’s liturgical calendar. Next week we begin the great season of holy waiting, Advent. But before then, we honor Christ as our King. Not an earthly king of physical and political power and might, however, but a king who lays down his life in service to all.

    A little background on our feast today. In 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King in his encyclical letter Quas Primas in response to growing nationalism and secularism around the world. He had the foresight to realize that secularism could soon wage awful wars against the Church. During the early 20th century in Mexico, Russia, and many parts of Europe, atheistic regimes threatened not just the Catholic Church and its faithful but civilization itself. Pope Pius XI’s encyclical gave Catholics hope and, while governments of men around them crumbled, the assurance that Christ the King shall reign forever. Pope Pius XI said that Christ “reign[s] ‘in the hearts of men,’ both by reason of the keenness of his intellect and the extent of his knowledge, and also because he is very truth, and it is from him that truth must be obediently received by all mankind.” 

    This Sunday at the 9 a.m. mass we welcome 20 new members – a nice mix of adults, teens, and youth – into our Catholic faith. How great is that?!? These brothers and sisters of ours have been preparing for the past several months through our Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program and are now ready to join us in full communion. Those of you who attend the 9 a.m. mass regularly have witnessed these men, women, and children on their journey throughout the year, and though the normative time for those in RCIA to come into the Church is at Easter, we also welcome a small group each year right before Advent. These are Christians who have been baptized in a different denomination, and who now seek entrance into the Catholic faith. Given that they are as ready as they will ever be, it only makes sense to bring them in now so that they may celebrate the upcoming Advent and Christmas seasons as members of the Church. We welcome them with great joy, and we pray for the others who will continue their formation and join us next Spring at Easter. My thanks to Julie Cook, our Director of RCIA, and her team who helped shepherd them through their formation.

    RCIA is a good mirror of the Church itself: it’s a constant cycle of people coming to understand God in their life and choosing to say “yes” to His call. We don’t ever force or command someone to come into the Church. The candidate makes that choice after a period of study and prayer. Our only aim in RCIA is to help them with that discernment so that they might make the decision to follow Christ when He calls. Let that serve as a reminder to all of us to invite friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family members to “come and see” what the Catholic faith is about. We must be people who radiate the joy of the Gospel so that our very lives will serve as an inspiration to others. When they ask you (or you ask them!) about the Catholic faith, invite them to come talk to us about RCIA so that we might share the Good News with them and hopefully encourage them to join us on the journey of faith.

    With Thanksgiving behind us, and with Black Friday having taken place this week as well, the attention of many in the country turns to “Cyber Monday” tomorrow, Nov. 27. This is an outgrowth of online shopping that has become the norm for so many of us, and which is especially popular during the holiday season. Amazon and other online retailers will be doing booming business tomorrow as people who didn’t go to the stores on Black Friday surf the web for the best deals. I’m sure there will be those among us who both shopped on Black Friday and clicked “buy” on Cyber Monday.

    This consumer frenzy should give us all some pause. Is it necessary? Of course not. Are we buying what we want or what we need? I don’t want to be a Grinch, and believe me, I love a good sale as much as the next person, but I do hope we will all monitor our consumer habits and make good choices. Let’s remember that when shopping this holiday season, and focus on the spirit of waiting in Advent, and the spirit of joy in receiving the greatest gift of all at Christmas, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

    The day after Cyber Monday has become known as Giving Tuesday and it affords us a wonderful opportunity to help out worthwhile causes and organizations with our charitable giving efforts. I hope you will include Christ the Redeemer in your consideration of Giving Tuesday. It’s easy to do online at our parish website, www.ctrcc.com/donate. From there you can make a secure donation to help further our mission. We also welcome your support of the 2023 Diocesan Services Fund (DSF), which wraps up at the end of the year. We’re just slightly under our goal set by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and we welcome your DSF donation to push us over the finish line. Lastly, it’s a good time to make end-of-the-year donations to the parish. If you need a tax incentive to offset some of your capital gains or need to make a charitable donation from your retirement account, a donation to the church can come in handy. Please contact our parish Business Office and they’ll be happy to assist you with completing the necessary paperwork so that you might get proper credit.

     We’ll have all the details about our Advent and Christmas schedule in next week’s bulletin, but let me alert you in advance that we will once again conduct our Giving Tree program to collect gift cards for distribution to those in need through Cypress Assistance Ministries, as well as our annual Toy Drive to give to children at another local parish – though with a slight change I’ll talk about next week. But if you see a toy that catches your eye on sale during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, by all means don’t pass it up!

Peace, Fr. Sean