Obligation to defend, promote the common good

August 9, 2018

157. Underlying the principle of the common good is respect for the human person as such, endowed with basic and inalienable rights ordered to his or her integral development. It has also to do with the overall welfare of society and the development of a variety of intermediate groups, applying the principle of subsidiarity. Outstanding among those groups is the family, as the basic cell of society.

Finally, the common good calls for social peace, the stability and security provided by a certain order which cannot be achieved without particular concern for distributive justice; whenever this is violated, violence always ensues. Society as a whole, and the state in particular, are obliged to defend and promote the common good.

Source : Laudato Si'

Fr. Luis Flores

www.cotlf.org

• Do you have life insurance coverage?
• Why is such coverage important
  to you and your family?

Life insurance is the bet you pay against your death. The idea of life insurance is illogical but necessary in our society. Despite the mean jokes about insurance salespeople, they provide a valuable service. We pay them in life, so they will care for our loved ones if we should die unexpectedly. It's a gamble, but one many of us are willing to take. Right? Therefore, if so many of us accept the illogic of life insurance, why do so few of us accept the offer Jesus makes: trust me and live forever. He makes us this offer in the Eucharist.

God offers his people abundant life, but we can miss it. What is the bread of life which Jesus offers? It is, first of all, the life of God himself life which sustains us not only now in this age but also in the age to come. When Jesus offers us real life he brings us into a new relationship with God, a relationship of trust, love, and obedience. And he offers us real life which last forever, a life of love, fellowship, communion, and union with the One who made us in love to be him forever. To refuse Jesus is to refuse eternal life, unending life with the Heavenly Father. To accept Jesus as the bread of heaven is not only life and spiritual nourishment for this world but glory in the world to come.

Hence, when we come to Mass, let us not give the Eucharist only a superficial glance. Like the Jews in this Sunday’s Gospel passage who murmur “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? …Then how can He say, “I have come down from heaven’?”, we may think to ourselves, “it really just looks like bread, it’s a wafer, and not even a tasty one at that.” Other times we may say, “I believe it is Christ, but I have such a busy day. How much of a difference will it really make for me to go to a daily Mass, or how bad would it really be if I did something else today instead of going to Sunday Mass.” If we begin to think that way, then we are judging by appearances, and we are severely underestimating the transforming power of union with God incarnate.

I must confess that, before being ordained, I too sometimes struggled with these thoughts about Mass. Especially when it required getting up early, but from what I have “tasted and seen,” specially now as a priest, I can confidently say that my day is remarkably different based on whether or not I have received the Eucharist. I receive so much strength and peace in Christ and find it easier to feel close to God or practice the virtues, especially patience! Trust me when I say, the more you invest in your friendship with Christ, the more you come to Him in the union of the Eucharist, the more you will taste the delight of His love and see transformation in your life. I leave with a couple of extraordinarily beautiful quotes regarding the Eucharist from two of the greatest minds and saints of our church, St. Augustine and St. Peter Chysologus. May they be for us food for our prayer and meditation on the Bread of Life.

“The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive.... This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage” St. Augustine

“The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.” St. Peter Chrysologus

Fr. Luis Flores
Parochial Vicar