From our Pastor’s Desk

Dear Family:

Life is full of opportunities knocking at our doors waiting to be opened. It is full of chances by which we can enjoy life to the fullest. But they are not always there forever. We have to grab the opportunity while we have the time and the chance, or else, we ended up blaming, not others, but ourselves. Invitation is an example of opportunities knocking at our door to be opened. But instead of us getting off our feet to open the door, we complain about the noise. Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Feast is an invitation. This parable presents God as a chief host of a banquet where he offers juicy rich food and pure choice wines, a banquet predicted by Isaiah in today’s first reading.

God always desires the happiness of his people and so he invites them to a banquet where they will enjoy the best meals and where He will wipe away the tears from every face as it is mentioned in Isaiah. He is a God so concerned about your welfare that He prepares a table for you in the sight of your foes (Psalm 23:5).

Jesus narrates a parable of a King who was preparing a wedding feast for his son and who sends invitations to special guests. The special guests treated the invitation with contempt and levity. They did not only ignore the invitation but treated the servants of the king shamefully and killed the innocent messengers. The king was unhappy with the behavior of the invited guests and he took justice to them for the crime of murder. He punished the murderers and burnt their city. He declared the cruel invited guests as unworthy of the feasts. Eventually, he threw an open invitation to everyone on the street – to occupy the positions of the absent special invitees.

This parable of the wedding goes to show that God invites everyone to a feast, but not everyone responds. Those who refuse to respond positively to God’s open invitation are those who are too busy with their life; they are preoccupied by their business deals and transactions and have little or no time for community activities. These are people who have misplaced their scale of priority by placing their material needs far above their spiritual needs.

Even though the wedding feast was an open invitation, there was only one requirement – everyone was to come with the prescribed dress code. We notice the anger of the king in the parable when he went into the banquet, he noticed that one of the guests did not comply with the requirement for dressing and immediately, the guest was thrown out. The dress code reminds us of the symbolic white garment given at baptism, which is the outward sign of Christian dignity. The wedding garment has a deeper meaning than a physical garment. The garment is that which identifies a true member – character, attitude, kindness, love, goodness and mercy.

The parable of the wedding banquet shows the lighter side of God who invites his people to feast from his abundance. The Holy Eucharist (Mass) is also a banquet where many are invited to the table of the Lord to partake. Our happiness depends on our response to this free, open and generous invitation. Life is a celebration and it is about celebrating the goodness and providence of God. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). Join always in this banquet but never forget to put on the right garment!

I personally give thanks to the Lord for your response to the invitation of God to His banquet. Every Sunday, I can see many more coming and filling our seats, responding generously to the Lord by visiting Him in the St. Michael the Archangel Adoration Chapel, participating in Ministry life in our parish and beyond, and of course by giving generously out of their treasures. Many are listening to the Lord’s invitation.

I invite you to see the Financial Statement of our Parish published in our bulletin this week and on our webpage. There you will see how much we collected throughout our last fiscal year, which by the way, runs from July 1st, 2025 true June 30th, 2026. You may also see our expenses. Nonetheless, overall, we had a great year, especially now that we are preparing ourselves to grow into our final Church building and Parish School.

We have been able to manage our debt well, and to reduce unnecessary expenses. However, our building has reached maturity after 14 years of continued use, and it is time now to repair and refurbish some spaces. Growth requires consistent care; as we continue to grow, so grows our expenses. Therefore, this weekend I am asking you to renew your financial commitment to our parish for the 2027 calendar year. As I did last year, I am asking you to prayerfully consider this.

Our response to God’s call is not limited to spiritual healing and growth. It also involves our self-giving of our time, talent and treasure. We are called to share the talents God has bless us with; to share the gift of time loving God first and foremost and loving one another as He loves us; and to share the treasures God has entrusted to us to continue growing our parish. When we share what has been granted to us freely by God, He continues to bless us with more because of our generosity, not only with Him but with His children. We are One Body, One Spirit, One Family!

Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Katharine Drexel, Saint Michael the Archangel, St. José Gregorio Hernández, Pope Saint Pius X, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Charbel, pray for us.

Yours in Christ!
Fr. Omar