The recent Pastoral Letter of our Bishop, Christian Riesbeck, has been received very positively and with gratitude in every region of our Diocese. His call to encounter Jesus through prayer, and to witness to our faith through evangelizing, gives us reason to be hopeful! We need not feel imprisoned by the pandemic!
Soon after, Pope Francis issued his encyclical letter “Fratelli Tutti”. He pointed out that the pandemic has hurt poor people and working families the hardest and the stages of recovery will be hardest for them as well. He reminds the world that recovery from the pandemic can’t be just a return to “business as usual”. It must also address the situations and inequities that have caused such hardship in the first place!
But the frustrations of many groups and individuals, their fear of how the pandemic will end and a growing mistrust of people and groups who are different seems to be the only “stuff” that makes the news. “There ought to be a law!” seems to be the common chants and cries of the crowds BUT THERE IS A LAW!!!! It is the law of love. And Jesus reminds us today to love God with everything we have and are and to love our neighbour and others as we would be loved ourselves!