Dear parishioners, visitors & friends,
It is indisputably true that the human nature has never been the same since the sin of our first parents- Adam and Eve. The first chapter of the Book of Genesis (1:26-31) describes the creation of our world as it relates to God’s purpose for the human person. We were created sinless and with perfect nature, when God said: “let Us make the man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…. And God saw all that God had made, and behold, it was very good….” The beauty and goodness, which were inherent in creation and in the human beings God created, were lost due to sin. ‘Through Adam and Eve sin entered into the world and death through sin; in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— Romans 5:12. The transmissible nature of sin underpins the Catholic doctrine of original sin and our practice of infant baptism. In our Church, we baptise infants to welcome them into the Christian faith and to free them from the original sin they were born with. In the gospel of this weekend, as Jesus called the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs, He asked them to preach the message of repentance. Christ was not presumptuous when He asked the Apostles to preach the message of repentance. Jesus knew how human nature has been flawed by sin following on from the sin of Adam and Eve. The message of repentance seems just appropriate and ad rem. Christ began His own public proclamation with the call to “repentance”, (Matthew 4:17, Luke 5:32). The call for repentance is a clarion call. It is one we all need. We are born broken and we live everyday trying to mend what is broken in us. To pretend to live without sin is to mask one’s life and to assume a false identity. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us,’ (1 John 1:8). While we may not always be guilty of any of the seven deadly sins like: “pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth, we can, however, be guilty of venial sins. Sin is simply an integral part of human life. It is not out of place that we begin our celebration of the Mass, which is always a celebration of the feast of heaven on earth, with acknowledgement of our sins. The penitential rite is not intended to make us wallow in guilt but rather to bring us home to ourselves and to usher us into the enduring and inexhaustible mercy and love of God. As Catholics, we are blessed with the sacrament of reconciliation, which gives graces so that we able to grow in virtue and avoid occasions for sins, if we cooperate with these graces. Without getting into any form of scrupulosity, it is spiritually healthy to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation regularly. There is nothing, which can give us more certain security of eternal salvation than a regular cleansing of the soul of any form of sin even venial sins. The late Spanish Archbishop, missionary, and founder of the Claretians, Saint Anthony Claret (1807 – 1870), gave, not an exhaustive list of sins, but a general approach to the examination of conscience. They include: “the sin of giving entrance into one’s heart to any unreasonable suspicion or unfair judgment against a fellow human person. The sin of introducing talk about another’s defects, or offending charity in any other way, even lightly. The sin of omitting, out of laziness, our spiritual practices or of performing them with voluntary neglect. The sin of having a disordered affection for somebody. The sin of having a vain esteem for oneself, or of taking vain satisfaction in things pertaining to us. The sin of receiving the holy sacraments in a careless way, with distractions and other irreverences, and without a serious preparation.
Impatience, resentment, any failure to accept disappointments as coming from God’s Hand all put obstacles in the way of the decrees and dispositions of Divine Providence concerning us. The sin of giving ourselves an occasion that can even remotely blemish a spotless condition of holy purity. The sin of seeking to pursue the road of virtue, not under the direction of obedience, but under the guidance of one’s own whims.’ As 21st century disciples of Christ, if we must be faithful to the propagation of Christ’s message of repentance, we will need to first and foremost realise our own need of mercy, healing and forgiveness. God bless you all. Fr. John Ikechukwu Echewodo Parish Priest
Christmas 2018 Mass Schedule 
