November 16, 2025

Dear Parishioners,

Jesus makes this prediction in this weekend’s Gospel: “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.”

We can interpret this literally, believing Jesus is talking about actual wars and insurrections with armies and weapons and so forth. But the better way might be to interpret this spiritually or metaphorically—wars and insurrections within your soul.

I think of the quote from Commodore Perry after the American victory at Lake Erie against the British in 1813, who wrote to General William Henry Harrison, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Cartoonist Walt Kelly in the 1970’s modified this quote to read: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Let me explain.

The Holy Spirit is always moving us to deeper holiness, purity, love, generosity, and faith. If we’re not moving closer to Jesus, then we’re moving away from him. We’re not static. Either the Holy Spirit is working on us, or the Enemy is working on us. Our heart is either becoming more like Christ’s or it’s becoming more like Satan’s.

For this movement towards Christ to occur, we will experience a sort of war or insurrection within us. It doesn’t have to be a raging war. Sometimes it’s silent, like a cold war or cyber war. Either way, we see how we’ve been living—we see our selfishness, our attachments, our fears, our insecurities—and we no longer subscribe to that. We have rebelled against our old, false self. We want something more, something more like God.

War is a process. It takes time. We don’t just see our old self that we don’t want to be anymore and then, flick of a switch, turn on the new self. No. We have to battle it. There are victories and defeats, some setbacks, maybe even a cease-fire for a time. But hopefully we continue the fight to resemble Christ and not return to our selfish, narrow-minded ways.

I say this not to encourage you to go start the fight. That’s not how things work in the spiritual life. It has to initiate with God. It is for us to be open and ready. Rather, I say this to encourage you who are struggling in the midst of the fight. Something good is going on in you. Persevere. Insurrections within you are good. Think about it: we wouldn’t have the United States of America had we not had an insurrection and war. The saints would not have been who they were without some struggle to break out into “the New Man,” as St. Paul says. Even Christ himself had to break out of Nazareth and his old self—see his war with the Enemy in the desert for forty days.

What is the state of your soul? Are you pre-war, in the middle of the war, or post-war?

Let me repeat: war doesn’t happen overnight. There is a build-up to war. Then there is typically the first shot: Lexington and Concord, Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor. Finally, the war itself and, hopefully, victory.

As for the insurrection of the heart, it starts with God slowly melting our hearts. This is the build-up. Over the days, months, years of Mass, prayer, and service, we see our passions changing. We no longer care so much about ourselves and our issues. We want more. It grows and grows, like a volcano brewing. Then God will give us some event, some experience, some person who will shake us up—the first shot. We are challenged and the occurrence makes us afraid. Can we really move forward in this new reality? Can we drop the nets and follow Christ? This is where the war plays out. We can and we will, but we have to work for it.

We are together in this. I pray for you to have your insurrection and not be afraid. Please pray for me.

+

There will be a Family Mass this Sunday, November 16th, at 10:30 a.m. in the Holy Family Chapel.

This upcoming Saturday, November 22nd, is our annual Food Pantry Thanksgiving distribution. We will be giving away nearly 200 turkeys and boxes of side dishes in addition to a $50 Jewel gift card and our usual food pantry items. We are grateful to Jewel in Park Ridge for helping us with this effort, along with all of our volunteers. And thank you for your donations, both food items and monetary donations, that allow us to serve so many in need. We will do a similar distribution in December for Christmas, giving away hams, instead of turkeys, and Walmart gift cards to help these needy families celebrate the birth of Christ. Again, we will rely on your support to make this possible.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. James Wallace