October 26, 2025

Dear Parishioners,

I think most of us look to this Sunday’s Gospel scene with fondness. The Pharisee is proud that he fasts twice a week, pays tithes, and doesn’t sin. The tax collector humbly beats his breast and says, “Have mercy on me, a sinner.” We love this. For we know we can’t be the Pharisee who fulfills all the commandments perfectly. We don’t fast twice a week, we don’t tithe, and we sin. We are, on the other hand, the tax collector. We are the sinner and all we need to do is humbly fall to our knees and ask for mercy. Jesus condemns the holy Pharisee and holds up the broken tax collector as the ideal, and that’s something all of us can easily reach. Hence, we love this scene.

But I challenge us all on this, starting with myself. Do we really fall to our knees, beat our breasts, and say “Have mercy on me, a sinner?” Sure, we might literally do that and literally say that, but are we really meaning it? Do we really see ourselves as sinners?

This is tricky, so, please, pray with this, reread this, reach out to me if this doesn’t make sense to you.

I repeat, do we really see ourselves as sinners? You might say yes. But I’m not talking about, dare I say, the “superficial sins”--the things you mention when you go to confession (I was impatient, I swore, I stole, etc.). I’m talking about the sin deep in you. We all have it. It’s hard to describe because it’s unique for each one of us. Though I do think it takes the form of choosing ourselves over God. Jesus calls it “the sin against the Holy Spirit”--the one and only unforgivable sin. This is where we really don’t trust that God is enough. We can’t completely surrender everything to him and follow him in poverty and humility. We want to live, we want to receive love and joy and pleasure and honor. We want to be chosen, we want to belong, we want to be needed. And we want all that over simply wanting God.

Don’t feel bad. Welcome to the club. It’s part of being human. But this is what I’m talking about when you fall to your knees and beat your breast. You admit to God that you just can’t choose God completely for his own sake. You want to, but it’s so hard. You want your life to be saved. Beating your breast and acknowledging your sin puts you in a position to be raised up. Jesus will give you the grace to choose him and to lose your life. “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds” (Sirach 35:21).

Falling to the ground, beating your breast, and asking God to have mercy on you is an action we don’t just do once in our life, and then we’re in the clear. We have to do it everyday–sometimes multiple times a day. It might seem an exhausting way to live, but in time we will see that Jesus is enough. We will see how attractive his heart is, and following him in poverty and humility is more than we ever could have wanted. We stay low so he will pick us up.

I often hear people say “He’s a devout Catholic” or “She’s a practicing Catholic.” I wonder what that means. Occasionally I’ll ask the person who tells me that, and they’ll, somewhat startled, respond, “Oh, well, he goes to daily Mass.” Or, “She prays the rosary every day.” Those things, of course, aren’t bad. But this Gospel tells us that’s not enough. Remember, the Pharisee did all those things–he went to daily Mass, he prayed the rosary, he served the poor and the immigrant, he was pro-life, he was a lector at Mass, he went to a Bible Study.

No, the “practicing Catholic” is the one we don’t know about. He or she is the one unnoticed in the back, beating their breasts and saying, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

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The next Serving our Seniors (SOS) event, sponsored by our Social Services Ministry, will be Friday, October 31st following the 8:30am Mass in the HFC. Happy Halloween! There will be no SPC school that Friday, October 31st.

November 1st is the Solemnity of All Saints. Because it falls on a Saturday this year, All Saints is not a holy day of obligation. We will have just the regular 8:30am Saturday daily Mass. Per instructions from the Archdiocese, the 4:30pm Saturday Mass will be for the Feast of All Souls (November 2nd). And, of course, all the Masses on Sunday, November 2nd will be for the celebration of All Souls.

At the 4:30pm Saturday Mass on November 1st we will remember all the faithful departed from our parish over the past year. Families are welcome to bring a picture or some other object of their loved one for the remembrance table that will be in the sanctuary. We will also put out a table of all the parish’s relics of saints, in honor of All Saints Day.

Next Sunday, November 2nd, we will have a Family Mass at 10:30am in the HFC. Also next Sunday, November 1st and 2nd, is the Baby Bottle Drive collection of bottles.

November 1st and 2nd is the Stuff the Truck and Winter Coat Drive. Thank you for your donations. We are still seeking more volunteers to help. Please check the bulletin below and email Leni Duffy or Lisa Muench to sign up to volunteer.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. James Wallace