Pastor’s Corner

Dear Sacred Heart of Jesus Family,

Have you seen The Incredibles? This production of Pixar Animation Studios was released in November, 2004 and grossed over $630 million in worldwide sales. Of the Pixar family of animated films, it is the seventh most successful movie after popular family films such as Finding Dory, Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Up, Monsters, Inc., and Monsters University. This summer the sequel, The Incredibles II, will be released on June 15th.

This weekend God is calling us to realize how incredible you are. We are a work in progress, and God loves us perfectly, as we are, right now. However, as a good Father, He loves us too much to leave us where we are.  He as a dream for us, and He loves to share that with us.  The Incredibles movie helps us see that a bit. The story focuses on a suburban family of four, who try to hide their superpowers and live a quiet, normal life. Their desire to help others ends up leading them into battle to make the world better. I would like to propose that many baptized believers are similar to this family.

We are under the impression that we should live a quiet, suburban life, and yet in fact, we have superpowers-powers we probably may not even know about. Your gifts from God have made you incredible from birth. However, our gifts from God are usually only discovered as life shows us that we are made for a relationship with God.

This weekend in the Scripture readings at Mass, Samuel is hearing God, but doesn’t realize it is God. He doesn’t truly know who he is and Who is calling him. The psalm response is perfect: “œHere am I Lord, I come to do your Will.” The second reading calls us to glorify God with our lives. How do we do that?  How do we realize our incredible Baptismal calling, what is His Will, how do we glorify Him? This happens when we enter into a friendship, a relationship with the Lord. The Gospel teaches us. Jesus asks the first disciples, “œWhat are you looking for?” He knows we are seeking more. They say, “œWhere are you staying?” He answers, “œCome, and you will see.” They encounter Jesus, and Andrew tells Peter that they have found the Messiah.  In his encounter as well, Peter receives a new, incredible identity from the Lord.

This year let us seek Jesus in prayer, the Sacraments and service.  Discover how incredible you are to Him. Seek Him, and let Him lead you into a new and richer life, the beginning of greater, more incredible things to come.

 

In Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart,

Fr. Bjorn Lundberg