St. James Catholic Church

The Catholic community of St. James Church is made up of loving and sensitive members seeking to meet their spiritual needs, strengthen their faith, and affirm their continued existence as the church of Jesus Christ today and tomorrow.  In their quest to evangelize, it is their mission to assist everyone toward a more abundant experience of the riches of their liturgy and scaraments, and to convince all of Christ's sheep that the Lord's Day is indeed for all.

Wednesday at 12:00 Noon, please bring your announcements and notices to the office in legible and written form for insertion into the bulletin. Thank you!

St. James parish welcomes all newcomers.  Please contact the parish office to register.

Cyber scammers are impersonating Priests, CFOs and people in ministry leadership roles. They are asking for money, gift cards and personal information.  DO NOT reply and immediately delete any email or text.  This is NOT a request from our parish priest, deacons, administrative personnel or any of its ministry leaders.

The St. James Fall Fiesta was a great success.  We would like to thank all the parishioners and everyone that helped support the event.

https://youtu.be/-OGfqASePnk

One day, as usually, an orphan, a little girl, stood at the street corner begging for food, money or whatever she could get. Now, this girl was wearing very tattered clothes, was dirty and quite dishevelled. A well-to-do you man passed that corner without giving the girl a second look. But, when he returned to his expensive home, his happy and comfortable family, and his well-laden dinner table, his thoughts returned to the young orphan. He became very angry with God for allowing such conditions to exist. He reproached God, saying, how can you let this happen Why don’t you do something to help this girl Then he heard God in the depths of his being responding by saying I did. I created you.

On this second last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year, we are called upon to reflect on the Day of Judgment and the end times and the importance of the endurance. In today’s Gospel Jesus assures the Apostles that he will be with them no matter what hardships they face. He teaches them that authentic Christian living is about meeting the challenges of the day and not of just thinking when the end will come. The Gospel presents us the scene where Jesus and his disciples were looking at Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, at the object of his mission. The disciples were looking with admiration their beautiful artistic Temple of Jerusalem. Jesus then spoke of its destruction and told them that not a stone would remain on the other. This would certainly have shocked his disciples.  Jesus uses this episode to teach about the end of the world to come and about the persecutions the disciples will have to endure. In the Old Testament the Prophets generally referred to the Justice of God and to a lesser extent on Mercy and forgiveness. Hence we have the harsh words of the prophet Malachi in the first reading speaking to the stubborn Israelites about their destruction. But the prophet is confident that those who are faithful to God will be saved. In the second reading St Paul advices the people of Thessalonica to work hard and be an example for others and to earn their livelihood by working peacefully and quietly as they prepare for the day of the Lord. He reminds the people how he supported himself by his hard work. They are called upon to imitate Paul and stop bothering others.

The Gospel of today begins with Jesus commenting on the Temple of Jerusalem, a building which was one of the wonders of the ancient world. The beautiful decoration of the Temple had begun about forty six years before Jesus by Herod the Great, to establish his friendly relationship with the people by doing the restoration work. The art work was so wonderful that some of the huge granite stones in the Temple walls were so expertly linked without mortar that they could not see the joints. The Sun reflecting from the Temple’s brilliant marble and gold ornament, set on a hill, made it visible for miles. Some people were commenting on its “fine stonework and votive offerings”. The Temple of Herod as it was called was one of the most massive buildings in its time and was not yet fully completed. It was the heart and pride of all Jewish life; the very symbol of God’s presence among them. Yet Jesus tells his hearers, “All these things you are staring at now – the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.” They must have looked at him with absolute astonishment. They could not in fact conceive an idea of the destruction of a massive building in the near future, which was the centre of their faith. The Temple was completed in 63 A.D. and was destroyed seven years later, forty years after Jesus spoke of its destruction. Yet Jesus says that the Temple and Jerusalem will be destroyed but the end will not be as yet. He warns them against false messiahs who would tell them that the end is near. But they are not to listen to them. Historically the destruction of the Temple took place in the year 70 A.D. The Roman army invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple killing thousands of rebellious Jews and taking a large number into slavery. They took away whatever valuables they could get. The treasures of the Temple were carried off in triumph by the Romans.

Jesus warns his followers not to be deceived. Christian life is to focus on the here and now and that will require strength and faith.  The world will continue with wars and insurrections and there will continue to be natural disasters that defy explanation. None of these things necessarily means that the world is coming to an end.  The teaching of Jesus does not offer us a way to predict the end of the world. Instead, the teaching of Jesus provides his followers with the spiritual resources needed to cope with the adversity and hardship that is part of life in the here and now. The final portion of the passage is directed to the disciples and sets forth what they can expect in the future. If they commit themselves to the Gospel and the life it proclaims, they will find themselves persecuted by authorities and others. The truth of the Gospel will be tested and the faith of the disciples will be confirmed, not in the idle speculation about the end of the world, but in the trials and adversities of daily life.  According to Jesus a successful follower is not one who can predict the future. The authentic follower of Jesus is the one who lives out the call of Jesus for love and obedience in the here and now and perseveres till the end.

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.” This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: “I’ve been married for 30 years now… In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this… They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”

1)      Vatican website: http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html

2)      Monks of the desert video: https://youtu.be/U5YY684ZXDE

3)      Catholic League: http://www.catholicleague.org/ 

4)      Community in mission blog: http://blog.adw.org/author/cpope/

5)      Church teachings index: http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/teach/index.html

6)      Catholic liturgy library: http://www.catholicliturgy.com/

7)      Church cartoons: http://www.toonfever.com/