A NOTE FROM FR. KIKO - APRIL 28, 2023

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

In the Gospel of Sunday, Jesus says: “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture”. The voice that is of the shepherds is not loud; sometimes it is not even attractive. Inevitably, our hearts’ desire is to find life and life to the full, namely true happiness. The seductions of the world are loud, attractive, and full of pompous appeal. Easily we are attracted toward the illusion of replacing our suffering with fading pleasures. When fully committed to eating such pastures and letting ourselves be led to our own demise, we discover an even deeper suffering as a consequence: the death of our spirit. That is to say we find ourselves worst off then before we sinned. This cycle is that slavery of being forced to follow the thieves and robbers who pretend to have what our heart desires.

Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life offers what we were created for: true happiness, which resides in him alone. That abounding life that we seek comes only from Christ whose voice says, “Take and eat, this is my body which will be given up for you” and likewise “take and drink, this is my blood”. Life itself offers his own life so that we may receive life. Feeding upon the pastures of his Body and Blood, we receive the paschal life. The sheep of Christ’s pasture reflect the slaughtered lamb that does not die. Therefore, our happiness is in uniting ourselves to Christ who loves us and grants us access to love as he does, namely in the paschal dimension of dying for the other so that in our dying others may receive life.

In Christ,