Pastor's Corner, April 26, 2015

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

On April 29, the day the universal Church celebrates the feast of St. Catharine of Siena, we will celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral Church. In our church, this day is celebrated as a solemnity, the highest form of liturgical celebration.

We are blessed to be not only a parish but also a Cathedral, meaning that our church has the privilege to serve the Diocese of Allentown as the “seat” of the bishop and the Church from which he exercises his triple mission of governing, teaching and sanctifying the entire diocese in the name of Christ and as the chief shepherd of the local Church.

The Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops speaks of the importance of the Cathedral Church. It says, “It is here that diocesan life finds its fullest expression and it is here that the most sublime and sacred act of the Bishop’s munus sanctificandi [sanctifying function] is accomplished” (155).

The Cathedral is considered the “mother” church of all the other churches in the diocese. Thus, the Cathedral is a reminder to everyone of the “catholicity” of the Church of Christ insofar as it serves as a sign of the union that all priests, religious, and laity have with the bishop of the Diocese.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker

Pastor's Corner, April 19, 2015

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

Last week Pope Francis announced that starting December 8, 2015 (Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception) and ending on November 20, 2016 (Solemnity of Christ the King) the universal Church will celebrate an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The Holy Father outlined three main reasons for such a special year: “A year in which to be touched by the Lord Jesus and to be transformed by his mercy, so that we may become witnesses to mercy.”

With the Papal Bull Misericordiae Vultus (“The Face of Mercy”) Pope Francis provides us with a beautiful summary of the biblical revelation about the mercy of God, tracing this aspect of divine love throughout the history of Israel and culminating in the ministry, passion and death of Jesus Christ. As the Pope points out, “the signs he [Jesus] works, especially in the face of sinners, the poor, the marginalized, the sick, and the suffering, are all meant to teach mercy. Everything in him speaks of mercy” (8).

Our prayer for this year is that the Church and all her members will be living beacons of mercy, giving testimony to the mercy that is ours in Christ Jesus. As Pope Francis puts it, “May she never tire of extending mercy, and be ever patient in offering compassion and comfort” (25).

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker

Pastor's Corner, April 12, 2015

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

In the year 2000 St. John Paul II declared, “It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church, will be called ‘Divine Mercy Sunday.’”

What is the “whole message” that comes from the word of God this Sunday? St. John Paul II explained that the message of mercy comes “from the lips of the risen Christ, who bears the great message of Divine Mercy and entrusts its ministry to the Apostles in the Upper Room: ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you. … Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (Jn 20:21-23).

The events of Holy Week have opened the flood gates of Divine Mercy. We are now at peace with God and we have access to the mercy which flows from Christ’s pierced heart, especially through the Sacrament of Mercy given to the Church on Easter Sunday night when Christ gave His apostles the power to forgive sins in His name.

I hope you might be able to join us at 3 pm this afternoon for Exposition, the praying of the Divine Mercy chaplet and Benediction. Confessions will be available beginning at 2 pm. Now is the time to receive the whole message of Divine Mercy.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker

Pastor's Corner, April 5, 2015

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

Happy Easter everyone! Our joy this day is that Jesus has risen as he said and that by the power of the Holy Spirit Christ shares this new life with us.

What do we mean when we profess that we believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ?

The Catechism has a lot to say about the matter. First, we cannot interpret Christ’s resurrection “outside the physical order” (CCC, 643). Also, the “risen body in which he [Jesus] appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his Passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills” (CCC, 645).

Jesus truly rose, not simply in the faith of the believers, but physically from the death. At the same time, the event of the resurrection is something new in human history and revealing a new dimension of reality.

The Catechism teaches, “Christ’s Resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings from the dead that he had performed before Easter… These actions were miraculous events, but the persons miraculously raised returned by Jesus’ power to ordinary earthly life. At some particular moment they would die again. Christ’s Resurrection is essentially different. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space” (CCC, 646).

May this resurrected life, unconquerable by death, be yours.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker