This weekend I begin a new message series called BREAKING NEWS—THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS. This seven part message series will help all of us realize that God’s love is good news that we should embrace, celebrate and share. God is for us and not against us. This makes a difference in our lives!! I will be preaching this series every week at the 8 AM Mass at St. Joseph Church and all the Masses that I celebrate each weekend. If you miss any of the series you can go to our website (chathamcatholic.ca) to watch or listen.
October 11/12 – GOD HEALS US
October 18/19 – GOD HEARS US & HELPS US
October 25/26 – THE POWER OF HUMILITY
November 1/2 – GOD GIVES US ETERNITY
November 8/9 – HEAVEN ON EARTH
November 15/16 – GOD HELPS US PERSEVERE
November 22/23 – BUILDING CHRIST’S KINGDOM
THE NEED TO REMEMBER GOOD NEWS
Our lives can be preoccupied with a lot of challenging, difficult and bad news. It can truly be overwhelming for us. All we need to do is turn on our televisions to see the news or scroll through social media to find sadness, division, pain and suffering—just a lot of bad news!!
Bad news is not just observed from a distance. We know many people who are in the midst of darkness and may even find ourselves struggling with personal challenges, illness or relationship difficulties that drown us in despair. In the midst of the chaos, negativity and struggles—we need to embrace our faith which is ALWAYS GOOD NEWS!!
GOD IS ON OUR SIDE
This past Wednesday, we had our second session of Disciple’s Road. The topic was “FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH”. The evening included some wonderful reflections and sharing about the Creed, the Catechism, the Trinity and the Church (the people of God). All of this is rooted in the fact that our Catholic faith facilitates the development of our relationship with God and with others. God is on our side helping us, empowering us, inspiring us and walking with us so that we can live the best lives possible. Our faith is good news that helps us battle the darkness with the light of Christ. The Gospel sets us free and brings us a goodness and grace that cannot be found anywhere else.
GOD HEALS SO WE CAN HEAL
In the midst of all the challenges, struggles and difficulties in our lives—the good news is that God heals us with His love. All we need to do is to seek His mercy. God longs to fill our hearts with His grace so that we are made whole, complete and restored. All of this depends on our openness and acceptance of that love. Will we let Him in?
The Gospel reading from Luke this weekend describes the healing of ten lepers. In the time of Jesus, those with leprosy were separated from the community and could only return to their families, work and to regular life when they were declared clean by the priests.
The plea for mercy and healing for the lepers was answered once they followed the command of Christ. Unfortunately only one of the ten realizing what had taken place, and took the time to praise and thank Jesus for the gift of healing.
The hope of this Gospel story is that the ten lepers don’t simply return to the same lives they had—but that they returned differently due to the love Jesus shared with them. The hope is that they too were able to become healers seeking reconciliation with others and reaching out to those who were forgotten or cast aside.
HEALED SO WE CAN HEAL
The good news is that when we are healed, Christ sends us out to be healers as well. There are many opportunities in our family of parishes to experience healing and to help others experience the Good News that restores life. Here are a few examples:
(1) Sacraments of Healing – we offer many opportunities for Confession and the Sacrament of the Sick as powerful moments of healing
(2) Outreach Ministries – we have many different outreach ministries feeding and providing for those in need, visiting the homebound and visiting those in nursing homes
(3) Truth & Reconciliation Action Table – this ministry seeks to heal and forge new friendships with our Indigenous brothers and sisters
(4) Small Groups – we have a couples group series taking place in late October with a large kick-off for Lent 2026. A chance for us to pray, serve and minister to one another
