Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 23 November 2025

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

“The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.”

The liturgical year ends this week and the new year of grace 2026 begins next weekend with the First Sunday of Advent. It is a time for all of us to take an inventory of the past year and consider how we will stand before the Lord, Christ the King, on the last day, the time of judgement when the Lord will come to rule the earth with justice. I thought I might explore further this theme from my homily last week.

Justice is the physical manifestation of truth. It is the right thing to do, not because of opinion or poll, but because it conforms with what is objectively true. It is the basis of judgement. Justice is the thing twisted by the proud and evildoers of this world to confuse, to deny universality of truth: How can “my truth” and “your truth” be contradictory? “My justice” must be the same as “your justice” because they are determined by a transcending reality of what is true, and good, and beautiful.

Saint Thomas Aquinas says that religion is a practical part of the virtue of justice: it is only right to praise, to give thanks to God. It is the right thing to do. It opened my heart to think of justice as a real thing, not just a feeling of fairness or unfairness.

As I said in my homily last weekend, we grapple with so many predictions and examples given in Sacred Scripture about the end times, and we can obsess about it, losing our peace. As a child, my family was not healthy, anxious about the last days. You can forget who is in charge (God) and whose beloved creation we are (God is love). Jesus says all of this is give us the opportunity to give our testimony. He quickly says that we are not to worry about what we are going to say, he has it covered. He will give us the words and the right time to say them. Do not worry; not a hair of your head will be destroyed.

I saw this new vision with all of your generosity for our Rise Against Hunger parish work of mercy. I witnessed your testimony. So much goodness, so much family.

I saw the opposite, perhaps the solution for this preoccupation with the end of the world. I looked out at all of you in the gym for meal packing seven shifts and I saw you, the heavenly Jerusalem. “One Body, one Spirit in Christ.” Remember, the Kingdom of God is both already and not yet. We are already able to live the life beyond the tribulations. 34 event staff volunteers, 789 parishioner volunteers, many working more than one shift, living the Kingdom.

Two shifts of students in the school, 472 in all, including PreK and kindergartners who labeled several thousand bags to receive the food. Our SPRED, or special religious education kids – staff in school and in the parish, our friends at Greenspring who labeled nearly 10,000 bags. already living the Kingdom.

We purchased and produced 175,000 meals which will run a school lunch program in Timor Leste for kids who actually will get an education because they come to school knowing there will be food. They can discover a hunger for learning because their hunger for food is satisfied.

So we can focus on the mess – and our world is certainly a real mess – but you filled my heart with hope and a vision that we have found a way not to be indifferent to those in need, and at the same time be able to see beyond the limits of this troubled world. Living in the moment, caring, but also living beyond it.

At that moment of judgement and justice, Jesus said whatever you do for the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you have done for me.

I want to give special thanks to all of you who made heaven present for a couple of rare days as we united over a common goal of feeding the hungry. We are especially grateful to our parish and volunteer event staff whose dedication and hard work organizing and executing Rise Against Hunger. We give particular thanks to Rick Caporali, Melba Padilla, Jean Corday, Sharon Hanson, Terri Moran, Karen Meyer, Amy Wade, and all those who played key roles in fundraising, logistics and feeding the team! It is great to work with you!

The Lord be with you,