St. Joseph's Catholic Church

Weekly Announcements
Month of the Blessed Sacrament

1. We are always in need of various projects to be done or completed. If you have maintenance skills, please see Father to assist. We are also in need of volunteers to provide the morning meal for the needy.
2. Envelopes are available for Mother’s Day and the Month of May.
3. On May 1, the parish will have a dinner in honor of Saint Joseph. A special Mass in his honor will be celebrated at 5:30pm with a spaghetti dinner afterwards. All parishioners are invited.
4. On Wednesdays at 6:00pm there is the weekly Church gathering where there will be the opportunity to join in discussions of the Catholic Faith, History and Sacred Scripture. Everyone is invited. Adults preparing for Sacraments must attend.

Third Sunday after Easter
By the Fathers of the Church

THE VENERABLE BEDE, PRIEST AND DOCTOR
I Will See You Again: the Christian's Hope

Then follows: A woman when she is in labour, hath sorrow, because her hour is come. He speaks of the Holy Church as the woman, because of her fruitfulness in all good, and because she never ceases to bring forth children to God. And of her elsewhere is it said: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened (Mt. xiii. 3 3; Lk. xiii. 21). The woman takes the leaven, as the Church takes from the Lord the divine gift of faith and love. She hides this in three measures of flour until the whole is leavened; as she has ministered the word of life in Asia, Africa, and Europe, until all the earth is set on fire with the love of the kingdom of heaven. He shows that He belongs to the members of this Woman who in sorrow declares to certain persons who were falling away from the purity of the Faith: My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you (Gal. iv. 19). They testify they are her members who inflamed with heavenly desires cry out in praise of their Creator: From thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived and brought forth, and have been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind. But this woman when she is in labour hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world (Is. xxvi. 17). For as long as she is steadfast in this world in advancing in virtue, she will never cease to be harassed by the trials of the world; but when she has overcome in the contest of her labours, and attained to the palm of victory, she remembers no more the anguish that is now ended because of her joy in the reward received. For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be received in us (Rom. viii. 18).

She remembers no more, He says, the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. For as the woman rejoices that a man is born into the world, so also is the Church filled with becoming exultation at the birth of the Christian people into life eternal; because of whose birth she now grieves and is in labour, as a woman who brings forth in this present life. Nor should it seem strange to anyone that he is said to be born who departs from the present life. For just as he is said to be born who comes forth from his mother's womb into this light of ours, so also may he most justly be said to be born who delivered of the bonds of the flesh is uplifted to light eternal. For this reason is it the custom of the Church to call those days in which the passing of the Martyrs and Confessors of Christ is commemorated, not funeral celebrations, but Birth Festivals, or Natalitia. The Lord then goes on to explain this figure of the woman He has put before us. 

So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you. This is easily understood of the Disciples; for they had to mourn over the slain and buried Christ; but after the glory of the Resurrection, they were glad when they saw the Lord. And their joy no one takes from them; for though in the days that followed they suffered persecution and torment for Christ's Name, yet they suffered these things gladly: for they were inflamed with the hope of resurrection and the hope of seeing Him. Indeed, they counted it all joy when they met with trials of every kind (Jas. i. 2). For even when they were scourged by the chiefs of the priests, They went from, as it is written, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Christ (Acts v. 41). 

Their joy no one takes from them; for by suffering such things for the sake of Christ they merited to reign with Christ forever. And the whole Church likewise, amid the trials and labours of this present life, goes steadily forward to the reward of eternal joy; as the Apostle bears witness: That through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God (Acts xiv.21). 

When He said: I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, He meant: I will see you; I will snatch you from the jaws of your enemies; I will crown you as victors; I will prove to you that I was ever with you as a witness while you fought. For when would He not see His own, especially in the midst of trials, since He has promised to be with them all the days of this world? And as the faithful died in the midst of their sufferings, their torturers believed that they were without divine aid; saying: Where is their God? For this, one such as these, hedged about with torments, cries out: Behold, O Lord, my afflictions, because the enemy is lifted up (Lam. i. 9); which is as if he were openly to say: Since the enemy who torments me raises his head in pride against thy lowly ones, sustain us by thy help, O Triumphant Creator; prove to us when our enemies are defeated and driven off that thou hast seen our struggles, and that they were pleasing to Thee. So after their tribulation the Lord sees the Elect when, the enemy condemned, He gives them the reward of their patience. 

We can interpret the words: I will see you again, as though He said: I shall appear to you who now see me; as He said to Abraham: Now I know that thou fearest God (Gen. xxii. 12); just as though He said: Now I have made men know that you fear God, they who till now knew not what was ever known to Me. If then, Brethren, we are afflicted by salutary suffering, if according to the exhortation of the Apostle, we are patient in tribulation; instant in prayer (Rom. xii. 12), if with due sorrow we weep for our own errors and for the miseries of our neighbours, the Lord will see us again; that is, He will show Himself to us in the future Who once deigned to see us and bestow on us the knowledge of His Faith. He will see us that He may crown us Who once saw us that He might call us. He will see us and our heart will rejoice, and our joy no man shall take from us; for this is the sole and true reward of those who sorrow for God's sake; to rejoice for ever in His sight.

This reward on high He promised when He said: Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God (Mt. v. 8). The psalmist longed for this reward when He cried: My soul hath thirsteth after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of the living God? (Ps. xli. 3). This the Apostle rejoiced that with others like him he might receive; who though conscious of his own struggles could yet confidently proclaim: We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face (I Cor. xiii. 12). Relying on God let us also truly seek to lay hold of this reward, until we come to see Him Who is the Help of those who fight, and the Reward of those who win, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

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