Message from Fr. Manny Alvarez

Church of the Little Flower

My Dear Friends:

Today we celebrate Catechetical Sunday as we commission the catechists and teachers of our parish and school for the good work they do in transmitting the faith to our children. Our catechists are truly some of the unsung heroes of our parish as they volunteer their time to teach our little ones after they’ve finished a long day of school. It’s a labor of love to prepare them for the sacraments and to be missionary disciples. Our St. Theresa teachers dedicate their entire lives to the cause of Catholic education and embrace teaching as a vocation and not a job.

The theme of this year’s Catechetical Sunday is “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…to bring good news to the poor (Lk 4:18; cf. Is 61:1).”

To quote from the U.S. Bishop’s website: “[This passage from the gospel] reveals Jesus’ mission and identity. Anointed by the Holy Spirit, he is sent to bring hope, healing, and freedom especially to the poor, the brokenhearted, and the forgotten. This passage shows that the Messiah comes not with power or status, but with compassion, restoring dignity and proclaiming God’s mercy. It also becomes a model for the Church, us, which is called to continue Christ’s work by sharing the Good News and caring for those most in need.”

So many times, I wander over the cafeteria on a Wednesday afternoon/evening to visit the children of Religious Education. Many are engaged, but some are, let’s face it, disinterested, and some simply do not want to be there. I know that when I attended CCD here at Little Flower on a school day afternoon way back in the 1980’s, I did not want to be here. And go figure, that catechist was teaching a future priest … and the future pastor of the parish to boot.

Which is why the theme for this year resonates with me so much. While our children are not poor by worldly standards, their attention is being spread across so many distractions that faith, unfortunately, takes a back seat. This is where parents, the primary catechists of our children, need to step up and make faith THE most important part of family life. Sadly, we have too many of what I call “parking lot parents.”

These are parents who probably haven’t been to church since baptizing their children and when First Communion time comes along, they register their children and just drop them off at CCD as if they were dropping them off at soccer practice or ballet and then don’t come to Mass on Sundays where our faith comes to life. And yes, this applies to some of our Catholic school parents as well whose children spend 8 hours every day in a school run by Carmelite Sisters.

This is why I look upon our little ones like our Lord looked on his people with pity because our children deserve better. The deserve the full experience of the beauty of our Catholic faith. A beauty that comes to life and reaches its summit in the celebration of the Mass.

Maybe the theme for this year should be “Don’t Be a Parking Lot Parent.” But I trust in our bishops and the spiritual theme they have chosen and ask for the Spirit of the Lord to come down upon all our school and religious education children and their parents, so that all of us, working together may raise these children to be what God wants them to be: saints!

Fr. Manny Alvarez
Pastor