Pastor’s Weekly Message 6-2-19

Hard to say “Goodbye”

Dear Friends of Carmel Mission,

I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to say “Goodbye” to people, especially when they have become part of my life.

I always remind myself that, God willing, I shall see them again one day. Goodbye comes from the original blessing: “God be with ye.” In a secular society and a post-modernist, atheistic age, all sense of the original meaning of the word is far from the minds of most people. In other languages, a similar sense of a commendation to God is the basis of this farewell greeting. In French, we say “Adieu”, (A Dieu) and in Spanish we say “Adios”, (A Dios).

On this Ascension weekend, we can empathize with the disciples of Jesus, who saw Him disappear from sight. They kept gazing up into the clouds that had embraced Him, long after He was gone. An angel finally appeared to them and more or less told them to move from the mountain and return to the city, where they had much work to do. We can imagine their tears, their heartbreak, their wonderment at all that had happened them during the three years He had been with them. 

The disciples spent three years preparing for a long Goodbye. They would soon learn, through the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the true meaning of Goodbye. We also live our lives 

learning the same lesson – that when we part from someone, it is merely a temporary time of absence and that love alone lasts forever.

Let me leave you with the final words from the poem “Adios”, by Naomi Shihab Nye, one of my favorite poets:

Think of what you love best,

What brings tears into your eyes.

Something that said adios to you 

before  you knew what it meant 

or how long it was for.

Explain little. The word explains itself.

Later perhaps. Lessons following lessons,

like silence following sound.

Blessings,

Fr. Paul 

Please take a moment to read our Carmel Mission weekly bulletin.

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