Deacon's Homily: Institutional Failures and Who We Serve

Dear Martin Saints community,

Back in June, Archbishop Nelson assigned me to a new parish, Our Mother of Consolation in Chestnut Hill. OMC is about ten minutes down the road from Martin Saints, just inside the Philly city limits. This new assignment changes almost nothing connected with my regular work at school. I'm still on the job at MSC! However, the new assignment does reconnect me with my neighborhood parish, so, among other things, it makes life a little easier for my family.

Today at OMC, a handful of Martin Saints friends happened to be at Mass. Some of them encouraged me to share today's homily with our school community. I miss everyone at MSC, and am happy to be in touch over the summer, so here it is.

Homily preview: the tragedy this week in Afghanistan is the latest in a long litany of recent institutional failures. COVID, George Floyd, the election, January 6: the hits keep coming. Where do we stand in the face of all this bad news? Who do we serve? What (or who) is our anchor? Today's lectionary scriptures help sharpen the question.

School starts soon. Mr. Dickerson, the teachers, and I are all hard at work getting ready. Let's pray for each other in these final weeks of summer for the year ahead.

Pax Christi,
Deacon Roberts