February 12, 2023

I grew up in a Catholic family in Vietnam.  We attended Sunday Mass faithfully, but rarely engaged in any activities of the parish, like small groups or faith formation or service ministries.  I had little or no commitment to the parish beyond attending Mass there.  Looking back, I can see I had missed out on the experienced response of the community to God that flows from the Mass.  I had a measure of faith, but that faith was not quite properly nurtured through engagement and sharing with the community.  Ironically, I began to experience and learn to value the community of faith during the time I was engaged in an evangelical church. I was involved in small faith-sharing groups and was engaged in serving the church in various ways.  When I came back to the Catholic Church, I was much more ready to commit myself to a parish, a local community of disciples who seek to live the values of the Gospel.  This local parish became my spiritual home.  It was within this parish community that my spiritual growth and eventual discernment to the priesthood took root, through the liturgy and active participation in the faith community.  I was glad to commit my time, talents, and treasure to God’s service in and through my home parish.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus declares that he has come to fulfill the Law that was given through Moses to the people of Israel as part of a covenant that God established with the people upon their liberation from slavery.  The Law, founded on the wisdom of God who understands man’s every need, gives people a choice between life and death, good and evil.  The Law guides and teaches the people to live justly, relating to God rightly and taking care of one another and the environment.  God called the people to commit themselves to the Covenant and live out the precepts of the Law and benefit from that commitment.  If the people do commit themselves to the Law, they will increase and thrive.  If they neglect or reject it, they will decline and diminish. Jesus declares that he is fulfilling this Law, even by going beyond it in some instances, anticipating the New Covenant established in his blood.  He established this New Covenant with his people, the Church, which becomes his very Body.  Salvation, freely offered in this Covenant, is liberation from sin, personal and corporate, by being in union with Jesus Christ and his Body through faith.  Jesus Christ established the sacraments as visible and concrete signs of the life-giving union with his Body.  

Concretely, the Church, Christ’s Body lives in a community of parishioners in a diocese--the local Church--and by extension, a parish, Christ the King.  A parishioner is a person who is joined to the Body of Christ and committed to be his disciple. Every parishioner is called to be united with Christ and his Body through the holy sacraments and live out Christ’s law of love through active participation in their spiritual home. They are glad to commit their time, talents, and treasure to God’s service through their home parish here at Christ the King. This parish is my spiritual home for now.  But it is your spiritual home, maybe, for the rest of your life. Maybe for the generations that come after you. This is the community of faith in which we grow spiritually through committed and active engagement in the response to God’s call.  Every parishioner is called to respond to God as Jesus did: “Behold, I come to do your will, O God” or “You can count on me!”  

Over the next few weeks, we will be focusing on our parish community and why it is so important to you and your family to have a spiritual home here at Christ the King and be here with us for Mass. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are here waiting for you to say yes to. They are waiting in the small group formations that help you gain a better understanding of what God is calling you to do. They are waiting in forming our youth into the next generation of disciples. They are waiting in serving your brothers and sisters in the pews with you today. Make your spiritual home here at Christ the King by saying “You Can Count on Me!”. Not just on paper, but in actions and being aware and present to the call of God.

- Fr. Sang Quan

February 19, 2023

It’s now been three years since that day in early 2020 when the edict came to shut down public Mass and gatherings in the parish due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  I still remember vividly celebrating Mass in an empty sanctuary.  Christ was present, but his Body, the Church was not visibly present in person.  And even though our parish was re-open for public worship just a few months afterwards, Mass attendance was severely affected, and only recently that it came back to be anywhere close to what it was before.   During that time, some parishioners have moved away, others have not yet come back for various reasons, and new people have started to come to CTK.   

We have been inviting our parishioners to come back in person and to re-engage with their brothers and sisters in parish life through the sacraments, faith and spiritual formation, community service, support of the parish, and other ministries and activities.  Many have responded, and parish life has grown so much more vibrant than when we first emerged from the shutdown.  Last week we reflected on what it means to be a parishioner: to commit to a local parish as your spiritual home, and to engage in the life of that spiritual home.  It is in this spiritual home that your faith can grow through the relationships you build.  It is a school of love, beyond your own family.  If you consider Christ the King your spiritual home, a simple and tangible way to demonstrate your commitment is to register. 

Practically speaking, parish registration greatly helps me, your pastor, and the staff to keep you informed of what is happening at Christ the King and identify opportunities for you and your family to be engaged in parish life and grow spiritually.  Since our parish community is always changing, having an accurate record of parishioners and household members helps us better assess our community’s needs, and guide our planning and use of resources to address those needs.  

Soon all parishes in the diocese will be transitioning to a new parish database.  It is important for Christ the King to have accurate information for each of the registered households prior to this transition.   For these reasons, I invite you to register or ensure your membership information is current.  Each of you, whether a recent or long-time parishioner, is a treasure and blessing to our parish family.  It is a joy to be your pastor and a fellow parishioner at Christ the King.  I warmly invite you to be fully engaged in our parish family life as a response to the Lord’s call: “Here I am, Lord.  You can count on me!”

-Fr. Sang Quan

February 26, 2023

 I came to the US as a refugee with my family almost fifty years ago, with just the clothes on my back.  Yet we never lacked anything.  In the early days, all our needs were provided for through the generosity of the Christian people of this country.  Their generosity reflects the generosity of God who gives us life and the resources needed for life and growth.  Indeed, everything that we are and possess is a gift from God.  The proper response from us is gratitude and trust, as expressed in the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer: Priest: “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.”  People: “It is right and just.”  

 We give thanks through participating with Jesus Christ’s eucharistic prayer (prayer of thanksgiving at Mass) and offering back to God of the gifts he gives us in the first place.  This offering, called the “tithe” in the Old Testament, can be generally defined as the tenth part of the increase arising from the profits of land and stock” (a tenth of our income).  Under the Mosaic Law, the people of Israel are expected to set apart (make holy) a tenth of their increase as an offering to God.  They can give 10% in kind or 12% in money (Leviticus 27:30-34). This practice is to help them remember that God owns everything. Later, through the prophet Malachi, the Lord challenges the people of Israel to test Him, as He will pour out his blessings upon them as they give Him his due from their first fruit (Malachi 3:10).   

 As Christians, we’re no longer under the Mosaic Law.  We are under the law of grace in the New Covenant established through Jesus Christ’s act of self-sacrifice.  In response to this gift of new life, we, just as the people of Israel, are called to give bountifully from gratitude and trust, without sadness and compulsion, “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:6,7).  

As a fundamental aspect of being disciples of Jesus Christ, we learn to trust God as we offer our tithes as “first fruits”:  trusting him to take care of our needs, we give to God from our first fruits, not from what is left over.  Concretely, a good starting point is to offer God, at a minimum, the equivalent of the first hour of each week’s salary or income.  If you already give your first hour, prayerfully consider increasing your gift toward four hours of your weekly salary (10% of 40 hours work week), or more as the Lord leads.   One guideline would be to give 5% of our income to our parish, 3% to the Diocese (Catholic Services Appeals), and 2% to second collections and other charities. 
 
Your “first fruit” offerings allow us to maintain the parish and all the things in it: most importantly the Sacraments. They help the parish in our religious education program, spiritual and faith formation, social outreach, such as prison ministry, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Body of Christ Clinic, tuition assistance for local Catholic schools, employees' salaries, facilities, and other necessary expenses. Every time you make your offerings using the envelopes provided by the parish or by giving online, you demonstrate “Here I am, Lord.  You can count on me!”

-Fr. Sang Quan

March 5, 2023

In the first reading God called Abram to leave the comfort and security of his native home and move to a distant and unknown land.  God promised to bless him and make him a blessing to all the communities of the earth.  In the past three weeks, we explored and reflected on the call to be a parishioner, and how to demonstrate our commitment to the parish, our spiritual home, through registration and tithing.  God blesses us through our faithful engagement in this spiritual home, and causes us to be a blessing to one another and to the whole community.

    In last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus proposes to us three practices that will greatly enhance our spiritual growth, if we do them with the proper motives and attitudes.  These forty days of Lent gives us a unique opportunity to exercise these practices to form or enhance habits that are of great value to our spiritual life.  Instead of focusing of “giving up things for Lent,” perhaps it’s more fruitful to cultivate our attitudes of heart through these practices. First, prayer:  I engage in personal or affective prayer to deepen my relationship with God, to better hear him say to me “I love you – I delight in you.” We also participate in communal and liturgical celebration (the sacraments) to participate in Christ’s prayer for the world.

    Next, the practice of fasting at intervals is meant to enhance humility and my sense of dependency on God and also can be good for our physical health.  Fasting needs not be confined to physical food.  It can be a spiritual exercise to reflect, reevaluate and detach myself from attitudes and habits that are not conducive to my spiritual, emotional, or physical wellbeing, freeing up time and other resources for my own spiritual growth and the service of others. 

    Last is almsgiving, which is typically associated with giving to the poor.  One good way to practice almsgiving is through tithing from my “first fruits” to my parish, my spiritual home. Through the offering of my “first fruits” to the parish, I support the parish’s mission of bringing God’s love and wisdom to address both spiritual and physical needs in the community and beyond.  The fruit of my commitment is my own spiritual maturity, giving me greater trust in God, freeing me from fear for my own security, and allowing me to become a blessing for others.

    Someone said that the spiritual life can be summed up in one pithy sentence: “Your being, your spiritual life, increases in the measures that you give it away.”  I asked each family last week to pray and discern tithing to your parish as the Lord bless you.  God does not dictate how much we give, but he wants us to give generously, gladly and without feeling guilty.  I trust that you have taken time to pray and receive a measure of freedom to participate in the mission of the parish through the offering of your “first fruits.”  I will now ask you to make a simple promise with freedom and trust for this year.     

- Fr. Sang Quan

March 12, 2023

We hear in today’s Gospel the life-changing encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan at Jacob’s well.  Impelled by the divine thirst for humanity, Jesus reached across religious, social, ethnic, and gender boundaries to offer the Samaritan woman living water. In asking her for a drink from the well, he wanted to give her the Spirit of God, the spring of living water welling up to eternal life.  In the ensuing conversation, the woman began to have an intuition that Jesus might be the Christ when he revealed to her details of her life that no stranger could have known. She discovered that she was not locked in her past. With a beginning of faith, she became a missionary to her own people, and her testimony bore abundant fruit: this formerly religiously marginalized group of people came to believe in Jesus and received him as the Savior of the world through their own encounter of faith with him. They were incorporated into the people of God and were on their way to become a community of faith.  

    In the same vein, Jesus Christ has entrusted to us as a community of disciples, the mission of bearing witness to him to people we encounter in our daily life. The parish, our spiritual home, helps form our faith to carry out this critical mission. The people of Israel, in the first reading, struggled with trust in God as they journeyed in the desert toward the promised land: “Is the Lord in our midst or not (to take care of us)?” On this journey of Lent, we have the opportunity to reflect on our own experience of God. As we commit ourselves and engage in the life of the parish, the relationships we build and the activities we participate in can be invaluable in helping us discover God’s presence in our midst.  

    Last weekend, I asked each family to discern prayerfully and make a simple promise to give to the parish from your “first fruits.” So many of you exercised your trust in God and stepped forward with your commitment. I want to thank you for your generosity and faithfulness toward your spiritual home and its mission. Your contribution and engagement in parish life allow God’s presence to manifest, here on the church campus, and beyond. May the Lord truly bless you as you look to him in trust and respond to him “You can count on me!”

- Father Sang Quan