HUNTERSVILLE — Families attended a special outdoor Mass on the St. Mark School field Aug. 30 to start the new school year. Father Alfonso Gámez welcomed more than 400 people – physically distanced and wearing masks – to the Mass.
In his homily, he talked about all the adjustments the schools have made to provide safe, in-person learning during the pandemic. “What resolution, what grace and what love for our students these teachers imbued in their efforts to make these teaching accommodations in the midst of all of the health concerns that we are currently undergoing. Why would we put ourselves through so much difficulty?
I think that at the end of the day, parents do everything for the happiness of their child. But the reality is that while we’re here in this world, we experience that contrary and bad things happen. As a Christian, we should be able to say, in some sense, ‘Lord, thank you.
Thank you for this ability to be free from my comforts because I know you have something better.’ The hope is that at a Catholic school, you learn to become a disciple, a follower of Christ. It’s not a life of being able to just ride along through life. It is one of carrying the cross. But although the cross is heavy and painful at times, it is also healing. It frees us from the attachments to this world to find our true happiness.
I know the Lord has many surprises for us for the rest of the year. We trust in His goodness. We trust in His providence and we trust that the Lord has, in His mercy, the ability to bring good out of difficulty.
And so, though the next few months are certainly veiled to us, we as Christians embrace it because we know there’s a loving God and there is something better. Like C.S. Lewis said, ‘The best is yet ahead of us.’ And so with great confidence, we run to that future knowing that the Lord is continually guiding us, guiding us to be free and to be happy in eternity.”
— Photos provided by Amy Burger
