Are We Getting It Right? - Family Reflection Video

Today is my mother’s birthday, and I proudly used to say that she was born on St. Valentine’s Day. And I am sure you hoped to hear me say Happy Valentine’s Day! However, the Church in recent years has changed the liturgical focus of this day from St. Valentine to the great missionaries of the Slavs, Sts. Cyril and Methodius.   

These two brothers were born in the ninth century and named co-patrons of Europe by St. John Paul II.  They served as a spiritual bridge between the Eastern and Western traditions. They served as missionaries to Russia and then to Moravia in Eastern Europe. They translated the Latin liturgy into the Slavic language. Although this vernacular movement was met with opposition, especially from the German Synod of Bishops, several far-sighted popes supported them. Sts. Cyril and Methodius are great examples of missionary work, long-suffering, and courage.    

In our first reading today, we hear that God is disappointed and has second thoughts about having created human beings because they have become radically evil. In His disappointment and frustration, God decides to wipe them out; but He would provide a way for Noah and his family to be saved because Noah had found favor with God.  God said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone . . . have I found to be truly just.”    

In today’s gospel, Jesus uses the leaven, or yeast, in bread to warn the disciples not to assume the sinful attitudes of the Pharisees but to remember everything they have seen and heard as they have traveled with him. 

Noah got it right. Sts. Cyril and Methodius got it right. St. Valentine got it right. Many saints of our time have done and are doing it right.  

Are we getting it right?  Are we acting justly in our family, community, and society?  Are we doing the work God has for us with courage and boldness?

• Today’s readings

• Father Pinto's inspirational homily was recorded live this morning during Mass at the Father Peyton Center. Please view the video on our Facebook page. (You don't need a Facebook account to view.) 

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