This Sunday we celebrate Catechetical Sunday with the theme of “Enlisting Witnesses for Jesus Christ”. This celebration highlights the importance of catechesis and the role of each one of us by virtue of baptism in handing on the faith and being a witness to our faith, especially in our time. According to a pew research, there is an increasing number of people who belong to the “none” group, meaning the group where they do not have any religious affiliation at all. We also heard some observations where parents are saddened that their children stop practicing their faith, if not leaving the church after preparing for and celebrating the sacraments of initiation - Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation.

We ask, why is this so? Why are they moving away from the life in Christ and His Body the Church? Who is to blame? The Church? The parents? Or it is just becoming a social trend influenced by worldly values and social media that the Church or teachings of the Church are no longer relevant in their personal lives?

I think to answer that question and observation, we need to go back to the basics. How did we act with our role in imparting our faith? Did we really do our part seriously, especially in their formational stage? Were we there, accompanying and helping them in understanding the faith?

It is said that the parents are truly the primary catechists of their children. They prepare the soil and plant the first seeds of the faith. The Church and the catechists or religious education teachers continue to nourish and mold them so they will have a strong foundation of faith. If all have done their part, then nobody will belong to the “none group” nor to those who step away from the Church because they were given a solid and strong foundation of faith.

And therefore, this Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to reflect, to renew and rededicate ourselves to the mission of sharing, teaching and giving witness to our faith.

I also would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you our new/updated parish mission statement that you probably have already seen in the past two issues on the front page of our weekly bulletin. It is a collective effort of our parish leadership team after reflecting on our parish journey.

St. Mary’s is a caring and welcoming family committed to building and strengthening a community of God, reaching out as disciples of Jesus Christ to Freeport and beyond.

As everybody feels, especially the new members of our parish family, they joined the parish because they experienced a caring and welcoming family. We want to perpetuate these traits and make it as our trademark in our parish. But we don’t want to end only in that aspect. We also want to commit to building and strengthening the relationship because in a family, it is very important that we know each other. And if we know each other, we can readily help and support one another. That is actually what Jesus did in His entire ministry. He let the people feel as though they were part of His family, especially the poor, the sick, the widowed and the orphans; until He formed His disciples, who then continued His mission. That is also what we want to happen in our parish - to form a disciple of Jesus Christ, ready to share, to reach out and give witness to our community and beyond.