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He only shuts up when he is writing!

A Different Way

5/31/2020

 
From the Pastor:    A Different Way

       Have you ever had a friend whose comments on Facebook always come across as bossy, too blunt, haughty, or even cruel, even when you know that they never meant any offense? People like that can be completely oblivious as to how they come across, even when they have it pointed out to them on a regular basis. They are, in a manner of speaking, tone deaf to their own words and, even reading them again and again, will not see why others don’t get what they write and how they write and what they meant when they wrote. That does not mean that they are bad people, in fact they may actually be your best friends and you enjoy everything else about them, so you, knowing them outside of their social media comments, can overlook this fault. Others, though, not knowing them or, after getting upset with their comments one too many times, just cannot stand them. Blocked. Defriended. Enough is enough.
       After setting this stage for you, what if the tone deaf person was your pastor? What if it wasn’t Facebook comments that he just couldn’t get right but rather it was his bulletin articles or his homilies? Yes, this is about me. I have been reminded once again by very well meaning and loving people, that I am tone deaf to what I write and preach. I can come across as giving vinegar rather than a refreshing drink of everlasting water, or as purposefully trying to raise a ruckus, or even to incite people’s wrath against, well, you name it: protestants, muslims, atheists, priests, bishops, the Pope, or the Church. I see myself as pointing out obvious and sometimes not so obvious disagreements in doctrine, Scripture interpretation, liturgy, and other issues, not to put the others down but to warn against indifferentism and other dangers to the one, true Faith. I don’t see publicly disagreeing with religious superiors about non-doctrinal issues as being disobedient or as biting the hand that feeds me, but others see it as being anything but Catholic and as being unfaithful, and certainly unloving. I read my words and hear my voice and believe that, while knowing that I am not coming across as sweet and cuddly, I am striking a good balance (usually--I really screw up royally once in while and know it) in laying out facts and opinions, moral goods and moral evils, apologetics for the Faith, lives of the Saints, and encouragement to grow in holiness. And even when people tell me that they don’t interpret me in the way I expect them to, I am tone deaf about what they see and hear.
       I really don’t want to be this way. I want to be able to hear constructive criticism, understand it as it is given, and change in such a way as to actually come across the way I already think I should be coming across. So today I am putting this in writing so that you can hold me accountable to it. That doesn’t mean that I am going to compromise the Faith, saying that sin is not sin or that everybody is going to Heaven no matter what they do or believe. No, I still have a duty to be fully and faithfully Catholic in all things but I will try to find a way to do it without being a jerk. There is bound to be someone reading this who is thinking, “But Father, I like the way you preach and the things you write!” and to you I say, “Thank you for the kind words that I just put into your mouth! But I am pastor to everybody else, too, and I must find a way to be ‘all things to all men, that I might save all’ as some famous guy once said. (Or did that come across as too cutesy, instead of just attributing the quote to St. Paul in 1 Cor. 9:22?)
       In the past few weeks I have used this space to vent my frustrations with Bishop Parkes specifically and many other bishops generically in their response to the coronavirus. I should not have done so and I am sorry to have forced my frustration upon you, adding to your own issues during these stressful times rather than helping alleviate your problems. I can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube, as the saying goes, but I can refrain from squirting out the next batch without purpose. I have written the bishop an apology directly, but it wasn’t until being called on the carpet that it even occurred to me that he might be very hurt by my writings. That is how tone deaf I really am. Now I apologize to those of you whom I have hurt due to my lack of taking your concerns seriously enough if you have come to me with issues of this kind. These are not empty words, I truly am sorry. I ask for your prayers in this endeavor to change. Just as I cannot imagine that Ernest Hemmingway could write a novel that sounded like William Faulkner had written it or that Ernest Borgnine could replace Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, neither do I expect that my writing and preaching will resemble anyone else’s but my own no matter how much I try to change. So please don’t expect me to become a clone of your favorite writer or homilist. But expect me to become better at being me. And hold me to it.

With prayers for your holiness,
Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka

​
Harold
6/2/2020 03:48:59 pm

Dear Father Edwin,
Your candor is commendable. Please don’t change though, it is not that you are deaf, it’s that we live in a modern society that believes they are entailed to receive “Sugar coated Gospel” of Jesus Christ. Well, Jesus Christ didn’t sugar coated anything. He gave words of consolation, but also threating words of damnation. Our Lord Jesus didn’t just speak words of Heaven, he also spoke very clearly about Hell. He told us “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves, you will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:15-20). It is your job to tell it as it is. Modern catholic has been fed with a false image of God’s mercy. Yes, God’s Mercy is infinite, but his justice is also constant. A wrong image of God has been formed by modernist, who preach of a wimpy God that forgives everything and do not demand anything. Well, the Only one God is not wimpy, this is the same God of old Testament who put everyone to the sword in Jericho (except Rahab at et), who wiped the city of Sodom and Gomora out of existence among other punitive measures. This wimpy portrait of Jesus is malignant image painted by modernists who believe everything can coexist. Oh no, Jesus is divisive and draws the line clearly in the sand: “no one can serve two masters”, don't you know that if you love the world, you are God's enemies? (Jm 4:4). God words are inflaming and irritating to wicked, after all, they condemned him to the death in the Cross. I thought your homily in this last Sunday was perfect. The problem is that people have lost the Holy Fear of God and the Truth of the Gospel has become repugnant to their ears. It is not that you are deaf, it is the people have become inebriated with Kool-Aid of the World and can’t see nor listen to the word of God as it is. Keep it up Fr. Edwin, you will be responsible for all souls that are lost. Better hurt their feeling than give them a half-truth, watered-down Catholicism. You owed obedience first and foremost to God (so is everyone). Keep it up dear priest, St. Peter, St. Paul…saint John Vianney patron of Priest will be proudly at your side at the day of Judgement. In the day of reckoning, the King will divide the people of the word in two, his sheep to right and the goats to the left. To those in the right he will say “come blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom of my Father. Then he will say to those on his left, ‘depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!...Not everyone that says Lord, Lord will be saved; only those who does his Will shall enter. Therefore, you must tell it as is, because there are perverters of the faith selling out a cheap vision of Jesus. It’s perfectly justifiable to hurt feeling to save souls. Your job is preaching the Gospel of Christ not make friends with everyone there is. Love also entails the chastisement to kill off wickedness and engender Holiness required to enter in Kingdom of God.

Sue Sims
6/7/2020 07:11:57 am

You're one of the major truth-tellers, Father. Don't stop.

Norma
6/7/2020 03:15:37 pm

Father Ed.,

I agree with Sue. Reading your articles are correct, enlightening and yes a bit funny. We live on the other coast of Fl. but while visiting family in Dade City, attending Mass at St. Anthony while you were Pastor was one of the highlights of our weekends. Please don't submit to compromise or badgering. We need you!

Rich
6/7/2020 04:17:56 pm

Father Ed, I have been reading your bulletins since you were at St. Anthony's and I try to keep up with them now also. I don't live close by, if I did I would attend your Mass as often as I could. I'm a Catholic that needs challenged, needs truth, and needs the faith that Jesus left us - I can't get that every where these days, but I do from you. I have always been able to get the UN-watered down version from you.

I even liked your logic concerning the virus seating. Some of us are just finding out that, even though serious, it was way overblown, and maybe even a tad political.

Please keep up your GREAT work and bulletin articles, I even steal a little from that at times to (try to) keep my friends straight. If I can help in any way, please let me know.

God bless, Rich

Anonymous
6/28/2020 12:57:26 am

6/27/20: Our Lady of Perpetual Hell

Dear Father,

Thank you for being remorseful about past negative public comments spoken and/or written about our bishop, and thank you for writing a letter of apology to him. When we read that bulletin article in which you excerpted parts of his letter about Sunday worship re-opening guidelines and followed them up with direct replies that were less than respectful, I did say to my husband that it is one thing for you to condemn U.S. bishops as a group but it is quite another for you to personally go after Bishop Parkes in such a public way.

As for the rest of your article, I applaud you for being sufficiently self-actualized that you realize there is room for improvement. At the same time, my family and I have never had a single complaint about your preaching about Scripture, the Magisterium, AHA priests, pornography, etc., so please do not change so much that you become unrecognizable.

Anonymous
6/28/2020 01:16:37 am

Because it is Mountain Time where we currently are, it is still Saturday, 6/27, so the previous note was supposed to be dated 6/27/20: Our Lady of Perpetual HELP, not Our Lady of Perpetual HELL!😆🙏😇


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  • Home
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  • Help! I cannot find the right Mass in my missal! I don't know when to sit, stand or kneel!
  • Pastor's bulletin article
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  • Youth Group!
    • Anima Christi
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  • Things that need doing
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  • CEW
  • Parish Business Directory