A Letter From Our Beloved Pastor Fr. Janusz

Karen Pepe • February 5, 2023

From the pastor’s desk, a long-delayed letter…

Dear Parishioners,

It has been over two months since I have been struck with a mysterious disease that caused an inflammation in my spinal cord and a subsequent paralysis of my lower body.  Yes, currently I am fully paralyzed from the waist down.  Perhaps you heard many contradictory explanations as to what had happened to me.  Although I spent six weeks in two hospitals, up to this day there is no clear answer to my condition; no doctor can really explain it either.  However, the doctors stick to the most probable diagnosis, namely, that it was caused by the Varicella Zoster virus, which was found in my spinal fluids.  Right now, I continue my treatment in the Kessler Rehabilitation Center in New Jersey.  I am very glad to be out of the hospital and to continue my way to a successful recuperation.

Though my condition is not easy, God gives me strength.  During my treatment I have gone through a lot of uncertainties, sometimes sadness, but never loneliness.  Thanks be to God, that a few loving and kind people were around me all the time, especially my closest friends and family, who helped me in my need.  In this regard I feel truly blessed.  I am also blessed with all the prayers and love that all of you have been sending to me, whether in the form of greeting cards, emails, or as simple assurance through other people.  THANK YOU!  I believe that your prayers help me to get through this difficult period of my life.  Please forgive me, that at the moment I am not able to respond to each of you individually.  Be assured that I hold you dear in my heart and I pray for each and every one of you, as well as for my dearest flock in East Patchogue every day, and each Sunday I offer for you a Holy Mass.

I am also grateful to the other priests who helped to cover all the masses and celebrations in our parish during this time.  Particularly, I thank Fr. Kevin Gruber, who has become one of ours, a member of our community.  This weekend you meet a new administrator of our parish.  This is a necessary step to continue a normal operation of St. Joseph the Worker Community.  Hopefully, this will be a temporary situation, and if this is the will of God, I will be back some time by the summer.  Please welcome Fr. John Jairo Granados Morales as he embarks on this new role.

I do not want to bore you with my condition only.  I think you deserve spiritual nourishment too.  So, I would like to share with you a short reflection on the upcoming Sunday’s readings.  In the second reading, St. Paul, a great and sophisticated theologian, reminds the members of the Church of Corinth that true wisdom does not come from the world or even from learning, but it can be found only in the cross of Jesus Christ: “I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).

St. Paul writes this letter to the Corinthians after having experienced a failure while trying to evangelize the citizens of Athens.  At Areopagus, Paul was appealing to the Greek wisdom and philosophy.  At his preaching in Athens, however, only two people decided to follow the way of Christ.  After that, Paul decided to preach Christ crucified.  From then on Paul’s preaching was not to be dependent on human intelligence, but it became “a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that [the faith of the believers] might rest not on human wisdom, but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5).  St. Paul understood the mystery of the Cross of Christ and now he lived it out in his very flesh.  He started sharing this mystery with all he met on his apostolic journeys, and because of that, many did join the way of Christ.  We too, if we want to truly comprehend the gospel of Jesus, must enter the mystery of the Cross, which is “foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

In this Sunday’s gospel our Blessed Lord Jesus tells the disciples that they must become the salt of the earth and light of the world.  The salt and the light are our faith in Christ Jesus, the Only Lord and Savior.  This too is part of the mystery of the Cross.  Those who were the fastest to comprehend Jesus’s teaching and grow in faith were those who were the closest to the Cross of Christ on Calvary: the Blessed Mother, the beloved disciples John, and Mary Magdalene.  There is a moral in this event for all of us too.  If we want to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, we must be faithful to Jesus and His Cross.  Let us remember that the one who runs away from the Cross, runs away from Christ and consequently runs away from the source of life.  Eventually he loses his salt and his light is dimmed.

I wish that you may embrace whatever crosses you may have in your life so that you may be joined to Jesus Christ and your faith may grow deeper and deeper for the rest of your life.

God bless. Fr. Janusz Mocarski, your pastor

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