From the Pastor's Desk | August 27, 2023

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Fr. Peter Omogo

This weekend, we warmly welcome Fr. Peter Omogo, a priest of the Diocese of Abakaliki in Nigeria. He is one of five children born to devout Catholic parents. His brother, Samuel, was director of Catholic societies in the Diocese of Abakaliki but sadly died in 2011. After graduating from high school, Fr. Peter applied to the diocese for sponsorship in a seminary program to study for the priesthood. He was sent to Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu, Nigeria. After nine years of study, he earned degrees in both philosophy and theology. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2004. In the fall of 2008, he was sent to Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio to complete a Masters degree in leadership and administration. He was assigned to various parishes throughout the Diocese of Grand Rapids, where he still currently serves, while he completed a doctorate in leadership and administration from Concordia University.  

He is the CEO of the Samuel Omogo Foundation which was founded by friends in honor of his late brother. The foundation secures funding for clean water wells in southeastern Nigeria. To date, they have funded 504 wells improving the quality of life for well over 350,000 Nigerians.

Fr. Peter joins us this weekend as our annual mission appeal preacher. He will be presiding at all the Masses, preaching the homilies, and asking for your generosity to help secure funding for more clean water wells. Please welcome him and pray about what you might be able to offer to help this worthy endeavor. 

Vocations

Please pray for more vocations from St. Martha Parish! I can promise you that God is calling, and my prayer is that our young men and women are listening. We need good and holy priests and sisters.

Our very own Ryan Ferrigan returned to seminary on Wednesday, August 23. He is entering his second year in theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary after coming off a very busy summer traveling to the Holy Land and Rome and working through a thirty-day Ignatian silent retreat with his theology class. Yes, you read that correctly - thirty days of silence! He wasn’t around the parish much this summer because of the travels he experienced as part of the seminary formation program. Next summer, Ryan will spend the majority of his time interning at a parish (yet to be determined by the vocations director). I’m bummed that he won’t be around! Please keep him in your prayers as he continues his discernment over this next year.

You have probably seen Sam Matias around the parish this summer, especially in the sanctuary as he serves Mass regularly. Sam graduated from Lansing Catholic High School this past spring. He is interning here at the parish over this next year while he continues to discern what the Lord is calling him to do. Sam will be helping with various liturgical functions and assisting with youth ministry and faith formation. He is a joy to have around the office!

The Keys to the Kingdom

In Isaiah 22, Eliakim succeeds Shebna as the master of the palace, a position akin to a prime minister, under King Hezekiah of Judah. We hear this in the first reading. The prophet goes on to say that the “key of the House of David will be placed on Eliakim’s shoulder”. Keys represent or symbolize authority. So, giving Eliakim the key of the House of David is equivalent to giving him, as the King’s representative, authority over the entire kingdom. We see in this passage a foreshadowing of what Christ, the King, does with Peter, the rock on whom Christ built His Church. Christ, the King, gives Peter, the vicar of Christ, the keys to the Kingdom and tells him whatever is bound on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven.

There is a lot that can be said about what Christ does in Matthew 16. We could talk about papal primacy. We could talk about the authority of the Church in many aspects, particularly in matters of faith and morals. But, I think it is important to highlight the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation otherwise known as “Confession”. Why Confession?

The Fathers of the Church have always seen this particular passage, known as the power of the keys, as proof of the Church’s authority to forgive sins. In book i, chapter xviii of De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine), St. Augustine writes, “He has given, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be loosed in heaven; that is to say, that whosoever in the Church should not believe that his sins are remitted, they should not be remitted to him; but that whosoever should believe and should repent, and turn from his sins, should be saved by the same faith and repentance on the ground of which he is received into the bosom of the Church. For he who does not believe that his sins can be pardoned, falls into despair, and becomes worse as if no greater good remained for him than to be evil, when he has ceased to have faith in the results of his own repentance.”

Elsewhere throughout the writings of the Fathers, we see that it has universally been understood that the keys to the kingdom were given not to Peter personally but, rather, as Peter the representative of the Church - the rock on whom Christ built His Church. The whole Church, therefore, has the power to forgive sins. We see this clearly in the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563). In chapter v of the fourteenth session of the council, the council fathers write, “...the universal Church has always understood that the complete confession of sins was also instituted by the Lord and is by divine law necessary for all who have fallen after baptism; because our Lord Jesus Christ, when about to ascend from earth to heaven, left behind Him priests, His own vicars… to whom all the mortal sins into which the faithful of Christ may have fallen should be brought in order that they may, in virtue of the power of the keys, pronounce the sentence of remission or retention of sins.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 533, notes that Jesus entrusted a specific authority to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The power of the keys designates authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his Resurrection by saying, "Feed my sheep." The power to "bind and loose" connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgments, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles and in particular through the ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of the kingdom.

All of this is to say that God, in His infinite mercy, has provided for us. He has provided for us a remedy to restore us back to our original baptismal state. Remember that, in baptism, we are washed away of both original and personal sin. After baptism, however, because of human weakness and concupiscence, we tend toward sin. Whenever we sin and are so disposed to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation to confess our sins, the Lord lavishes His love and mercy upon us. And, when we confess our sins, make a sincere though sometimes imperfect act of contrition, and satisfy our penances, we can be confident that we have been forgiven and restored to our original baptismal dignity; all because Christ chose to give this authority, the power of the keys, to Peter as His representative of the Church.

We have an awesome and merciful God!

Fr. Ryan