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Pastoral Messages

Rights and Responsibilities

As we continue our journey of learning about Catholic Social Teaching, this month our focus is on the principle of Rights and Responsibilities.

This principle teaches us that, because every person, created in the image and likeness of God, possesses inherent dignity, they have fundamental rights that must be respected and protected.

These include the right to life, food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education, meaningful work, and religious freedom. These rights are not earned or granted by society; they flow directly from our God-given worth.

At the same time, rights cannot be separated from responsibilities. Catholic Social Teaching reminds us that we are not isolated individuals, but members of families, communities, and a global human family. Therefore, we have responsibilities to respect the rights of others, care for the vulnerable, contribute to the common good, and act with justice and charity in our daily lives. Our responsibilities extend to our families, our workplaces, our parish, our nation, and the wider world.

Living out this principle calls us to both advocate for just structures that protect human rights and to examine our own choices and attitudes. As disciples of Christ, we are invited to promote a society where everyone’s dignity is honored and where love of neighbor guides both our rights and our responsibilities.

For more information, visit the USCCB site here.

Blessings this week,

~Deacon Jim

An Introduction to the Sunday Scripture Readings - May 31, 2026

“For God So Loved The World, He Gave His Only Son . . .”

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity always falls on the Sunday after Pentecost. It celebrates the most central mystery of our faith, the mystery of “God in Himself” (CCC 234). While this is a mystery that is beyond our understanding, God still reveals himself in ways that we can understand. One of the most prominent ways God reveals Himself is through Scripture, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. We see in all of our readings today evidence of the revelation of the Holy Trinity.

In our first reading (Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9), we hear the story of Moses going back up Mount Sinai with new tablets after he destroyed the first tablets of the ten commandments because of the Israelites infidelity. Reading this passage in light of what we know of the New Testament, we see evidence of the Trinity revealed—God the Father, hidden in the cloud (a representation of the Holy Spirit), and the Lord “stood with Moses” as prefiguring Jesus, the Son of God. The name LORD capitalized in the Old Testament was typically a representation of the unspoken “YWYH” or Yahweh.

In our Epistle reading (2 Corinthians 13:11-13), we hear the conclusion of St. Paul’s second letter to the Church in Corinth. In this letter, Paul was correcting some of the divisions and false teachings and attitudes of the early Christians. In his concluding prayer, we hear one of the clearest representations of the Holy Trinity in all of the New Testament.

In our Gospel reading (John 3:16-18), we hear one of the most famous passages of the New Testament, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” We see here clear reference to God the Father and God the Son.

Every time we dip our fingers in holy water and bless ourselves, we celebrate the sign of the cross; and we celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity— ”In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. At the beginning of every Mass, we always hear the greeting of the priest taken from today’s Epistle reading, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”

bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/053126.cfm

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