Auntie Donna is a long time parishioner at Saint Anne. She grew up in the Fremont-Union City-Newark Tri-Cities before they were cities, when most of this was farmland; before Saint Anne was a parish, when it was a mission church (like a satellite church) of Saint Edward. I see Auntie Donna as one of our matriarchs, a heart of our parish.
I got to know Auntie Donna more in recent years when I started attending Sunday 8 am Mass more. After Mass, she’d make her rounds greeting friends and family and I was fortunate to become included in that. She’d exchange a hug and a kiss and share stories and connect and I’d bask in the warm sunshine of her love.
For health reasons, Auntie Donna moved out of the area a few months ago. Some of our Masses are livestreamed to the homebound and private links are shared with Auntie Donna. One time, after my wife, Valerie, lectored at Mass, Auntie Donna called her and shared how much she missed being here with us. We miss her, too. Now every time I’m at church, I look over at the camera and know that Donna is watching and sending her love.
I share this story because Auntie Donna helps me get a sense of how much God misses us and wants to be close to us. God’s original plan was for Adam and Eve to stay in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve’s choices in the first reading from Genesis meant that they had to come down to earth and be separated from God. Knowing how much Auntie Donna misses us and how much we miss her when she’s 69 miles away, how much more does God miss us.
In the second reading today, Saint Paul examines all that was lost when Adam and Eve made their choice and what God gave us in sending Jesus to be among us, to pay the price for what Adam and Eve did and for all our sins, to make it possible for all of us to be with God again in the Garden of Eden, in heaven. God did this out of love, because of how much God misses us and wants to be with us.
This Sunday is the start of Lent. I hope you spend the time thinking about how much God loves you and how much you love God. What are some things you can do in the next six weeks to get closer to God?
I have another personal story to share: I was born in the Philippines and came to the United States soon after. My family took me back there for a visit when I was ten years old. When we arrived in Manila, I remember we walked outside the airport… I was blinking in the bright sunshine, it was hot, and I was surrounded by a mass of people. Out of nowhere, I saw my Lolo running towards me (I didn’t know he could move that fast, he was over 70 years old), then he picked me up (I didn’t know he was strong enough to lift me), he squeezed me tight and spun me around (I didn’t know he was that strong).
I imagine God misses each one of us and loves each one of us that much and infinitely more.
--Alfred