2/5/2012 – Fifth Sunday of Ordinary time – Mark 1:29-39

        Jesus has just left the synagogue after teaching the people there as one with authority & after curing a man possessed with an unclean spirit.  He enters the home of Simon Peter & Andrew, encountering Peter's mother-in-law, who is sick with a terrible fever.  This simple description from Mark’s Gospel of how Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law not only gives us insight into Jesus' ministry & his proclamation of God’s kingdom, but it tells us a great deal about how we are a part of Jesus' ministry as his followers, how living out the values of our faith can bring wholeness and healing not only to ourselves, but to others.

         Think of this incident of healing Peter’s mother-in-law. You know, when we get sick here in modern America, we usually go to the doctor or to a hospital if it is a serious illness, or we get a prescription of medicine to help us get better.  Yet, when I worked as a missionary in the jungles of Ecuador for 3 years, far from a hospital and modern medicine, we often turned to a curandero for help, a traditional folk healer who often used physical touch, herbs, & other natural remedies to cure people from both physical & spiritual ailments. I remember one weekend I was visiting a small village deep in the jungle when I came down with a terrible fever.  I felt like I was on fire. The family I was staying with called the curandero, the village's folk healer, who gave me a boiling hot herbal mixture to drink. He then prayed over me and wrapped me up in wool blankets in order for me to sweat out the fever during night.  When I awoke the next morning, I was full of energy; the fever was just a distant memory. 

         The people of ancient Israel who heard this Gospel story would have been very familiar with the tradition of the folk healers that was prevalent in their society, just like the folk healers I encountered in Latin America.  The poor in ancient Israel had easy access to such healers, resorting to them frequently.  These folk healers often laid their hands on the sick people, using touch as an important component of the healing process.  The ancient Jewish people saw these folk healers as brokers of the gift of healing from God. 

         In this particular healing story of Jesus and the other healing stories told in the Gospels, Jesus does more than cure people from physical disease.  When we are physically ill, it involves a loss of meaning in one's life either from a physical impairment or from the loss of function in life.  We can see that the fever that debilitated Peter's mother-in-law kept her from fulfilling her role as the mother of the household.  When Jesus heals her of her fever, she rises at once to serve her family and her visitors. 

         Well, just what implications does Jesus' healing of Peter's mother-in-law have for all of us living in Mississippi in the 21st century, in a place & time so different from ancient Israel? Just as Jesus, the healer, restores meaning to the life of Peter's mother-in-law, he gives meaning to our lives, he heals us from our infirmities, he leads us away from those things that keep us from God.  Even beyond this, today's Gospel message challenges us to believe that we have the power to be a healing community of Jesus' followers, to bring the love of Christ to both our lives and the lives of those we interact with wherever we are.

         Jesus was present in incarnate form in ancient Israel, proclaiming the kingdom of God and touching the lives of the people there in so many ways.  We need to realize that Jesus is still incarnate in our world today in curing the sick, in preaching the Good News, and in expelling demons from our lives.  Jesus does this through you and me, through the members of his Church who are now the Body of Christ present here on earth.  If we, as a Church, truly live no longer for ourselves, but for Jesus and his people, then Jesus who lives in us will be free to continue his mission of healing & salvation to all the world. 

         In the midst of our modern lives, our faith still calls us to Jesus, to the Good News of new life in him.  St Teresa of Avila lived way back in the 16^th century. She is considered one of the greatest mystics who ever lived.  Yet, a prayer that she wrote is very rooted in our earthly presence, telling us how we can embody Christ, as Christ lives in us in order to help us to change the world and change the lives of others: “Christ has no body now but yours, no hands but yours, no feet by yours.  Yours are his eyes through which Christ's compassion must look out on the world.  Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.  Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.”  It is important for us to realize that as we do not live through our own power, we also do not bring healing or love to the world through our own power.  We bring love, compassion, and healing to others through Christ living in us, through the power of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 

         In Mark's portrait of Jesus in today's Gospel, we are given a reflection of what we are called to be, of the love and healing we are to bring to the world.  Like Jesus, the integrity in which we live out our Christian faith in our daily lives should give witness to the faith we profess.  It will give hope & light not only to own our lives, but to the world.

Those who sacrificed to pass down the faith to us...

This past week, we celebrated the conversion of St Paul on January 25, and then the memorial of St Timothy and St Titus on January 26.  Timothy and Titus were companions of Paul who helped him in his missionary endeavors.  When I was in the Glenwood Cemetery here in Yazoo City taking some photos of some graves to send to someone as part of some genealogical research, I passed by these graves of four nuns of the Sisters of Charity who died here in Yazoo City in the 1800s.  Three of them died of yellow fever, while the fourth died of cholera. These nuns traveled from Kentucky right after the Civil War in order to establish a Catholic school in Yazoo City.   We often take for granted the opportunity we have to go to church, often times in beautiful buildings and wonderful facilities.  Yet, do we really understand all of the sacrifices that prior generations made in order to pass down the faith to us?  

Winter in Yazoo City -

Today is January 26, but you would think it is the middle of springtime.  I took this photo this afternoon in front of our parish house in Yazoo City at St. Mary's.

1/29/2012 – homilia - el cuarto domingo del tiempo ordinario – Marcos 1:21-28

En nuestro Evangelio de hoy, la gente de Israel reconoce que Jesús habla con autoridad – con autoridad en la sinagoga en la asamblea de sábado, con autoridad cuando el demonio sale a su palabra, con una autoridad muy diferente que los maestros de la le.

         Hoy, no estamos en Israel en los tiempos de Jesucristo.  Estamos en una parroquia muy pequeña en un pueblo en Mississippi.  Pero Cristo nos enseña hoy como Él enseñó en esta sinagoga en Cafarnaúm.  Hoy, en su palabra, Él habla como alguien con autoridad.  Él nos ama y Él nos conoce.  Él nos trae la salvación y la redención. 

         Para las personas en el mundo antiguo en los tiempos de Jesucristo, ellos tenían creencia en los demonios, en el mundo do los espíritus.  Hoy, en nuestro mundo moderno, muchas personas piensan que esta creencia es una superstición. Tal vez no conocemos los demonios en la manera que ellos existen en el Evangelio de hoy, pero si, conocemos los demonios en nuestro mundo.  Podemos hablar con las personas que viven en las cadenas de las drogas y el alcohol.  Tenemos un mundo moderno donde hay mucha violencia doméstica, donde el terrorismo y el racismo ya viven.  Hay muchos demonios que nos asustan en nuestro mundo.

         Si, los demonios existen, pero la autoridad de Jesús existe también a su lado, a nuestro lado.  La autoridad de Jesús nos enseña y vence el mal.  Hay una oración que se llama la Oración de Serenidad.  Esta oración dice: “Dios, dame la serenidad de aceptar las cosas que no puedo cambiar; Valor para cambiar las cosas que puedo; y sabiduría para conocer la diferencia.”  Si,  hay las cosas en nuestra vida que podemos cambiar con nuestras fuerzas.  Pero, también, hay las cosas y los demonios que necesitamos dejar en los brazos de Jesús.   En el espíritu de Jesucristo, en el poder de su autoridad, podemos ser liberados de los demonios que existen en nuestro mundo.  Podemos avanzar en nuestro camino de fe. 

Quote from the Dalai Lama -

I met a lady named Nancy Welch while hiking on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in the summer of 2003.  She and her husband are from the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and were riding bikes down the Camino.  I kept on bumping into them as we continue on our journey in Spain, and saw them in a cafe in Santiago right before they were getting on the train to go back to Madrid.  Nancy and I correspond through emails a couple times a year.  Here is a quote she send me from the Dalai Lama - she said that reading about my prison ministry prompted her to send me this quote. 

"Love and kindness are the very basis of society. If we lose these feelings, society will face tremendous difficulties; the survival of humanity will be endangered.”

2/4/2012 – Mark 6:30-34 – Homily - Saturday of the fourth week -

        Today, we have a very interesting Gospel reading, with the apostles having just returned from their missionary travels, excited about telling Jesus about all they did & all they taught.  And what is his response to them? -  “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." As I meditated about this Scripture passage, I thought about the philosophy of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a group I was a part of in the Jackson area.  Doing good works and helping the poor are an important part of our faith and the ministry of Jesus, but they flow out of our faith and our spirituality.  Our compassion for the poor and our outreach to them, our work for justice and peace, our solidarity with them, must flow out of the faith and spirituality we cultivate from within.  So Jesus told the apostles that they must get away, that they must pray, rest, and renew themselves in their faith.  

        This so goes against the grain of our society, where many of us feel the need to be connected by cell phone or internet 24 hours a day.  When I was with a youth group several years ago at Catholic Heart Work Camp, the youth told me that the hardest part of that experience was not having music or noise filling up the space while they were working. And when I suggested to another priest that our youth should maybe put away their cell phones and technology when they go away on a weekend mission trip, he looked at me as if I were stark-raving mad, like that was not even within the realm of possibility, that we couldn’t ask them to undertake such an arduous sacrifice of not having a cell phone for the weekend.  If we try to fill up our lives with all kinds of external and superficial noise, when do we have time to listen to God in silence and in what He is calling us to do?  When are we giving ourselves the space and time to refresh and renew our faith?  We can be moved with compassion for the poor like Jesus was when he saw the crowd without a shepherd to lead them, but we need to first feed our own faith and find the time to maintain & nurture our connection with God. 

2/3/2012 – Sirach 47:2-11; Mark 6:14-29 – Friday of fourth week – St Blaise -

         In our readings today, we hear about 2 different kings of Israel.  From Sirach, we hear a summary of the story of King David.  From our readings from the 2^nd Book of Samuel these past few weeks, we know that David committed adultery with Bathsheba and was not always obedient to God, but that he had many admirable qualities as well.  We also hear about King Herod today, about how he had impure thoughts about his own step-daughter, about how this led to promises that ended with the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist, even though Herod's conscience told him that this was not the right thing to do. 

         The difference between these 2 kings is that David was repentant of his sins & that he always desired to serve God in his heart.  David had his weaknesses & was often led astray, but he always returned to God & repented, he always sought the strength of the Lord rather than relying upon his own strength alone.  David's sins were forgiven, and God made great promises to David & his ancestors.  In thinking about David, we might ask ourselves if we rely on our own strength and will too much rather than putting our trust in the Lord?

         As we hear about King David & King Herod today from the Bible, we're reminded that we also have so much that we believe as a Church that is not in Scripture, that is a part of sacred Tradition and the teachings of the Magisterium.  We celebrate St. Blaise today, and the traditional blessing of the throats with candles that we receive on this feast day is one of the beloved devotional traditions of our faith.  Blaise, a bishop in Sebastea, Armenia, was martyred in 316, only 5 years after religious tolerance was granted to Christianity in the Roman Empire.  During the religious persecutions that still raged there even in this era of supposed tolerance, Blaise hid out and lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer.  Legend has it that as Blaise was captured, but when he was being hauled off to prison, he came upon a mother & her young son.  The young son was choking on a fish bone lodged in his throat.  At Blaise's command, the boy coughed up the bone and his life was saved.  After repeated beatings and torture for refusing to worship foreign idols, Blaise was beheaded and has long been remembered as a martyr of our faith. 

         As we receive special blessings through the intercessions of St. Blaise on his feast day, may we give thanks for the community of saints, for those who have passed down the faith to us, & for the blessings & graces from God that we receive each day. 

Blessing of the throat that you will receive at daily mass today ---

Through the intercessions of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may the Lord deliver you from any ailments of the throat and all other diseases and illnesses.  May Almighty God bless you – Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.  AMEN. 

2/2/2012 – Thursday - Presentation of the Lord – Luke 2:22 - 32

        It’s easy for us to forget that Jesus was raised in a devout Jewish family.  Mary and Joseph faithfully observed all of the prescribed rituals and obligations of their religion.  Exactly forty days after the birth of Jesus, they made the long and exhausting journey to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill the prescription of the Jewish law that obligated them to present their son to the Lord.  This law stated that “every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord”.  As prescribed by this law, Mary and Joseph presented the sacrificial offering of two turtledoves.

         It is touching for us to see how conscientiously and lovingly Mary and Joseph observed the Jewish faith traditions of their ancestors, even though these traditions demanded considerable inconvenience and sacrifice of them to make the arduous journey to Jerusalem.  Mary and Joseph taught Jesus well, as he carried out these Jewish faith traditions throughout his adult life and ministry, interpreting these traditions in the light of his identity as the Son of God. 

         It is important for us to note that for the Holy Family and for Jesus, there is no tension, no contradiction, between their commitment to the prescribed Jewish rituals and their personal spirituality, their personal relationship with God.  As integral members of the Jewish faith community, the faith of Mary and Joseph was grounded in the ritual traditions of the Jewish people, rituals that sustained the community for generations. These same rituals sustained the Holy Family and passed on their Jewish faith to Jesus.  As Jesus grew up with Mary and Joseph, he had intimate contact with the Lord. 

         In our society, people often see a tension between being religious in a ritualistic sense and being spiritual, in devoting ourselves to the pious practices of our faith & obeying the laws of God requiring us to practice social justice and to reach out to our neighbor, especially the poor and the oppressed.  May we follow the example of the Holy Family that we celebrate today on the feast of the presentation of the Lord, may we have a balance faith that follows all of God’s laws and commandments.  

2/1/2012 – Wednesday of fourth week in ordinary time - 2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17; Mark 6:1-6

          David doesn't completely put his trust in God, so he takes a military census of the men in Israel in order to see if he has a force large enough to take into battle.  Before God even has a chance to rebuke him, David realizes that he has sinned.  He repents and acknowledges the foolishness of his actions.  The prophet Gad comes to him with a message from God, telling him that he will be punished for his actions.  David is given three options for punishment. All are punishments mentioned in the third chapter of Deuteronomy for Israel's failure to keep their covenant with God.  The choices are: 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing before their enemies, or 3 days of pestilence at the hand of God. David chooses the last option, not because it is the shortest length of time, but because it is God who will administer the punishment directly.  David would rather suffer at the hand of God than at the hands of man. He has more trust in the mercy of God than in the mercy of man.

         It’s ironic that David wanted to take a census to determine the strength of a potential fighting force, and now due to his sinfulness and the sinfulness of Israel, those forces have been reduced by 70,000 men who were killed by the pestilence.  Yet, as God poured out his wrath on the people of Israel, he takes compassion on them and orders the angel of the Lord to stop the killing.  David is willing to take the punishment himself and for his ancestors if God would spare his nation further bloodshed.

         As we hear this story from the Old Testament, may we ourselves repent for those times that we ourselves blatantly disobeyed the will of God in our lives.  May we place our trust in the God of our ancestor, in our God of love and mercy.  

1/31/2012 – Tuesday of fourth week in ordinary time – 2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30; 19:3

         In today’s reading from the first book of Samuel, we hear about David and the death of his son Absalom.  Absalom was not a good son at all.  He did not follow God very faithfully at all as he journeyed through life.  Absalom even tried to plot the death of his own father in an attempt to become king.  Yet when news of Absalom’s death reached David, David did not rejoice, but instead cried out in his pain and his despair: “My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you.”

         Life can be very painful indeed.  Yet, we are to place our trust in the Lord even in the midst of the struggles and the pain that we endure in life. I recently was given this prayer written by Therese of Lisieux by Dr Sara Weisenberger - 

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our father's love — difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs — everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness —

Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events — to the heart that loves, all is well.

         May we accept the graces that God gives us in our lives, whatever those graces may be.  May we feel God’s presence both in our joy and in our sorrows. 

1/30/2012 – Monday of fourth week of ordinary time - 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13

        The context of today's reading from the 2nd book of Samuel is that King David is evacuating his people from Jerusalem.  His son, Absalom, has stolen the hearts of the nation and has raised up a rebellion to overthrow his father from the throne. We hear of David's encounter with Shimei, who is cursing David and casting stones at him, while David's men are trying to protect him. 

         Shimei reminds me of the way the media often treats heroes and celebrities in our society.  When there is a star or a hero, we give him accolades and adulation.  But, when those same stars are down-and-out or struggling, the media seems to relish the misery and kick them when they are down.  Think of the movie stars, politicians, & sports figures who've been treated this way; we can see similarities in how Shimei treats David.  By contrast, Jesus didn't curse people or throw stones at them or harm them when they were down or hurting or struggling, as he shows us in the healing in today's Gospel of the man possessed by demons. 

         Shimei accuses David of the murder and bloodshed of Saul's family, the king prior to David.  Shimei is looking for someone to blame, and he places the blame at the feet of David.  Yet, David does not allow his men to kill and silence Shimei, as Abishai proposes to do.  David remembers his sins; he is willing to endure the abuse he receives from Shimei, perhaps in atonement and recognition of those sins.  As we recognize our sins, we need to repent and to do penance for them.  Perhaps David is moving in the right direction here.

         As we get closer to the holy season of Lent, perhaps this is a good reading for us to reflect upon so that we will recognize those occasions that help us gain awareness of our sin & the need for repentance and conversion. 

1/29/2012 – Fourth Sunday of ordinary time – Cycle B - Deut 18:15-20, Mark 1:21-28

        “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” We prayed this refrain in our psalm this morning just a little while ago, but what meaning does this have for us?  We can open our hearts to God’s voice and allow it to lead us and guide us in life.  Or, to the contrary, we can close our hearts to God’s voice and not listen to what it is saying.  Indeed, it may be a challenge for us to distinguish God’s voice from all the noise and busyness and other distractions that are calling out to us and filling up our days. 

         So, who do we see as the authority in our lives?  That is a good question today, since today’s readings all deal with the theme of authority.  When I was a lay missionary in Ecuador, I spent a couple of months in the capital city of Quito at our missionary order’s provincial headquarters in that country, learning the Spanish language in preparation for my assignment in the jungle.  The provincial of the order, Father Angel Lafita, used to quiz us lay missionaries in Spanish about the words that came from the readings in the mass to see how much we were learning and comprehending.  I remember one evening at the dinner table Father Lafita asked me if I understood the word “antojo” which was used in the psalm at mass that day.   I understood that the word “antojo” meant a caprice or a whim or a craving.  He asked me what the “antojos” or “whims” were in my life.  I thought for a moment, and then blurted out – “libros” – books.  He smiled at my answer, because he knew that I was always reading something, and that books were my craving and downfall in life.  He knew from my answer that I understood the meaning of that word.

         Well, when the crowds heard Jesus teaching in the synagogue, when they saw him draw a demon out of a man at his command, they recognized that Jesus was not just one of the common scribes in ancient Israel, but that he was a man that had an authority they had never seen before.  And if we are like these crowds, if we do indeed recognize that Jesus has authority - a very special, unique authority - how do we allow that authority to interact in our lives?  This authority has to be more than a whim, more than a craving or an impetuous impulse.  That authority has to be foundational as to how we truly live.  It is good for us to have a passion in life, something we enjoy doing that brings us joy.  A lot of us here really love to do things such as hunting, reading or gardening, exercising or following our favorite football team.  Those things may be indeed very important parts of our lives and our identities, but we can’t give those activities priority in our lives over God, we can’t make them our idols.

         Allowing our faith to have authority in our lives is sometimes easier said that done.  Unfortunately, I think many Americans take a negative view of authority of any kind, but nevertheless, authority is an important part of all of our lives.  If we are faithful to our Catholic faith, we recognize the authority of the Church in our lives.  Within the Church, there are several sources of this authority.  We not only have the authority of Sacred Scripture & Tradition, but also the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church, comprised of the pope & the college of bishops.  And as I priest, I take this authority seriously, just as all of us as Catholics should.  When I meeting with someone as a priest, when I up here preaching or celebrating mass, I am not just Lincoln, but rather a priest who is representing the Church, who is teaching and preaching and standing up for what our faith believes.

Many of the contemporaries of Jesus had a difficult time with the issue of his authority.  They did not deny the mighty deeds of power that Jesus performed, such as the healing of the man possessed by an unclean spirit in today's reading from Mark.  Yet, the crowds were troubled by the source of Jesus' authority.  By what authority is Jesus, this carpenter from Nazareth, speaking & performing these miraculous acts? They wondered: Is he acting by an authority from God, or is it from the world of the other, the lesser gods & spirits?  Through Jesus' healing & teaching at the synagogue at Capernaum, through the manner in which he acts honorably & not shamefully, the people start spreading Jesus' upright reputation throughout the region of Galilee. 

         As modern Americans, most of us believe we have much greater power over our lives in comparison to those in the ancient world who believed in spirits or other things we now consider to be superstitious.  Yet, are we really giving God, the Church, & our faith authority in our lives? Or, are we letting an improperly formed conscience and the voices of the false prophets in our secular society control what we believe as a part of our Catholic faith? 

Poverty in the Mississippi Delta - news that hits home

I have been serving in the parishes in Humpheys and Yazoo Counties in the Mississippi Delta since October 2010.  It is now home for me.  The people there are now my people.  Even though it is so different from where I grew up in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago and in Orange County, California, Mississippi is my home and the place I love. 


Just this week, I saw an article on the MSN website, showing that Humphreys County, where my parish in Belzoni is located, is the fifth poorest county in the entire country.  In addition to that, Humphreys county had the highest rate of child poverty in all of the counties in the US, with 61% of children under 18 living in poverty, and the second lowest median household income in the US. Washington County, Mississippi, where I taught Spanish at the public high school for four years in the town of Greenville, is tied with Humphreys County in fifth place, and has had a startling increase in the poverty rate in the last couple of years.  I live in this reality each day, and often times I can feel the poverty, the desperation, and the oppression of these Delta communities  seething through my pores.  It is a reality that seems to overwhelm me some days.  Reading a statistic like this really makes it hit home on another level.  Very sobering indeed.

1/22/2012 – homilia - tercer domingo del tiempo ordinario – ciclo B - Marcos 1:14-20

         Cada uno de nosotros tenemos la llamada para ser discípulos de Jesucristo.  Estamos peregrinos en este mundo como sus discípulos.  Hoy, en el Evangelio, escuchamos la llamada de Jesús para cuatro pescadores.  Ellos dejan su trabajo para seguir a Jesús.  Ellos cambian sus totalmente. 

Cuando Jesús empezó su predicación del reino de Dios en Israel, el comenzó en una manera muy particular.  Jesús anunció al todos los hombres: “He llegado el tiempo, y el reino de Dios está cerca.  Conviértanse a Dios, y acepten con fe sus buenas noticias."

         No sabemos si Andrés y su hermano Simón eran discípulos de Juan el Bautista antes de su entrada a la cárcel.  No sabemos si Andrés y Simón conocieron las enseñanzas de Jesús antes de este encuentro cerca de la orilla del lago de Galilea.  No importa si no conocemos estos detalles. Podemos reconocer como discípulos modernos de Cristo que estos dos hermanos tenían confianza en Jesús, que ellos tenían confianza en Dios y en su palabra. 

         Ellos estaban caminando a un camino muy particular en sus vidas.  Ellos eran trabajando y viviendo en una manera muy común en su cultura, en su sociedad. Pero, con la llamada de Jesús, con su presencia en sus vidas,  ellos podían reconocer el momento que ellos necesitaban revisar su camino, que habían otros caminos y otros senderos allí en su vida.  En verdad, es un desafío para cambiar nuestro camino, nuestra ruta, nuestra dirección.  No sabemos los problemas y las dificultades que estos dos hermanos tenían en sus vidas antes de la llamada de Jesús, ni los desafíos que ellos tenían como discípulos tampoco.  Pero, con esta llamada, ellos recibieron la fuerza y la inspiración de cambiar sus vidas y de aceptar a Dios.  Faltamos algo en nuestras vidas si no contestamos la llamada de Dios, si no recibimos la invitación de Jesús con corazones abiertos. 

         Tal vez, tenemos muchas expectativas sobre la presencia de Dios en nuestra vida, sobre su llamada.  Tal vez, tenemos un punto de vista de nuestra religión, de nuestro Dios muy rígido y muy cerrado. Según los judíos en Israel, el Mesías va a venir con mucho poder y mucha fuerza, como un líder de su nación.  Podemos quedar sordos y ciegos sobre la Palabra de Dios si no queremos dejar esta expectativas que tenemos, si no tenemos una imaginación para aceptar esta llamada. 

         Hay el grito de Jesús en nuestra vida.  ¿Qué está diciendo?