6/22/2012 – Friday of 11th week in ordinary time - St Thomas More and St John Fisher – Matthew 6:19-23

     Today, we hear a Gospel that is particularly relevant to a lot that we are experiencing as Catholics in the world today.  Jesus warns us not to store up our treasure here on earth, where moths and decay can destroy and consume those treasures, but rather to store up our treasures in heaven.  We can be so intent as to want to achieve worldly success and worldly treasures that the treasures that are important to our faith can be ignore and shunned in the process.

         Yesterday evening, at the time of our vigil mass, our bishops have asked us to start a special period of renewal and education and consciousness in our faith.  The Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty with our US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a document on religious freedom back in April, calling religious freedom both in our country and in the other countries of the world. “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty” is the title of this document.  The US Bishops have called for 14 days of prayer, education, and action in support of religious freedom, starting with yesterday evening, the vigil of this feast that we are celebrating today, and going through July 4, the day of our country’s independence.  They chose June 21 because it is the vigil for the Saints Thomas More and John Fisher.  More was a very spiritual and religious man, a lawyer and the chancellor of England under King Henry VIII.  More’s conscience and keen sense of morality kept him from approving of the king’s divorce to Queen Catherine of Aragon, of his remarriage to Anne Boleyn, and of the establishment of the Church of England.  More refused to personally break from his Catholic faith and from denying the pope as the head of the Church.  John Fisher, a Cardinal and Bishop of Rochester in England, also refused to recognize these same matters as Thomas Moore.  Both of them were beheaded in London in 1535. Both of these men were canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935 400 years after their deaths.

         As we recognize this Fortnight for Religious Freedom in the US, we remember how Jesus calls us to follow the laws of God and the law of heaven, how these laws and commandments may be in conflict with what our governments demand of us here on earth.  Here in Yazoo City, we will look at what our religious freedom is all about in these next few weeks during this Fortnight for Freedom.  As the Archbishop of Baltimore so eloquently stated – this is not a liberal or conservative issue, this is not a Democratic or Republican issue, this is not to tell you how to vote for any specific elected official.  Rather, it is a call to action regarding the religious freedom that we have had in our country that is now under attack.  May the Lord lead us and guide us through these next two week as we learn more about this issues.  And we ask for the intercessions of St John Fisher and St Thomas More.