8/2/2013 – Friday of 17th week in Ordinary Time - Matthew 13: 54-58

        Sometimes, we can be hemmed in by our expectations.  The people of Jesus’ native town have expectations of him.  They know him as the son of Mary and Joseph who grew up as a member of their community.  They didn’t expect him to enter the synagogue, teaching them out of wisdom and authority. 

         Sometimes we have expectations of ourselves that we need to overcome. Sometimes we don’t push ourselves and don’t expect ourselves to adhere to God’s laws and commandments.  Perhaps we don’t think it is necessary to do so; perhaps we are pulled by the lure of the values of our world. 

         Many of the people of Ancient Israel rejected Jesus and teachings.  He was put to a violent death, the most humiliating kind of death in the Ancient Mediterranean World.  We also have the choice to accept or reject Christ’s teachings and message as well.  We don’t have to do it alone.  We have so many others around us on our journey to encourage and guide us and help us learn the values of the faith.  We have examples of our faith from the community of saints – people like the Blessed Virgin Mary and St James – who help us with their prayers and intercessions and example.  We have others to help us, but ultimately the choice is ours. 

Mexican dancers at the Feast of St James - St James Catholic Church in Tupelo, Mississippi

This weekend, we celebrated the Feast of St James in our parish community.  As part of our picnic after our Sunday masses, the dancers from our Hispanic community performed some traditional Mexican dances.  We had a great weekend in celebrating St James - how he brought people together and how he spread the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the world.  

8/1/2013 – Thursday of 17th week in Ordinary Time - St Alphonsus Liguori – Matthew 13:47-53

       I love the imagery we have in our Gospel reading, about a fishing net full of all kinds of fish, in which the fisherman sorts out the good from the bad.  This image is compared to our eternal life, when the righteous will be separated from the wicked.  And what we value here on earth and judge to be worthy might be very different from the criteria God uses.  In Ecuador, we used to eat this fish that had a very tough skin on it and that had to be smoked over a wooden fire and marinated for several days before it could be cooked and eaten.  It was the shredded and when it was served the consistency was similar to pulled pork.  It was not until the end of my time in Ecuador that I realized that I was eating stingray.  It was once considered a junk fish by the people, more often thrown out than eaten, but it later became a prized delicacy.  

         There are only 35 Doctors of the Church, valued for their writings and their enduring contributions to the development of our faith.  Today, we celebrate another Doctor of the Church: St Alphonsus Liguori,  the founder of the Redemptorists, an influential men’s religious congregation in the Catholic Church.  Liguori lived in the 18^th century.  His greatest contribution to the faith is his system of moral theology, which avoided both laxity and strict legalism.  He tried to form a system of moral theology that provided a practical way of dealing with the moral issues that we human beings face in our daily lives.  This is one quote I particularly like of his: “He who puts his trust in himself is lost.  He who trusts in God can do all things.”

         As we place our trust in God, as we make decisions big and small to follow the values of our faith in our daily lives, may we strive toward the path of righteousness.

7/30/2013 – Tuesday of 17th week of Ordinary Time – St Peter Chrysologus – Bishop and Doctor of the Church – Psalm 103

       When I looked over the readings for today, it was the Psalm that struck me, especially in its response: “The Lord is kind and merciful.”  The psalmist goes on to say that: “The Lord secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed.  Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.” 

         Our saint of the day is also a Doctor of the Church – St Peter Chrysologus. His name may seem a little odd to us, but the word “Chrysologus” means “golden-tongued” or “golden-worded”.  He was given that name due to the brief and eloquent homilies he used to give.  One might wonder what relevance a bishop from Ravena, Italy who was born at the turn of the 5^th century might have to us in our modern world.  Well, in relationship to the psalm today, Peter Chrysologus asserted that there are three things that we need to practice in our lives of faith that will help our faith remain constant and that will help our virtue and our values to endure.  Those three things are prayer, fasting, and mercy.  These are also the three holy practices that we are called to in the season of Lent in preparation for Easter each year.

         Our God is merciful – we hear this again and again in Sacred Scripture.  Yet, how do we reflect that mercy in our own lives? 

7/31/2013 – Wednesday of 17th week of Ordinary Time – St Ignatius of Loyola – Matthew 13:44-46

        The Kingdom of God is a wonderful treasure worth more than we can ever imagine.  It is like a gem of such wonder and glory that we would give up everything else in order to acquire it.  Yet, do we place our values in the pleasures of the world and give up the values of the Kingdom in the process?

         We look at a man like St Ignatius of Loyola, who was a soldier, who enjoyed worldly pleasures like fancy clothing, many women, and many of the vanities of the world.  Yet, after an injury and after a period of convalescence, he read a book about the saints and had a very profound conversion experience.  At the age of 30, he went on a pilgrimage and lived as a hermit in a cave for a while.  He went through a long period of searching and longing.  He asked himself the same questions that he wrote in his spiritual exercises that are still asked by many believers today: What have I done for Christ?  What am I doing for Christ?  What ought I do for Christ?   Ignatius spent time studying Latin and theology, he was even jailed a couple of times during the Spanish Inquisition for his passion and eccentricities.  We know how Ignatius persevered and founded the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits.  Our own Pope Francis is a member of that religious congregation.  Ignatius found a treasure that was far beyond the worldly treasure that he pursued in his youth and young adulthood.  The Jesuits were suppressed throughout the world from 1773 to 1814 in all places throughout the world in all places besides Prussia and Russia.  Yet, the Jesuits remain the largest religious order of priests and brothers in the world today. 

         What worldly treasures are we pursuing in our lives, and are we pursuing those treasure rather than those of God’s Kingdom. 

7/29/2013 -- Reflection on St Martha - the Saint of the Day -

         We just had the Gospel story of Martha and Mary a week ago, so Martha is fresh in our minds.  I think a lot of people find the story of Mary and Martha a bit uncomfortable to hear, especially those Christians who identify themselves with Martha.  This past weekend, we had a pilgrimage weekend in our parish to celebrate St James on his feast day.  We had a 5.5 mile pilgrimage walk that more than 100 people attended – sometimes three generations in one family attending.  We also had many members of our Hispanic community attending as well.  Yet, to pull off this pilgrimage, and to pull off the picnic we had on Sunday, it took a lot of work from a lot of Marthas.  The Marys were able to be Marys because of the Marthas.  The pilgrimage walk wasn’t even over, and many in our parish community were saying that we needed to have this event every year – what a testament to its success and the best complement we could receive.  I give thanks for St Martha and for her testimony of faith.  And for all the Marthas in my parish community who help us be vibrant, creative, and alive. 

Celebrating Feast of St James this weekend - St James Catholic Church - Tupelo, Mississippi

Statue of St James the Greater 

in vestibule of our church. 

Crosses of St James on door to entrance

of our Church 

Cross of iron in front of the doors - 

symbol from the pilgrimage to the Way of St James

in the region of Galicia in Spain.

7/28/2013 – decimoséptimo domingo del tiempo ordinario – Lukas 11,1-13

         Hoy es un día muy especial en nuestra parroquia.  Demos gracias para tener la oportunidad para celebrar el Año de Fe con una iglesia de peregrinación en nuestro Diócesis de Jackson.  Tenemos mucha suerte porque esta fecha de peregrinación es el fin de semana después de la fiesta de nuestro patrón – Santiago el Apóstol.  Y empezamos la celebración de cien años como parroquia en Tupelo.  Este fin de semana es una celebración maravillosa para nosotros. 

         El tema del Evangelio de hoy es oración.  Muchas veces en el Evangelio de Lucas, los discípulos miran a Jesús en sus oraciones.  Ellos quieren orar como Cristo – ellos quieren conocer mas sobre las oraciones de Cristo.  Cristo nos explica que necesitamos persistencia en nuestra oraciones – El dice – Piden y se les dará, busquen y encontrarán, toquen y se les abrirá.  Pero, en muchos sentidos, Jesús nos enseña que al meta de nuestras oraciones no es para pedir algo de Dios – es para nutrir y fomentar nuestra relación con Dios. 

         Muchos de ustedes conocen mucho sobre nuestro patrón – Santiago.  Escuchábamos mucho sobre Santiago durante este Año de Fe. Después de la muerte y la resurrección de Cristo, Santiago salió de Jerusalén para llevar la Buena Nueva al mundo.  Santiago y su grupo de discípulos fueron a España cerca del rio Erba en el norte de esta país cerca de la ciudad de Zaragoza.  La Santísima Virgen María conocía que la misión de Santiago era muy importante, que su misión no marchaba muy bien.  Santiago no tenía muchas conversiones a la fe.  María oraba a su Hijo para tener éxito en esta misión.   Santiago envió una aparición de su Madre a Santiago y sus amigos como señal de esperanza y apoyo.  Pusieron a rodilla a esta aparición.  María explicó que estaba aquí para ayudar a su misión.  María pidió para tener un capilla en este sitio, y dio a Santiago una columna de jaspe que tenía una estatua pequeña de ella como símbolo duradero de su presencia con ellos. La aparición de María desteñía, pero la columna existe hasta hoy día – se llama nuestra Señora del pilar – está ubicado en la Catedral-Basílica en la ciudad de Zaragoza.   

         Santiago tenía muchas frustraciones y mucha impaciencia con su trabajo misionero.  Las semillas del catolicismo de España viene de Santiago y su mensaje.  Nosotros también podemos tener frustraciones en nuestro viaje.  A veces, Santiago no sabía las pregunta para preguntar en sus oraciones o los lugares para buscar o tocar.  Y nosotros a veces no tenemos las palabras para nuestras oraciones y no sabemos la puerta donde necesitamos tocar.  Santiago es patrón de nuestra parroquia – por muchos años en nuestra historia, no había párroco aquí, con los sacerdotes viajaron de Alabama para celebrar la misa en Tupelo.

         Hay muchas maneras para comunicar a Dios con nuestras oraciones.  Una amiga mía, la Hermana Paulinus quien trabaja en Jackson, me explicó que hay dos cosas sencillas que podemos hacer en nuestras oraciones – podemos decir a Dios – “¡Señor ayúdame, ayúdame!” y “¡Gracias, Señor, gracias!”  El teólogo dominicano Meister Eckhart tiene lo mismo mensaje: “Si la única oración que dices en tu vida es "Gracias", será suficiente.”    

         Demos gracias por Santiago el Apóstol – por su testigo de fe y por su protección para nuestra comunidad.  Demos gracias por nuestra fe católica que celebramos en este Año de Fe.  Doy gracias por los miembros de nuestra comunidad de fe, por las maneras que ustedes contribuyen a nuestra parroquia.  Hace diez años esta semana, yo estaba en España después de terminar la peregrinación del Camino de Santiago de Compostela.  En este momento, no estaba sacerdote.  No sabía que un día seré párroco de esta parroquia de Santiago el Apóstol en Tupelo en Mississippi.  Doy gracias a Dios por esta parroquia.  Nuestro Señor trabaja en su manera misteriosa.