Sunday, October 20, 2013

10/21/2013 – Monday of 29th week in ordinary time – Romans 4:20-25

     In his letter to the Romans, Paul sees Abraham as the great patriarch.  But Paul sees him as much more than that – as a model of faith.  Through his faith, Abraham believed that he would indeed become the father of all the nations.  Abraham followed God in his journey of faith – he faith went beyond obey commandments and following ritual. 
     In our sacristy there is a big box with a statue of St Ignatius of Loyola in it.  Over the weekend, we celebrated the feast day of Jean de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues, and the other Jesuits missionaries who were martyred in Canada in the middle of the 17th century as they ministered to the native people there. 
B. Brian Moore, the Irish-Canadian-American author who wrote the book Black Robe modeled after the life of Jean de Brebeuf, saw a great faith in these men, a faith that was willing to make great sacrifices and to risk their own lives for the sake of proclaiming the Gospel to the world. Even though Moore himself was a fallen-away Catholic, that faith spoke to him and inspired him to write that novel. We are called to have that same courageous faith that Ignatius of Loyola and the other Jesuit missionaries had, a faith that will inspire and will witness to God’s holy word.  May the Eucharist and God’s holy word inspire us on that journey of faith.


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