God fashioned us in his own image so that we might have being. He fashioned us for life, not for death. This is the message we hear from the book of Wisdom. It is through this new life, from our desire and longing to connect
with God and with that divine essence in our lives that propels us in our life
of faith, that propels us to desire the new life we receive in our relationship
with Jesus.
Last week, while the disciples were petrified in the middle of a terrible
storm, while Jesus himself was asleep in the stern of the boat, we heard him
ask: "Why are you terrified? Do you not
yet have faith?" Faith is at the heart of our life as Christians. But faith is not some nebulous, ambiguous
concept. It is connected to a personal
relationship we have with Christ and our interconnected relationship we have
with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus had just traveled to the other side with his disciples on a boat, with a
great crowd gathering around him. The
people want to see what Jesus is all about. In the midst of the crowd, one of the synagogue officials falls at Jesus feet,
pleading for Jesus to come with him to heal his daughter. While Jesus is going off with that official, suddenly, in the midst of the
crowd, a woman touches him, wanting to be cured herself, knowing that Jesus’
touch is the touch that will save her. All this takes place in the midst of the community, in the midst of the people. We as Christians are to be in the midst of the reality of the community and of the people. Pope Francis has advised his priests – I want you to be out with the people
like Jesus was – I want you to be out there with your flock – I need you to be
shepherds that smell like your sheep. I wish I could invite Pope Francis to spend a couple of days with his priests
up here in Northeast Mississippi, seeing me in the last couple of days running
around to Oxford and Ripley, Shannon and Saltillo, visiting hospitals and
nursing homes, blessing weddings, celebrating a Quinceañera and baptizing
babies, anointing the sick and visiting the homebound, having coffee with
parishioners and blessing houses, and all that in the last few days in the
midst of six weekend masses!
I cannot imagine the bravery that the woman suffering from hemorrhages had when
she reached out to Jesus in the midst of that busy crowd. For 12 long years she had been suffering – 12
years. The doctors could not help her. She spent all her money. She had no answers. In fear and trembling,
she tells Jesus the truth. We meet Jesus in our reality. And the
community is an important part of that reality. It is hard to believe I came to Mississippi 15 years ago this summer. I arrived as a member of the Mississippi
Teacher Corps at Ole Miss – and was assigned to teach Spanish at Greenville
High School. In a way, it is a good
thing I didn’t know what that reality was all about. I remember having taught in Greenville for several weeks when a student came up
to me after class. She spoke to me: “Mr.
Dall. My mom heard that you were
Catholic. We are too. We want to invite
you to our church.” I responded that I
have been to the Catholic parish in town, St Joe. But she responded that there
are two Catholic churches, that they attended the other one. Well, being naïve, I really did not understand what that meant. I arrived in church, noticing that besides
the priest and me, everyone else was African American. What happened after mass just astounded
me. The priest and so many parishioners
came up to me and spoke to me and welcomed me to their parish, hoping that I
would continue to go there. When they
heard I was a teacher and a former lay missionary, they immediately asked me if
I would teach religious education there to the youth, if I would help out with
the youth group. I had attended the
other parish in town on three Sundays, and did not even have one person come to
welcome me or speak to me. Believe me,
that made a difference. Community is an important aspect of our Catholic faith – an essential
aspect. Serving in the community and being a part of the community is a big part of our
faith. I have been mentioning the importance of being a welcoming parish a lot this
summer. We want to be a welcoming
parish. We want our visitors and our members to feel welcome here – to feel a
part of our community of faith.
To continue to have the ability to live out our faith is a part of the
Fortnight for Freedom that our Bishops have declared for 14 days. The theme this year is “The Freedom to Bear Witness.” Until July 4 – our nation’s Independence Day – we will discuss the importance
of being able to witness to our faith, especially when Christians are being
persecuted throughout the world and our own nation is being more secular and
increasingly hostile to Christianity. When there are so many changes taking place in our society’s basic structure
and values, we Christians need to be able to respectfully and honestly
understand what we believe, be able to express what we believe, and be able to
live out those beliefs in our daily lives.
Monday, June 29, we commemorate the solemnity of Peter and Paul, martyrs for
our faith. Usually, our 2nd readings in our Sunday liturgies are from the
letters of Paul, and today we hear from the 2nd letter to
Corinthians. Today, as in many of his writings, Paul expresses his passion for the faith and
for living out his new life in Christ. Paul extols the Corinthians for their faith, knowledge, and earnestness, but
above all by imitating Jesus in his gracious act of sacrificial love. So many people are looking for something meaningful in life. Paul encourages us as believers to embrace our faith and discipleship in Jesus
with a greater embrace, not a more constrained one. Our faith is for the altar, for the mass, for the sacraments of our
Church. But our faith is also lived out in our homes, in the streets and the highways,
in the workplace and the offices and the schools. Our Fortnight for Freedom remembers Paul and others who were persecuted for the
faith, encouraging us to never take for grant the freedom we have enjoyed to be
witnesses for that one true faith.
We are not a Church of the few. We are
not a select Church for those who claim to be perfect or to have all the
answers. We are not a Church of hate and
hypocrisy. As Paul extolled the virtues which the Christian community in Corinth embodied,
he also called that community to makes sacrifices in order to help support the
Church in Jerusalem. We are to always reach out in love and charity, but we do so in the context of
God’s holy teachings and commandments. We do not abandon the immigrant or the poor, the sick or the prisoner, the
oppressed or the forgotten, but we also don’t abandon the truth of God. Today, we come before God’s holy altar, knowing that he will help us in our
desire to practice our faith as disciples of Christ through the religious
freedom we have been accorded since the founding of our nation. Let us pray that we stand true to the truth of the Gospel, true to the faith
that has brought us this far.
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