4/24/2016 – 4th Sunday of Easter – Acts 14:21-27

      During the Easter season, we always hear readings from the Acts of the Apostles.  We hear about Paul and his companions in their missionary journeys.  We hear about the establishment of the Early Church and how those first disciples lived out their calling in the hope they placed in the risen Christ.  In our reading from Acts, we heard about Paul's experiences at Antioch in his first missionary journey.  This mission trip did not fulfill their hopes and dreams, as Paul and Barnabas were expelled from that community. Yet, they shook the dust off their feet and continued on to the next community.  Their hearts were still filled with the joy of the Gospel and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Today, in a continuation of that journey, Paul and Barnabas “put fresh heart in the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith.”   Paul and Barnabas were encouraged and hopeful, but they were realistic as well, telling their followers that they would endure many hardships in order to enter into the kingdom of God.  

       We are able to worship here in our parish here in Tupelo, Mississippi only because of those who lived out their faith to the fullest throughout history and who passed down the faith to us.  When I served as a missionary both in the US and abroad, and even now as I serve as a priest in the Diocese of Jackson, the stories of the missionaries of our Church and the members of the community of saints who came before us constantly edify me in my own ministry.  Here is one such remarkable story of faith.  Back in 1749, a 36 year old Franciscan priest on the island of Mallorca, Spain volunteered to go to the missions in Mexico.  Father Junipero Serra was a well-known theologian and college professor.  He led a very comfortable life in his native Spain.  Yet, he felt that God was calling him to evangelize the indigenous people of the Americas, to those who had not yet heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. After 20 years of mission work in Mexico, he was assigned to establish a system of missions in the present-day state of California, a place where the Church had not yet been established.  Father Serra was 56 years old and in very poor health.  He suffered from severe asthma and a chronic leg sore that plagued him the rest of his life.  He traveled more the 24,000 miles over the next 15 years before his death, mostly on foot or by mule or by sea.  Father Serra and his team of missionaries brought the Spanish language and the Catholic faith to the state of California, introduced a system of agriculture and irrigation, created a system of roads, and founded a system of law that protected the indigenous people under his charge.  In the midst of all he was trying to accomplish, he fought with the military and the governors a lot. Father Serra died in 1784 at the age of 70, but he was remember and honored for his courageous missionary work and for the Catholic missions that he established in California.  When Pope Francis came to the United States for a pastoral visit last year, he canonized Father Serra as a saint in our Catholic Church.  Father Serra, like Paul and Barnabas and the disciples in the Early Church, made great sacrifices to bring the faith to others.  They are all great examples of faith for us to follow. 

       I give thanks for our faith community here in Tupelo, for the faith of the Apostles and our ancestor that brought us this far.   This Easter season, we have had 50 children receive first communion – what an incredible number.  Our second graders will receive first communion during the masses next weekend.  The week after that, a group of 20 high school students will receive the sacrament of confirmation.  And on Pentecost weekend, we will celebrate a baccalaureate mass with our graduating high school seniors and their families.  When we celebrate a major event in our faith – baptism, confirmation, 1^st communion, a wedding, graduation – we have the opportunity to take a look at our faith, to ask ourselves if we are living out our faith in the spirit of the risen Christ and those first apostles, or if we need to look to our hearts and to recommit ourselves as disciples of Christ.  Maybe we have missed the mark.  Maybe we have strayed from our calling.  Maybe God is calling us to more.  The risen Christ calls us to a re-commitment to our Catholic faith no matter where we are on our journey.  Do we hear that call?