28 April 2020 - Tuesday of the third week of Easter - Acts 7:51-8:1A

       Six years ago on this date, I remember being at the hospital in Tupelo visiting some parishioners when all of our telephones started vibrating.  There was supposed to be tornadoes heading toward the town southeast of Tupelo about fifty miles away, but they switched course and were headed our way. I had been in two bad tornadoes already, but I did not expect anything bad.  I thought it would just pass by us.  As I ran out the entrance of the hospital, the receptionist told me - please told tell me you are going out there.  I told her that I had to return to my church.  It was really windy out there, hard to drive on the road, but I still thought nothing of it.  When I got back to the church office, everyone had left, and the cats and I were there alone.  Suddenly, it hit.  I gathered Mary Woodward and Blessing and headed down to the basement.  When I emerged from the basement a little while later, I saw utter destruction.  I tried for over a half an hour to leave our church office property, but there was so much debris and trees down, I could not even get off the property.  A city workers came and helped me out.  Our parish of St James was directly hit by the tornado.  It felt like it took forever to recover and repair. 
       I also think of another destructive event that took place on April 29 back in the year of 1992.  It was right after my mom passed away, when I lived with my dad before he moved into a nursing home.  I worked for a CPA firm that year.  I was in downtown LA on the morning of April 29, 1992 having the final meeting with an audit client.  When I was leaving downtown LA, the Rodney king beating trial verdicts were announced - not guilty.  By the time I had crossed into Orange County that afternoon on my drive home, I was listening to the radio as there were numerous reports of violence all across Southern California.  My sister Heather and I were glued to the TV that evening as we saw what was happening in our little corner of the world.  When so many people feel like their voices have been taken away and that they don't even matter any more, the result is the Los Angeles riots.  
       These are two tales of violence and destruction from my own experiences as we hear of the stoning of Stephen in first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  Some of our destruction can come from nature, such as the 2014 Tupelo tornado.  Some of our destruction can be man made, such as in the stoning of Stephen and the Los Angeles riots.   We remember St Stephen today as a martyr for our faith.  And someone who was willing to give up his life rather than renounce the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   We see destruction of a different kind today, of a pandemic that is killing people and tearing down our economy and our way of life. The community turned against Stephen and his message.  We are called to turn to our community, to be in solidarity together, to help each other.  May we hear this call.