2 July 2021 - Friday of the 13th week in Ordinary Time - Matthew 9:9-13

       Tomorrow, we commemorate the feast day of St Thomas the Apostle is our Church’s liturgical calendar.  Today, however, in our Gospel, we hear about the call of one of the other apostles: St Matthew.  Today’s Gospel states: “As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.  He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.”  It is amazing to see Matthew’s immediate response, how he leaves his old life behind to follow Jesus as his disciple. I don’t know about you, but when I make a big decision in life, I often agonize about that decision.  I think of the priesthood, of the years I spent in formation and discernment.   Yet, Matthew on the surface seems so very sure of himself, getting up and following Jesus.  

     Perhaps we don’t know the whole story.  Perhaps Matthew had been reflecting about Jesus for a long time.  Perhaps some of his friends, co-workers, and family members had been talk about Jesus, about his miracles and his proclamation of God’s kingdom.  Perhaps Matthew had seen Jesus interacting with the crowds, listening to him as he spoke with empathy and compassion.  Perhaps Matthew pondered with astonishment the way Jesus loved the person who seemed unlovable, the way he touched the person who was deemed unclean and untouchable.  Perhaps Matthew was ready to answer the call of Jesus because he had been paying attention to Jesus and his ministry, reflecting upon the things he saw in his heart for quite some time.  It is good for us to have a constant prayer life, to read Sacred Scripture each day, to go on retreat and to engage in faith formation activities.  In that way, when Jesus calls us, we will be ready to follow him, wherever that may be.  

Reflection on the Conclusion of Religious Freedom Week - 29 June 2021

Today, we conclude Religious Freedom Week with the commemoration of the solemnity of St Peter and St Paul. We honor these two leaders in the Early Church who spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.  Both of these men suffered greatly from their faith and were ultimately put to death as martyrs.  

Monday, we commemorated St Irenaeus of Lyon, Bishop and Martyr for the faith who died in the year 202.  St Irenaeus fought against the heresy of Gnosticism, which saw the material world as corrupted and the spiritual world as superior.  He died defending the true faith of the Church.  

Even though Religious Freedom Week ends today, we commemorate two other great witnesses and defenders of the faith later this week.  Wednesday, we commemorate the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome, a feast day that was established with the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.  Not a lot is know of the names and identities of these holy martyrs.  These men and women were tortured and executed in the city of Rome in the year 64, having been made scapegoats for a terrible fire of suspicious origins that destroyed large parts of the city of Rome under the Roman emperor Nero.  

Thursday, we celebrate one of the great missionaries that brought the Catholic faith to the West coast of the United States in the late 18th century, Franciscan priest St Junipero Serra.  Father Serra went from being an acclaimed philosophy professor in his homeland in Mallorca, Spain to hearing God call him to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to the native people of Mexico and California.  Father Serra established 9 of the missions in California, including San Francisco, San Gabriel, San Juan Capistrano, San Diego, and Monterey.  In recent years, the missionary work of Father Serra has been criticized by many in our secular world. However, at Father Serra’s canonization in 2015,  Pope Francis lauded Father Serra’s missionary spirit and the warm embrace of God that he brought to those to whom he ministered, making them his brothers and sisters in Christ.  

We conclude Religious Freedom Week today with a prayer for religious liberty: 

Almighty God, Father of all the nations,

For freedom you have set us free in Christ Jesus (Galatians 5:1).

We praise you and bless you for the gift of religious liberty, the foundation of human rights, justice, and the common good.

Grant to our governmental leaders the wisdom to protect and promote our liberties;

By your grace may we have the courage to defend them, for ourselves and for all those who live in this blessed land.

We ask this through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, our patroness, and in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, with whom you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

1 July 2021 - Thursday of the 13th week in Ordinary Time - St Junipero Serra - Psalm 115

      The psalm states today: I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living. The psalm speaks about the trust Israel puts in the Lord, seeing the Lord as its help and it shield.  I thought of the saint we celebrate today in our Church’s liturgical calendar as I reflected on the psalm today, how that saint walked in the presence of the Lord in the midst of his call as a Franciscan priest and missionary in the Americas.   St. Junípero Serra was born in 1713 in Mallorca, Spain.  Mallorca is an island that is part of the  Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean.  He was born into a family of poor farmers.  I remember reading a biography of Father Serra, stating that during the time of his life there on Mallorca, famine was common, with a great part of the population perishing through these famines.  So, life was not easy for them.   He joined the Franciscans as a teenager.  He was such an accomplished student that he was appointed a professor of philosophy even before he was ordained a priest.  He had a very accomplished career as a philosophy professor, but left for the Americas at the age of 36, feeling the call to become a missionary.  After a difficult voyage to Mexico, Serra worked among the native population, learning their native language and translating the catechism into that language. He became known for his preaching, his penance, and his mortification practices.  Soon after his arrival in Mexico, he was bitten by a spider on the leg, which caused an infection and left him with a permanent injury, making it difficult to walk and causing him constant pain and suffering. Yet, he continued to walk everywhere he could to evangelize the people there.  In 1767, he was assigned to go to what is now the state of California, mission territory the Franciscans inherited from the Jesuits when that order was suspended.  Until his death in 1784, he found 9 missions in California, including San Diego, San Francisco, Monterrey, and San Gabriel near the current-day city of Los Angeles.  He was buried at San Carlos Borromeo Mission in Carmel, California.  Although some in the secular world criticize the work of Father Serra, I see him as an amazing example of faith, a man who accepted a call from God to bring the Gospel to others, who did so through great sacrifice and great joy.  The state of California and the Catholic Church in the United States were impacted greatly by his efforts.  

     Pope Francis said this about Father Serra at his canonization to sainthood in 2015, which took place in the Basilica in Washington, DC: “He was the embodiment of ‘a Church which goes forth’, a Church which sets out to bring everywhere the reconciling tenderness of God… Junípero Serra left his native land and its way of life. He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life. He learned how to bring to birth and nurture God’s life in the faces of everyone he met; he made them his brothers and sisters.”  We unite our prayers with the prayers of St Junipero Serra today.  

29 June 2021 - Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul - Matthew 16:13-18 - 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18

       Today, we venerate two great Apostles, St Peter and St Paul, on the day of the solemnity in their memory and honor.    This commemoration has its roots in the very foundations of the Early Church. The faith of Peter and Paul is the solid rock on which Jesus’ ministry and Good News continued and upon which the Early Church was built.  These two great apostles stand on the foundation of the faith that we follow today. St Peter and St Paul will forever remain the Church’s protectors and guides.  The witness of the Church of Rome flows from the witness that they gave.  Led by the Holy Spirit, Peter and Paul helped make Rome the capital of Christianity in the ancient world.  Rome was sanctified by their martyrdom and the martyrdom of so many other great witness for the faith. The Basilica of St Peter and the Basilica of Paul are two of the four major basilicas in Rome.  Those basilicas draw countless pilgrims each year.  

       There are many lessons we can learn from St Peter and St Paul.  They show us that even in the midst of our human frailties and weaknesses, God calls us to serve him and his people.   In today’s Gospel, we hear of Peter’s recognition of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, at a time when most everyone else in Ancient Israel still had not figured Jesus out.   In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, we hear how Paul’s life is nearing its end, of how Paul sees his life as having been poured out as a sacrificial offering to God, of how he sees himself as having kept the faith now that the race is near its end.  However, in addition to admiring Peter and Paul for being men of great faith and sacrifice, we also see in Scripture the times that Peter and Paul fell victim to weaknesses, doubts, and human frailty.   On the eve of Christ’s passion, as he was leaving his last supper with his apostles, Peter tells Jesus that he will never have his faith in him shaken.  Yet, Peter will deny Jesus three times before the cock crows.  Paul, before his conversion, in his zeal to blindly follow Jewish law, oppressed and persecuted Christians, sometime very violently. Paul even stood by and approved of the stoning of Stephen.   

       Perhaps we can relate to Peter and Paul in this same way in our own journey of faith.  There are times when we can be courageous and steadfast in our faith, yet, in our human weaknesses, we also can deny Jesus like Peter did.  We can do this in our words and in our actions, in our failure to follow God’s commandments.   In our frailties and our pride, we can fail to humble ourselves before the Lord just like Paul before his conversion. 

       In our commemoration of this great solemnity honoring St Peter and St Paul, let us hear our call to be missionary in spirit, following this missionary spirit of these two great men. Let us hear our call to be true to the Gospel, to be true to the call God has for each one of us.

30 June 2021 - Wednesday of the 13th week in Ordinary Time - the first Martyrs of the Church of Rome - Psalm 34

    In Arlington national cemetery in Washington, DC, there is a tomb of an unknown soldier.  Three bodies are entombed there from WWI, WWII, and the Korean war. The names of the soldiers are unknown.  They honor all the men and women, known and unknown, who died in war in service to their country.  There was a body from a solider from the Vietnam war, but from a DNA test, the identity of that solider was made, so that tomb remains empty, still dedicated to the men and women who died in the Vietnam war. 

       We have many saints we honor in our liturgical calendar.  Often, many details are known about these saints. This past Monday, we honored St Irenaeus of Lyon, a well-known bishop and martyr from the early Church who died in the year 202.  Yesterday, we honored St Peter and St Paul.  Today’s feast day commemorates the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome; this feast day did not exist prior to the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.  There is not a lot of detail that is known about the names and identities of these martyrs.  This feast day commemorates those unknown and unnamed men and women who were tortured and executed in the city of Rome in the year 64 CE.  In that year, a terrible fire of suspicious origins destroyed large parts of the city of Rome.  The emperor Nero blamed Christians for the fire, torturing and executing them in retribution for their supposed crimes.  The Roman historian Tactius left a vivid description of the brutality inflicted on them.  

      We finished our commemoration of Religious Freedom Week yesterday, but these martyrs from the Early Church that we commemorate today continue to remind us of the importance of being able to practice our faith without being persecuted or hindered from doing so in society.  Just this past year, one of the oldest historic mission church in California, San Gabriel, was destroyed by arson, yet we hear nothing about that in the news, do we?  Here in the US and in many countries in Europe, many churches and religious statues were desecrated or vandalized during this past year.  And we even had a member of Congress falsely call one of the saints a symbol of white supremacy and privilege, saying that his statue did not deserved to represent the state of Hawaii in the Capitol building, when the people of Hawaii had chosen him.  The truth tells us a different story, as that saint was Father Damien, who died a leper himself serving the lepers of Hawaii.  Those details were left out of the Congresswoman's description of him in order for her to put forth a false narrative.  These examples show how in a lot of ways, our faith and the freedom to practice our faith is under attack.  

      Our psalm today asserts that the Lord hears the cry of the poor.  The Lord will also hear our cries as we call out to help to help us practice our faith and evangelize the world in the midst of our reality today.  

28 June 2021 - Monday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time - Matthew 8:18-22

      “I will follow you” – innocent words that a scribe speaks to Jesus.  This scribe might really mean these words, but Jesus’ response to them shows that perhaps there is more to following him than might be on the surface. A. We have been celebrating the Religious Freedom Week, bringing attention of how important it is for us to have the freedom to practice our religion.  During this time period, we celebrated the lives of important martyrs in our faith, including St John Fisher and St Thomas More – two men who were martyred for the faith during the reign of Henry VIII in England.  Tomorrow, we will celebrate the lives of St Peter and St Paul, apostles and martyrs who were great leaders in the Early Church.  On Wednesday, we will honor the First Roman Martyrs, men and women who died for their faith when they were blamed for the great fire that burned the city of Rome in the year 62, not many years after Christ’s death and resurrection.  

       St Irenaeus is the saint we commemorate today.  He was born around the year 130 in Smyrna is present-day Turkey.   He saw the greatest threat to the faith not the persecutions from the Roman Empire, but rather the philosophy of Gnosticism that was influencing many Christian believers.  One of the strongest beliefs in Gnosticism sees a dualism in the material world vs. the spiritual world.  Gnostics saw the spiritual world as superior to the material world – they saw a stark contrast between the God of creation and the God of salvation.  Irenaeus defended the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  He saw the material world as being intrinsically good as part of God’s creation and God’s kingdom here on earth.  He died a martyr for the faith around the year 202 defending these beliefs while he served as the Bishop of Lyon in present-day France.  

      May St Irenaeus and the other saints and martyrs we commemorate during Religious Freedom Week give us encouragement and courage on our own journey of faith.  

27 de junio de 2021 - Decimotercero domingo del tiempo ordinario - 2 Corintios 8:7, 9, 13-15; Marcos 5:21-43

     La fe estaba el tema principal en los Evangelios estos últimos domingos.   En la parábola de la semilla de mostaza, Jesús nos ilustró que si pudiéramos comenzar con una pequeña semilla de fe, esa fe tiene el potencial de crecer de maneras asombrosas.   El domingo pasado, escuchamos que los discípulos clamaron a Jesús aterrorizados, ya que ellos sintieron que estaban pereciendo en una gran tormenta. Jesús les preguntó: “¿Por qué están aterrorizados? ¿Aún no tienen fe?”  Al ver a Jesucristo calmando la tormenta, los discípulos estaban asombrados; pudieron responder a este evento por su fe.

      Hoy, escuchamos otra historia de fe con la mujer que padecía flujo de sangre desde hacía doce años.  Por su fe, ella creía que si ella solo tocaría el manto de Cristo, curaría de su aflicción.  Sin embargo, cuando se daba cuenta de que Jesús se sentía lo que ha sucedido, ella tenía miedo.  Sin embargo, no creo que ella tuviera miedo de Jesús.  Ella tenía miedo porque no debería haber estado en ese lugar público y no debería haberse acercado a Jesucristo.  Los judíos de Israel la habrían visto impura por la sangre de sus aflicción.  Si se hubieran dado cuenta de su situación, habría sido un asunto grave. Como aquellos afectados por el SIDA en nuestra sociedad en los primeros días de esa enfermedad, ella se habría quedado en las sombras por miedo.   Con su secreto expuesto públicamente, ella habría tenido mucho miedo.  Mientras da un paso adelante, cayendo a los pies de Jesús, le cuenta todo.   Sin embargo, no vemos a Jesús respondiendo con ira o indignación.  Él le dice que su fe le ha devuelto la salud, que ahora puede irse en paz.

      Jesucristo, que es la resurrección y la vida, ha devuelto la vida a la mujer que sufría de hemorragias.  Sí, ella está físicamente curada, pero ahora también puede integrarse completamente de nuevo en la sociedad.  Ella es una vez más una persona completa. Su fe en Jesús le permitió ser sanada.

     Desde el martes pasado, en la Iglesia Católica en los Estados Unidos, tuvimos la conmemoración de la Semana de la Libertad Religiosa.  Tenemos la libertad de practicar nuestra fe es nuestro país; es necesario para que vivir como discípulos de Cristo.  Es importante para nosotros como cristianos dar testimonio de la fe, especialmente cuando los cristianos están siendo perseguidos en todo el mundo y nuestro país es más hostil a la fe católica.  En esta realidad muy fuerte, nosotros como cristianos debemos ser capaces de comprender con respeto y honestidad lo que creemos, ser capaces de expresar lo que creemos y ser capaces de vivir esas creencias en nuestra vida diaria.  

      Este martes, concluimos la Semana de la Libertad Religiosa con la solemnidad de San Pedro y San Pablo, mártires de nuestra fe.  Por lo general, las segundas lecturas en nuestras liturgias dominicales son de las cartas de San Pablo; hoy escuchamos de la segunda carta de San Pablo a los Corintios.  Hoy, San Pablo expresa su pasión por la fe y por vivir su nueva vida en Cristo.  Pablo exalta a los corintios por su fe, por su conocimiento y seriedad, pero sobre todo, por su imitación de Jesús en su acto de gracia de amor sacrificado.  Mucha gente busca algo significativo en la vida. San Pablo nos anima en el discipulado en Jesucristo.  Nuestra fe es para el altar, es para la misa, es para los sacramentos de la Iglesia.  Pero, nuestra fe también se vive en nuestros hogares, en las calles y las carreteras, en las oficinas y las escuelas.  La Semana de la Libertad Religiosa recuerda a San Pablo y a los santos perseguidos por la fe.   La libertad de vivir la fe católica en un don precioso que tenemos.  

     No somos una Iglesia de unos pocos. No somos una Iglesia selecta para aquellos que dicen que son perfectos.  No somos una Iglesia de odio e hipocresía.  Cuando San Pablo ensalzó las virtudes que encarnaba la comunidad cristiana en Corinto, también llamó a esa comunidad a hacer sacrificios para ayudar a mantener a la Iglesia en Jerusalén.   Estamos llamados a acercarnos a los demás con amor y caridad, pero lo hacemos en el contexto de las santas enseñanzas y mandamientos de Dios.   No abandonamos al inmigrante ni al pobre, al enfermo o al prisionero, al oprimido o al olvidado, pero tampoco abandonamos la verdad de Dios. E. Hoy, con fe, damos alabanzas a Dios en frente de su altar.  Sabemos que él nos ayudará en nuestro deseo de practicar la fe como discípulos de Cristo a través de la libertad religiosa a la fundación de nuestra país.  Oremos para que seamos fieles a la verdad del Evangelio.

Quote - Nothing is more important.... by Audrey Hepburn

 

A friend posted this quote by Audrey Hepburn on FACEBOOK - what a great quote.  

prayers of the faithful - 25 June 2021 - 13th week in Ordinary Time

 Lord Jesus, you came to this world and preached the Good News of salvation: Lord, have mercy.

Christ Jesus, you destroyed death and restored life to your people: Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd, moved with compassion for your people: Lord, have mercy.

Priest: Our Good Shepherd sees and understands our needs. Let us pray in His name for all who are in need.

1. For the Church and her leaders, may they always preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with integrity and hope.  

2. For our governmental leaders, may they work toward justice, healing, and reconciliation in our world.

3. For all missionaries, peace makers, and first responders.  May they feel our gratitude and prayers for their service.

4. That all of us may proclaim the Gospel of life in our words and our actions, respecting human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.

5. For healing for all who are sick in mind, body, and spirit. For patience and understanding for their family members and care givers.

6. For the repose of the souls of the faithful departed.  

7. For the prayers we hold in our hearts today.  

Priest: O God of gracious care, you grant rest to the weary and fill the needs of those who come to you. Hear these our prayers and grant that one day we may rest eternally with you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

27 June 2021 - homily for Sunday of the 13th week in Ordinary Time - 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43

      Faith has been the main topic of our Gospel readings these past few Sundays.  In the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus illustrated for us that if we could just start with a tiny amount of faith, that faith has the potential to grow in amazing ways.  Last Sunday, we heard of the disciples cry out to Jesus in terror, as they felt that they were perishing in a terrible storm.  Jesus asked them, “Why are you terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?” Seeing Jesus calm the storm, the disciples were filled with awe; they were able to respond to this event out of their faith.  

      Today, we are presented another story of faith in the woman afflicted with hemorrhages.  Out of her faith, she believes that if she only touches his garment, she will be cured of her affliction.  However, when she realizes  that Jesus senses what has happened, she steps forward in trembling and fear.  However, I don’t think she was in fear of Jesus. She was afraid because she should not have been in that public place at all and should not have approached him.  The Jews in Ancient Israel would have seen her as unclean from the blood from her hemorrhages.  If they had realized her situation, it would have been a grave matter.  Like those afflicted with HIV/AIDS in our society in the early days of that disease, she would have remained in the shadows out of fear. With her secret exposed publicly, she would have been very afraid. As she steps forward, falling at Jesus’ feet, she tells him everything.  Yet, we do not see Jesus responding in anger or indignation.  He tells her that her faith has restored her to health, that she can now go in peace.  

      Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, has restored the woman suffering from hemorrhages to fullness of life. Yes, she is physically cured, but also she now can be fully integrated again in society.  She is once again a whole person.  Her faith in Jesus allowed her to be healed in him.  

       Since this past Tuesday, we in the American Catholic Church have been commemorating Religious Freedom Week.  Having the freedom to practice our faith is our country is necessary for us to be able to journey through life as disciples of Christ.  It is important for us as Christians to be 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.

      This upcoming Tuesday, we conclude Religious Freedom Week the solemnity of St Peter and St Paul, martyrs for our faith.  Usually, the second readings in our Sunday liturgies are from the letters of Paul; today we hear from Paul’s 2nd letter to the 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 hold onto our faith and discipleship in Jesus with a greater embrace.  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, offices, and schools.   Religious Freedom Week remembers St Paul and others who were persecuted for the faith, encouraging us to never take for granted 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 make sacrifices in order to help support the Church in Jerusalem.   We are called to reach out to others 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 do not abandon the truth of God.   Today, in faith, 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.  

prayers of the faithful - 12th week in ordinary time

Lord Jesus - you call us to justice - Lord have mercy. 

Christ Jesus - you call us to grow in our faith - Christ have mercy. 

Lord Jesus - you are our savior and our redeemer -

Priest: Let us now present our prayers to the God of love and mercy:

1. For our Church Leaders, that they lead us to be a people of justice and mercy. 

2. For our governmental leaders, that they lead us to construct a just society, free of violence and division.  

3. For our first responders, for our medical professionals, and for the men and women serving in the military.  

 4. That communities may look into their hearts and see the ways that they can help each other and live in harmony.  

5. For those who are sick, in body, mind or spirit, for God’s healing presence in their lives.  

6. For the repose of the souls of the faithful departed. 

7. For those prayers we hold in our hearts and all the prayers offered in our mass today.  

Priest: Lord our God, you have been our help, in the shadow of your wings we rejoice: hear the prayer we make, through Christ our Lord forever and ever. Amen.

Reflection for the 13th week in Ordinary Time - 27 June 2021 - The woman suffering from hemorrhages - Mark 5:21-43

In a book I was reading recently, poet Mark Nepo said this about God’s grace: “Effort readies us for (God’s) grace, as grace can never be planned for or willed to appear, only entered.”  I think of the five times I have hiked the pilgrimage walk on the Camino, usually averaging about 17 or 18 miles a day, hiking through the rough mountains of northern Spain. It always takes a lot of planning and effort on my part.  However, the most wonderful and memorable experiences of that pilgrimage are those unplanned, unexpected glorious moments that happen due to God’s grace, moments that I could never have foreseen or that would not have happened by my efforts alone.  

I think of how God’s grace intersects with faith as illustrated to us in our Gospel readings these past several Sundays.  We heard of faith that starts out as small as a tiny mustard seed, but with God’s grace, can grow in ways that we could never have imagined.  We heard of the disciples who thought they would parish on the boat in a terrible storm until Jesus calmed the storm and saved them.  In the midst of their fears, the disciples questioned their faith, yet Jesus reassured them that they should be afraid.  Today, we hear of a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for many years; she summoned the bravery to reach out to Jesus in the busy crowd, having faith that Jesus’ healing touch would cure her of her affliction.  The doctors could not help her. She spent all her money looking for a cure.  Yet, in everything she tried, she had no answers. In fear and trembling, she tells Jesus the truth.  Her initiative and her faith intersect with God’s grace. Jesus, the resurrection and the life, restores the woman suffering from hemorrhages to the fullness of life. She is physically cured and is fully restored to life in the community. Her profound faith in Jesus, symbolized by the touching of the hem of his garment, plays a major factor in her healing.

May we have faith in God’s grace at work in our lives.  May our faith in God’s grace give us courage and strength on our journey of faith.  

25 June 2021 - Friday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time - Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22

     During our daily Masses this week in Ordinary Time, we have been hearing the story of Abraham from Genesis.  In today’s reading, what struck me was that Abraham’s name was changed from Abram to Abraham.  Why would that be?  God calls Abram travel from the land of Ur to the land of Canaan, giving that land to him and his offspring.  But there is a problem: Abram and his wife are very old and childless.  Thus, he cannot fulfill this promise of God.  But God promises Abram offspring.  Is anything possible with God?  So why is his name changed?  His old name, Abram, literally means “exalted father.”  However, the new name, Abraham, when translated, literally means “father of a multitude.”  The changing of Abraham’s name is a sign from God.  By changing his name, the Lord confirmed that he would fully carry out the promise that he made to him.  In the ancient world, a name did not merely identify something, but rather a name made a thing what it was.  In the view of the ancient world, a name meant a change in destiny.  By God changing his name, Abraham knew that he would soon be the father that he long wanted to be.   Abraham is also a father in faith.  From the flesh of Abraham came the Jewish people.  Through Abraham, the nations of the world also become blessed.  From the Jewish people will come Jesus and the new covenant with God.  Through Jesus, God’s blesses his people anew.  Through this reading from Genesis today, may we not only honor and remember Abraham and covenant he made with God, but may we honor and remember all who passed down the faith to us. 

Bendición - Día de los Padres - 20 de junio de 2021

      Padre de misericordia y bondad, creador del mundo, tú enviaste a tu Hijo Jesús, para redimir y salvar a los hombres. 

      El quiso nacer en una familia como la nuestra, le diste a la Virgen María como madre y a San José como padre. 

      Te pedimos por estos padres presente con nosotros hoy, para que, a ejemplo de San José, amen a sus hijos, los cuiden y protejan, y sobre todo, les enseñes a amarte a ti que eres nuestro Padre del Cielo.

     Pedimos, también, sus bendiciones a todos los que han servido como figuras paternas para nosotros, que se les muestre el amor que nos ha mostrado, para ayudarles a saber que su influencia nos han cambiado para mejor.

    Da a los padres nuevos y futuros la orientación que necesitan para criar a sus hijos, fundados en el amor a Dios y el amor al prójimo, tratando a su familia con dignidad, compasión y respeto.

     Oramos para que nuestros padres que entraron en la vida eterna han sido bienvenidos en su amoroso abrazo.      

     Te lo pedimos a Ti que vives y reinas por los siglos de los siglos.   Amen.  

20 de junio de 2021 - el duodécimo domingo del tiempo ordinario - Marcos 4:35-41

      El domingo pasado, escuchamos la parábola de la semilla de mostaza del Evangelio de Marcos, una parábola sobre la fe. Hoy, en una continuación del Evangelio de Marcos, escuchamos de Jesús y los discípulos atrapados en una tormenta.  También, la fe es el tema de este evangelio.  Conocemos mucho sobre el tema de fe en nuestro camino, pero podemos reflexionar sobre la fe en el contexto de este evangelio.  

     Lo primero que me llama la atención en el Evangelio de hoy es la pregunta que Jesús tenía por sus discípulos: “¿Por qué tenían tanto miedo? ¿Aún no tienen fe?”  Quiero contarles una historia de mis experiencias misioneras en Ecuador, y al reflexionar sobre esa experiencia donde yo tenía mucho miedo.  Una tarde, acababa de llegar en canoa a la orilla del pueblo en la selva. Había mucha gente caminando por las calles del pueblo y haciendo compras al mercado.  Yo llevaba una caja grande de plantas para mi huerto, así que tenía las manos ocupadas y me costaba ver lo que tenía frente a mí.  De repente, vi a un pequeño perro gris muy enojado, ladrando y dirigiéndose directamente hacia mí con un grupo de otros perros con él.  Estaba muy asustado. Yo sentía un terrible dolor en la pierna y luego sentí la humedad de la sangre por toda mi pierna.  Uno de los perros, un pastor alemán, me había mordido en la pierna. Estaba una herida muy grave.  Tenía mucho dolor.   Sabía que necesitaba ayuda médica inmediatamente, así que corría a la clínica médica a tres cuadras de distancia para limpiar y coser la herida. Yo tenía suerte que el perro no tenía rabia. Pero, este no es el final de mi historia.  Desde ese día, yo tenía mucho miedo Teo los perros en el pueblo.  Los ataques de estos perros no fueron infrecuentes; fueron aceptados por la gente como parte de la vida allí.  Yo evitaba la esquina del mercado donde me habían atacado, incluso yo necesitaba caminar el doble de distancia para llegar a la escuela donde trabajaba todos los días en el pueblo.  Finalmente, después de un mes, decidía que necesitaba  confrontar mis miedos y caminaba por esta esquina del mercado.  ¿Y qué pasaba? Tan pronto como llegaba allí, escuchaba ladridos y v que ese perro gris malvado se dirigía hacia mí.  En pánico, yo empezaba a gritar, arrojado mi mochila y saliendo de allí muy rápido.  Cuando llegaba a la escuela, les contaba a mis alumnos la historia de lo sucedido y uno de ellos regresaba a buscar mi mochila.  Hasta el día de hoy, los ladridos de perros en la calle todavía me aterrorizan.  En verdad, hay cosas en la vida que nos aterrorizan.  Probablemente, hay cosas en nuestro camino de fe que nos aterrorizan.  

      Recordamos la historia de cuando Jesús regresó a Nazaret y enseñó en la sinagoga, donde muchos cuestionaron su autoridad, rechazando su mensaje.  Ese lectura de San Mateo termina diciendo que Jesús no hizo muchas obras en ese pueblo debido a su falta de fe.  Otras veces en el Evangelio, Jesús dice específicamente que es la fe de la persona la que los salva.  En el Evangelio de la mujer afligida de hemorragias desde hace doce años que escucharemos el domingo proximo, Jesús le dice:  “Hija, tu fe te ha curado. Vete en paz y queda sana de tu enfermedad” (Marcos 5: 21-43).  En las historias del Evangelio, la eficacia de lo que Dios puede hacer en nuestras vidas parece estar directamente relacionada con nuestra fe. Aunque el diccionario dice que la fe es un sustantivo, en el contexto de vivir nuestra fe, la fe es una palabra de acción; la fe es un verbo.  Viviendo la fe, no podemos ser pasivos.  No debemos esperar a que Dios aparezca. Estamos llamados a buscar Dios activamente para encontrar activamente formas de vivir la fe y crecer en la fe.  

     Sería ingenuo pensar que la vida de fe no tendrá problemas, que no vamos a pasar por momentos difíciles.  Puede ser un desafío mantenernos comprometidos con la fe cuando las cosas van bien; es posible que no sintamos que necesitamos a Dios en esos momentos, sintiéndonos comprometidos con Dios en ese momento.  Otras veces, puede ser un desafío mantenernos comprometidos con la fe en momentos de crisis o dolor o sufrimiento, sintiendo que Dios nos ha abandonado.  Algunos de nosotros pasamos por tiempos de duda y búsqueda.  Sin embargo, Dios siempre nos encuentra en la realidad, cualquiera que sea esa realidad. Dios se acerca a nosotros en la realidad, pero tenemos que volver atrás.

       A veces, como los discípulos en ese barco en el Evangelio, podemos temer que nos hundimos en las aguas tormentosas que nos rodean.   Podríamos habernos sentido así este año durante la pandemia.  Pero, en nuestros miedos y en nuestras debilidades, estamos llamados a ser valientes, estamos llamados a caminar por fe. Ojalá que escuchemos a Jesús llamándonos: “¡No temas! ¡No tengas miedo!"

19 June 2021 - Catholic Funeral Mass Readings - Betty Statham

Reading I:  Job 19:1, 23-27a (C2)

Responsorial Psalm:  Psalm 27 (D3) – The Lord is my light and my salvation. 

Reading II:  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (E12)

Gospel Reading:  John 6:51-59 (G13)  

A reading from the Book of Job

Job 19:1, 23-27a 

Job answered Bildad the Shuhite and said: Oh, would that my words were written down! Would that they were inscribed in a record: That with an iron chisel and with lead they were cut in the rock forever! But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust; Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him; And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing.

The Word of the Lord.

Psalm 27: responsorial psalm

Response: The Lord is my light and salvation.

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?

The LORD is my life’s refuge;of whom should I be afraid?

Response: The Lord is my light and salvation.

One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek:

To dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life,

To gaze on the LORD’s beauty, to visit his temple.

Response: The Lord is my light and salvation.

Hear, O’ Lord, the sound of my call; Have pity on me, and answer me.

Your presence, O’ Lord, I seek. Hide not your face from me.

Response: The Lord is my light and salvation.

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord In the land of the living

Wait for the Lord with courage; Be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord.

Response: The Lord is my light and salvation.

A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (E12)

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

Thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, console one another with these words.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

John 6:51-58 (G13)

Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father,  so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Prayers of the faithful - 11th week in Ordinary Time- 18 June 2021

Lord Jesus, you call us to simplicity of heart.

Christ Jesus, you call us be a light in the world.

Lord Jesus - you call us to trust you.  

As Jesus calls us to have faith, let us present our prayers to our Heavenly father:

1. We pray that in moments of fear, doubt, and despair, we will recall the word of the Lord and place our trust in his love and goodness.

2.  We pray for Pope Francis, Bishop Kopacz and all our Church leaders, that they be inspired by the Spirit to be a brave and trusted navigators of our Church.  We pray for our US bishops who are meeting virtually this week.  

3. We pray for those who are unemployed or those seeking new work,  that the Lord may lead them and guide them in their vocation.

4. For our first responders, our medical professionals, and the men and women in the military.  For their safety and in thanksgiving for their sacrifices.  

5. For our stewardship of the environment and for the fruits of the land, and for those affected by the droughts out West.

6. For the sick and the shut-ins - for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed.  

7. For those prayers we hold in our hearts today.  

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your loving help and guidance through the storms of life. We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever.  Amen.

23 June 2021 - Wednesday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time - Religious Freedom Week - Genesis 15:1-12 and 17-18

     For the last two weeks in our daily Masses, we had been hearing readings from St Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  This week, we hear the story of Abraham from the book of Genesis.  As we hear God tell Abraham in a vision,  “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield; I will make your reward very great,” I thought about the Gospel we heard this past Sunday, of Jesus out with the disciples during a storm at sea, with the disciples afraid of perishing, with Jesus asking them, “Why are you terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?”  As we look at the state of religious freedom in our country in the midst of Religious Freedom Week, which began last week, we might be scared at what we see.  Many in our modern society in American, especially young adults, are turning their backs on the Church and the values of the faith.  We see our freedom to practice our religion under attack.  We see lies being told about our faith and we see very few people outside of the Church defending us.  For example, back in July of last year, Mission San Gabriel, one of the oldest mission buildings in the West and the mother church of the Los Angeles area, was burned down under very suspicious circumstances.  We barely heard about that in the news media, did we? Back in May, a man was arrested for arson in the burning down of that church.  We did not hear a peep out of the media about that, did we?  Curious, isn’t it?  

      I think of the themes of faith and trust in our readings about Abraham this week, about the covenant and promise God made to Abraham and his descendants.  Abram’s total trust in God’s promises are retold again again down through the ages in the history of the Jewish people.  This trust is giving testimony in the New Testament as well.   Today, in Jesus, we have a new covenant; it is for us to be part of it. Let us pray for that faith and trust of Abram, when against all hope he continued to hope.  Let us have faith and trust in God that he will give us the courage to defend our faith and defend the freedom to practice our religious beliefs for all Americans.  

Reflection on Religious Freedom Week - 22 June 2021 to 29 June 2021

     In his address to Congress during his visit to Washington in September 2015, Pope Francis made the following comments about religious freedom:  

“American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination. With countless other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty. That freedom remains one of America’s most precious possessions. And, as my brothers, the United States Bishops, have reminded us, all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.”

      Today begins Religious Freedom Week in the Catholic Church in the United States as declared by our Catholic Bishops.  The reason for the choice of this starting date of religious freedom week is that 22 June marks the liturgical feast of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, who were put to death as martyrs for the faith defending the primacy of the Roman Pontiff in the dispute over Henry VIII's marriage.  This Friday, we commemorate the birth of John the Baptist in a solemnity at daily Mass.  John the Baptist was a great prophet and a martyr for the faith who was put to death by King Herod.  John proclaimed the Kingdom of God against the backdrop of the Roman Empire.  Religious Freedom Week concludes with the Feast of St Peter and St Paul on June 29.  Peter and Paul, the two main leaders of the Early Church, are also martyrs for the faith who suffered persecution again and again during their lifetime for defending the faith and for proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ.  

       For many years, many Americans took religious liberty for granted.  However, in recent years, many Christians have felt that they were under attack here in our own country, and many have felt that the values of our faith have been under attack.  Religious Freedom Week helps us understand the importance of defending our religious freedom here in our country.  We are called to take a stand on this issue.  We cannot take our religious freedom for granted.  If we remain silent, it may be too late. 

22 June 2021 - Tuesday of the 12th week of Ordinary Time - Homily for the Feast of St John Fisher and St Thomas More - Religious Freedom Week - Matthew 7:6, 12-14

      Today’s Gospel from Matthew contains four short verses from the Sermon on the Mount.  There is a contrast between the narrow gate and the wide road.  Perhaps the wide road means that there are no true laws and commandments, that we can follow our personal likes and dislikes, our whims and desires. The wide road could include our self-centeredness and deception, violence and revenge.  The wide road is not the way of life that Jesus himself followed.  It is not the way of life to which Jesus calls us.  The narrow gate can be seen as the set of values that Jesus teaches us. Justice and mercy are to be included in that narrow gate.  The narrow gate is not close-mindedness and narrow-mindedness.  As the psalmist asserts today, those who do justice will live in the presence of the Lord. 

     Today starts religious freedom week in the Catholic Church in the United States as declared by our Catholic Bishops.  The reason for the choice of this starting date of religious freedom week is that 22 June marks the liturgical feast of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, who died defending the primacy of the Roman Pontiff in the dispute over Henry VIII's marriage.  

     John Fisher was the Bishop of Rochester, England and a very accomplished scholar, having become the chancellor of the University of Cambridge.  He was actually the private tutor of Henry VIII during Henry’s childhood.  In addition, he preached the funeral homily of Henry’s father, Henry VII.  He live a life a great personal austerity.  Thomas More was an esteemed lawyer, judge, social philosopher, and statesmen.  He served Henry VIII as chancellor of England.  He was also a devout Catholic.  Both More and Fisher opposed Henry in his dispute with the Catholic Church, being only a few men of power in England in opposing Henry in naming himself the head of the Church in England and in wanting the Church to approve his divorce from his wife, Catherine of Aragon.  Fisher was put to death on the scaffold on June 22, 1535.  More was put to death on July 5.  They held to the values of their faith, even when it led to public shame and martyrdom.  When hearing their stories and their witness of faith, hearing the Gospel of the narrow gate is a very appropriate Gospel reading for us today.   

21 June 2021 - Monday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time - Matthew 7:1-5

Don’t judge, lest you be judged, warns Jesus in today’s Gospel.  Jesus tells us that we often point out a small fault of our brother’s, while we ignore the large faults that we have. We in the United States fight for freedom in other countries and criticize other countries for what we see is a lack of freedom, but are we paying attention to the way that religious freedom is being eroded in our own country? Tomorrow we will begin Religious Freedom Week, which has become an annual occurrence in our American Catholic Church, highlighting the importance of religious freedom in our faith and in our country.  We will be reflecting on this during this week’s Masses. 

St Aloysius Gonzaga is the saint whose feast day we celebrate today. He was born into a very influential aristocratic family in Northern Italy in 1568 as the eldest of seven children.  Aloysius studied to become a member of the Society of Jesus in spite of very poor health. He was admired by his professors and fellow seminarians for his holiness and for his devotedness to the faith.  When the plague broke out in Rome in 1591, he helped nurse and care for the victims, even when his superiors forbid him to do so because of his poor health.  He came down with the plague and died after being confined to his bed for several months.   He died at the age of 23.  He is buried in the Church of St Ignatius of Loyola in Rome and was beatified only 14 years after his death by Pope Paul V.  Pope Benedict XIII declared St Aloysius as the patron saint of young students in 1729. In 1926, he was named the patron saint of all Christian youth. Due to his death from the plague, he is the patron saint of plague victims and the patron saint of both AIDS sufferers and their caregivers.  May we unite our prayers with the prayers of St Aloysius Gonzaga today.  

24 June 2021 - Solemnity of the Nativity of St John the Baptist - Religious Freedom Week - Luke 1:57-66 and 80

     To start out thinking about today’s solemnity, it is interesting to note that there are only three individuals whose nativity we celebrate in our Church’s liturgical calendar: Jesus, his mother Mary, and then John the Baptist, whom we celebrate today.  Our celebration of John the Baptist’s birth today recognizes him as an important figure in the history of salvation.  Since the time that John’s mother Elizabeth and his father Zechariah received news about John’s birth, since the time that Mary went on that special visit to her cousin Elizabeth while she had Jesus in her own womb, it was announced to the world that John would have a special role in the history of our faith.  In today’s Gospel, we hear how God made John’s father mute because Zechariah doubted God’s will; his voice was restored only when he names his son John according to God’s will.  The friends and neighbors of Elizabeth and Zechariah are astonished at what they see; it shows them that something special and unique is going on.  As an adult, John is portrayed in the Gospel as fiery, assertive figure.  However, John was able to channel his energy into serving God and speaking out as a prophet who pointed the way to Jesus.   John the Baptist is considered the last in the line of the great prophets of Ancient Israel that culminated in the birth of Jesus.  

      It is interesting that today’s celebration falls within Religious Freedom Week as declared by our US Bishops. This week marks the importance of religious freedom in the practice of our Catholic faith.   We recall the courage John the Baptist had in living out the calling God had for him.  He proclaimed God’s word against the backdrop of a powerful Roman empire.  Herod feared John the Baptist and his message so much so that John was ultimately imprisoned and beheaded for being true to his faith.   Herod did not want to hear the truth in John’s words.   In recent years, we have seen religious freedom under attack in our own country, both in big ways and in more subtle ways. The honesty, diligence, and fortitude by which John the Baptist lived out his faith is a good example for all of us to reflect upon during Religious Freedom Week

      The celebrations that we have in our Church’s liturgical calendar certainly have a lot of relevance to our modern world and the way we are called to live out our faith.  May we give thanks today for John the Baptist, for his parents Elizabeth and Zechariah, for the courage they had to live out their faith and to pass that faith down to us.  May their examples give us inspiration and courage to live out our own faith in a vibrant, life-giving way.

Reflection for the twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time - 20 June 2021

     It is hard to believe it is the middle of June already and our celebration of Father’s Day.  I guess that with the pandemic and our inability to live in the normal rhythm of our lives to the full extent just yet, it is hard to have a sense of our time and our seasons.  It is good to be back in church and to be more lenient about wearing masks and about our protocols.  I know that many of us are looking forward to traveling to and spreading our wings after having been denied the opportunity to do so this past year.

     Our Gospel reading have been about faith these past two weeks.  If we would just start out with faith the size of a small mustard seed, through God’s grace and our perseverance, that faith can grow and grow.  In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus and his disciples trapped in a terrible storm at sea.  The disciples try to awaken the sleeping Jesus, asking him if he does not care that they are seemingly perishing.  When we are afraid and confused at what is going on in our lives, we may ask:  Where are you, Jesus?  Why aren’t you here with me?  Sometimes Jesus seems far away.  Perhaps, the worst part is not the storm around us, be rather the fears and anxiety within us.  The most important peace we are to experience is not the calming of the storm around us, but rather the peace we can experience in our hearts.  Jesus’ followers in the early Church who first heard this Gospel story still faced a hostile world with persecution and oppression, just as we can face hostilities and challenges in our world today.  Yet, through our faith, we are called to have confidence in Jesus and to trust in him.

     Blessings to all of you this week.  Happy Father’s Day to all of our fathers and to all of our families.  Father Lincoln. 

Prayers of the faithful - Tuesday of the 11th week of Ordinary time - 15 June 2021

Lord Jesus - you are our Savior. 

Christ Jesus - you are our Redeemer.  

Lord Jesus - you are the Son of the Father.  

With humble hearts, now let us present our prayers to our Heavenly Father:

1. For the Church: that the seed of faith planted in the heart of each believer may grow into a manifestation of God’s reign in the world.

2. For a deeper love and appreciation for God’s word: that God’s Word may nourish and enrich us as we strive to be true disciples of Christ. 

3. For a renewal of faith in all believers: that the Holy Spirit will enable us to live in a trusting reliance with God who is always faithful and who desires to share life with us.  

4. For growth in hope: that God’s faithful love will sustain us in times of discouragement and empower us to persevere through difficult times with the confidence that God makes all things new. 

5. For our children, youth, and families: that God may accompany them through through summer vacation, through their family trips and activities.  

6. For the sick and shut-ins, for healing in their lives, and for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed.  

7. For the prayers we hold in our hearts.  

We present these prayers through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever.  AMEN.  

20 June 2021 – 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Mark 4:35-41

      Last Sunday, as we heard the parable of the mustard seed from Mark’s Gospel, a parable about faith   Today, in a continuation of Mark’s Gospel, we hear of Jesus and the disciples caught in a terrible storm, which continues to address the subject of faith. We might think that we know a lot about faith, but let’s try to reflect about faith in the context of today’s Gospel.

    The first thing that sticks out to me in today’s Gospel story is this question that Jesus asks the disciples: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” I want to relate a story to you from my missionary experiences from Ecuador, and reflecting upon that experience, unfortunately, I have a large source of stories of things that terrified me from my days as a missionary.  One afternoon, I had just arrived in a canoe at the docks of our mission site.  It was a very busy day; many people walking down the streets of the village and going to the marketplace to do their shopping.  I was carrying a large box of plants and seedlings for my garden, so I had my hands full and had a hard time seeing what was in front of me.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I saw this little scraggly, mangy gray dog, barking and snarling, headed right toward me with a bunch of other dogs with him.  Before I knew it, these dogs had surrounded me. I was very scared.  Before I knew it, I felt a terrible stabbing pain on my thigh, and then felt the wetness of blood all over my leg.  One of dogs, a German shepherd, had bitten me on the leg.   I knew that I needed medical help immediately, so I rushed down to the medical clinic a couple of blocks away to get the wound cleaned and stitched up.  Unfortunately, this is not the end of my story.  Since that day, I was petrified of the dogs that wandered around our village all day long.  Attacks from these dogs were not uncommon; they were accepted by the villagers as a part of life.  I avoided the busy marketplace where I had been attacked, even when it meant having to walk twice the distance to get to the school where I worked each day.  Finally, after about a month, I decided to confront my fears and walked through the marketplace.   Wouldn’t you know, as soon as I got there, I heard barking and I saw that mean gray dog headed toward me.  Frightened beyond belief, I panicked.   I started screaming like a crazy person, throwing my backpack and getting out of there as fast as I could.  When I arrived at the school, I told my students the story of what happened, and one of them went back to retrieve my backpack.  Luckily it was still there.  To this day, barking dogs in the street still terrify me.  There are things in life that terrify us.  Perhaps, we have things that we fear that can be stumbling blocks in our journey of faith.  Perhaps we fear failure or fear taking a risk or fear making a commitment to our faith. 

     We recall the story of when Jesus goes back to Nazareth and taught in the synagogue, where many questioned his authority, rejecting his message.  That passage ends by saying that Jesus did not do many deeds in that village because of their lack of faith. (Matthew 13:54-58).   Other times in the Gospel, Jesus specifically says that it is the faith of the person that saves them.  In the Gospel of the woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve year that we will hear next Sunday, Jesus says to her: “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction" (Mark 5:21-43).  In such Gospel stories, the efficacy of what God can do in our lives appears to be directly connected to our faith.  Even though the dictionary says that faith is a noun, in the context of living out our faith, faith is an action word; faith is a verb.  Faith is not to be passive.  We are not to just wait around for God to show up.  We are called to actively search for God, to actively find ways to live out our faith and to grow in our faith.

      We would be naïve to think that our faith life is going to smooth sailing, that we are not going to hit rough patches.  It may be a challenge to stay committed to our faith when things are going well; we might not feel like we need God in those moments, feeling engaged with God at the time.  Other times, it may be a challenge to stay committed to our faith in moments of crisis or grief, in times of suffering or loss, feeling that God has abandoned us.   Some of us go through long periods of doubt and questioning and searching for something in life that we feel is missing.  Yet, God always meets us in our reality, whatever that reality is.  God reaches out to us in our reality, but we have to reach back.

      Faith is a the heart of a week long commemoration in the Catholic Church in our country called Religious Freedom Week.  It begins on June 22 with the feast day of St Thomas More and St John Fisher, two men who were martyred by King Henry VIII for standing up for their Catholic faith.  This week-long period also commemorates the feast days of other important witnesses for our faith, those who remained faithful in the face of persecution and political power, including St John the Baptist, St Peter, and St Paul.  The theme this year is “Solidarity in Freedom.” In Fratelli tutti, Pope Francis asserts that “solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community” (116). Religious freedom allows the Church, and all religious communities, to live out their faith in public and to serve the good of all.  We will be talking more about Religious Freedom Week in our daily Masses during those day.  

     Sometimes, like the disciples on that boat, we may fear that we are going down in the stormy waters around us. We might have felt that way this year during the pandemic. But, in our fears and in our weaknesses, we are called to be courageous, we are called to walk by faith.  May we hear Jesus calling out to us:  “Fear not! Do not be afraid!”

17 June 2021 - Thursday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time - 2 Corinthians 11:1-11

      Often, we priests preach on the Gospel of the day in our daily Masses, but I remember in seminary the advice of one of my Scripture professors, Dr Richard Lux.  He advised us as priests not to neglect the first readings and to preach on them as well.  In our daily masses, the first readings are usually from the Old Testament, but this week and last week, we have been hearing from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.   At the time Paul was writing this letter, he realized that the community in Corinth was drifting away from the true faith and that there was no longer a strong sense of unity among them.   Paul tried to draw them back into the true teachings of Christ, to bring them back to the message that they originally heard, which Paul says is the true Gospel.  That is what I like about having our lectionary of daily and Sunday readings. If I had to choose what to preach on each week, it would be easy to concentrate on what was comforting and not challenging.   However, sometimes the message of the Gospel is radical or something we struggle with.   It is easy to label each other in society, and we can see a great division and polarization and disunity in many facets of our society, particularly in politics.  In the Church, it is easy to label a priest or a parishioner liberal or conservative.  We all have different gifts to bring.  We all have different experiences and different outlooks.  If we would journey together and learn from each other, trying to be true to the message of the Gospel and to forge ties of unity and solidarity, what wonderful seeds we would be sowing in our Church!   Think about how we can work toward unity in our parish and our Church, and how we can stay true to Gospel of Jesus Christ.