In our Sunday readings these last couple of weeks, we heard a lot about social justice and reaching out to the poor and marginalized of society. Last Sunday, we heard from the prophet Amos in the first reading, who called out the rich and prosperous in society for the way they had abandoned the poor. Today, we hear the well known parable about Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus is on the streets, hungry, homeless, and sick. But there’s a lot we don't know about Lazarus. Was he was an alcoholic, a drug addict, or mentally ill? Was he injured or too sick to work? Was he down on his luck or had he been recently laid off from his job? Had he recently been released from prison? Or was he having a difficult time getting his life together after a recent crisis?
In the context of today’s Gospel, in which the rich man is challenged in the way he ignored Lazarus, I come to you as a brother of Christ from a missionary diocese here in the US, the Diocese of Jackson in state of Mississippi. We have mission territories overseas, but also mission territory also in our own county. Diocese of Jackson is very large geographically, taking up most of Mississippi. We’re the largest Diocese geographically east of MS River, but we have the lowest % of Catholics in any Diocese in the US - 2.3%. We have 90 parishes & missions, but most are small, reflecting the rural nature of our state. Most of the 65 counties in our Diocese only have only one parish; some don’t have even one parish.
You may have heard of Jackson, Missisippi recently in the news due to our water issues. We had a boil water notice since July, which was just lifted recently. We did not have any water at all for over a month. Boil water notices and disruption of service are nothing new. You can imagine the chaos this causes in families, schools, and business. The water system has been in crisis for years and the city has not dealt with that issue. It sounds like that this last crisis put it in the national spotlight. It is hard to believe a situation like this can exist in our country.
I’ve been a Diocesan priest for 14 years. My first assignment as pastor was in the communities of Yazoo City & Belzoni in the heart of the MS Delta, the cotton growing region along the MS River, which has one of the highest levels of poverty in our country. While stationed in the Delta, I served as the priest in 3 parishes and 2 prisons. The territory I served in these 2 counties encompassed large area: 1,400 square miles. However, population was only about 37,000 people in these two counties. I had a 30 mile drive between two parishes in the middle of cotton fields and swamp, no towns or gas stations or stores in between. While serving there, one of those counties, Humpheys county, had the highest child poverty rate and lowest median family income of any county in the US. Currently vicar general of the diocese - pastor of two parishes in Clinton and Raymond - outskirts of city of Jackson.
From my accent, you can probably detect that I am not from MS originally. I am originally from Chicago, so you might detect a hint of a Midwest accent. After serving as a missionary in Ecuador and Canada as a young adult, I decided to become a priest in a mission area of the US, which brought me to Mississippi. I had mentioned that I had served as pastor of the Catholic Church in the small town of Yazoo City. There is actually someone from that town who could be canonized as a saint one day. Thea Bowman, who was born in that town in 1937, was educated at a Catholic school in our Diocese. Raised in a Methodist family, she converted to Catholicism as a girl and decided to join the order of sisters that taught at that school, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration from Wisconsin. She was the first African American sister in that order. Sister Thea Bowman became a renowned professor in literature, African American church music, and African American Catholic spirituality. She later returned to our Diocese to head the office of intercultural ministry & to work on racial healing in Mississippi. She brought a lot of joy and love to many people within the Church. She worked to bring people of different races and cultural groups together, respect their unique gifts. Her life was cut short when she died of cancer in 1990 at the age of 52. Her cause for canonization was approved by the US Bishops in 2018. I thought of Sister Thea and her witness of faith as I was preparing for my mission appeal at your parish, as she represents the missionary spirit of our Diocese, of bringing the Gospel & love of Christ to the people of MS & beyond, of working together in the rich cultural diversity and traditions that make up our Church.
I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to share with you our experiences in the Diocese of Jackson. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. It is important for us to be in solidarity together in proclaiming God’s kingdom here on earth. We are going to take up a second collection for our Diocese. Those funds are used to help fund the small mission parishes and schools in our Diocese. I thank you for any support you can give us. As I will pray for all of you, I ask that you pray for our Mission Diocese of Jackson.
No comments:
Post a Comment