16 November 2022 - Martyrs of El Salvador - Homily for Wednesday of the 33rd week of Ordinary Time - Luke 19:11-28

     Today, in a parable from the Gospel of Luke, we hear of 10 servants receives a gold coin – the equivalent of about 3 months of wages according to Scripture Scholars, so it certainly was not an insignificant amount of money.  Those who invested their coin and used what the king gives to them are rewarded, but the servant who kept the coin hidden and did not invest it is punished.  The end of the parable says that Jesus continued on his journey to Jerusalem.   We as modern-day disciples of Christ know that Jerusalem is the city where Jesus met his death on the cross, but it is the place of resurrection and salvation as well.  As disciples of Christ, to live out the resurrection of Christ in our lives here on earth and in anticipation of the resurrection that will bring us salvation and eternal life, we are called to use our gifts and talents in the way God calls us to do so for the glory of his kingdom, not to leave them hidden and unused.  

         God calls us to use our gifts and talents in the reality and the circumstances of our lives, to make sacrifices for the faith, and sometimes the ultimate sacrifice. Today, we commemorate a very stark reality that happened in our own lifetime: the anniversary of 6 Jesuit priests who were martyred in the country of El Salvador in Central America on this date in 1989 at their residence at the university in the capital city of that country. These men of God gave up their lives for the faith in the midst of a revolution and the great political turmoil in this poor Latin American country. In our own way, in the reality of our own lives, we are called to live out our faith courageously and sincerely in order to find Jesus in our own lives and to be witnesses of the Gospel in the world around us. “The struggle against injustice and the pursuit of truth cannot be separated nor can one work for one independent of the other.” These words were spoken by Father Ignatio Ellacuria, the superior of that Jesuit community that was martyred.  His profound words challenge us to live out the justice that God’s truth calls us to, a justice that cannot be separated from our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.