26 May 2026 - homily for Tuesday of the 8th week in Ordinary Time - Mark 10:28-31

Today, we celebrate the feast day of a saint from South America who perhaps is not very well known here in the United States.   Mariana de Jesus de Paredes was born at Quito, Ecuador of noble Spanish parents. She was orphaned as a child. She then was raised by her older sister and her sister’s husband. Mariana was drawn to the Catholic faith as a child.  Later, under the guidance of a Jesuit priest confessor, she lived a consecrated life as a lay woman, practicing austerity in devoting her life to prayer and prophecy with little sleep and little food. An earthquake and an epidemic struck Quito in 1645. Mariana felt herself being called by God to offer herself as a sacrifice for the sins of the people of her city. When the epidemic began to subside, Mariana was stricken with illness and died on May 26th. She is known by the faithful as Mariana de Jesus or Mariana of Quito. She was canonized in 1950. She is the patron saint of the city of Quito. I remember arriving in Ecuador in May 1996 as a lay missionary with the Comboni Missionary religious order. I remember that on the first Sunday we were in the Ecuador, we went to Mass on her feast day.  I remember seeing many different religious sister in their habits attending Mass. It is a beautiful memory I have from my time in Ecuador, an experience which brought me here to the priesthood. I love the story of St Mariana de Jesus. In her faith and in her humility, she brought the mercy of God to the people of her hometown.  Her example of faith calls out to us today.  

Today, we hear the famous saying: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” There was a lady at St Richard who used to drive all of the way from the small town of Lena, Mississippi to attend the mass at St Richard in Jackson every Sunday morning at 8:00 am. That is an almost 50 mile drive each way. She would arrive in last row of pews in the church at least half an hour before mass to pray and to prepare. She told me that Father Ben Martinez used to often jokingly quote this Scripture passage to her before mass, telling her that the first would be last, and the last would be first, since she was all the way in the last pew in the church without fail.