Born in 1935 to a devout Catholic family in Oklahoma, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Oklahoma City after struggling through the academic courses at seminary. After serving as associate pastor in different parishes in Oklahoma for 5 years, he asked to serve as a priest in his Diocese’s mission site in Guatemala. He not only provided great care for their spiritual needs, he also used the agricultural and construction skills he learned as a youth to help improve their living conditions. He returned to Oklahoma briefly, fearing for his life due to conflicts between the governmental forces and the poor, with a guerrilla movement trying to press the government to enact changes. He was killed in his rectory in 1981. He is the first American born priest to be beatified. He was declared a martyr for the faith by the Vatican.
In Jeremiah today, we hear how the people of Israel are suffering, yet they are not afraid to ask God why. They ask: God, have you cast us off? Are we loathsome to you? The people acknowledge the sins of their fathers and the sins that they themselves have committed. They ask God to remember the covenant that he made with them, to forgive them in honor of his own name.
We live in a society where so many people are not willing to acknowledge the wrongs that they have done. It is easier to blame the system, to blame someone else, to not take responsibility. The people of Israel confronted God in the midst of suffering from a great draught. Do we cry out to God in the same way when are suffering or going through obstacles?
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