A Priest in the Mississippi Delta

2/26/2012 – Primer Domingo de la Cuaresma – Marcos 1, 12-15 –

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Cuando emprende un viaje a un lugar desconocido,primero, nos informamos y consultamos el mapa o el interneto nuestro teléfono celular para indicar las rutas, las salidas, y lasdistancias de nuestro viaje. Esta información es necesario para viajar a undestino nuevo. Pero, mas necesario aun es saber a donde seva.

Como cristianos, comenzamos nuestro viajecuaresmal esta semana. ?Pero, sabemos en que ruta estamos? ?Sabemos a donde vamos? Algo que no esta señalado en el mapa de carreteraso por el internet es el lugar llamado tentación, y tentación es también unaparte del viaje en nuestra vida de fe. Este viaje cuaresmal es el de la vuelta a la casade nuestro Padre por la ruta de Jesús. Jesús es la carretera que nos lleva a la casa deDios.

Jesús, también, consultó un mapa para conocer lavoluntad de Dios en su vida y para hacer el camino de Dios. El Evangelio dice: “El Espíritu impulsó a Jesús aretirarse al desierto, donde permaneció cuarenta días y fue tentado porSatanás.” Como Jesús,nosotros consultamos el mapa del Espíritu, nos dejamos guiar por el Espíritu,escuchamos al Espíritu, nos purificamos con el fuego del Espíritu, y vencemosal cansancio del camino de nuestro viaje con la fuerza del Espíritu.

Jesús sufrió los ataques y las tentaciones deSatanás en su viaje hacia el Padre como cualquiera de nosotros. Jesús, como nosotros, sufrió la tiranía delcuerpo, de sus necesidades y urgencias – el hambre, el cansancio, la desilusión,el abandono. Pero, Jesús vino a enseñarnos que solo hay unDios al que adorar y servir. El nos enseña a dejar los dioses falsos queocupan nuestros corazones y a hacer el camino cuaresmal solo con Dios.

?Cuando no sabemos donde estamos, que mapa vamosa consultar? ?Cuando estamos tentado, a que nombre vamos ainvocar? ?Cuando olvidamos de donde vamos, a quien vamos apreguntar? Dejémonos conducir por el Espíritu Santo.

3/2/2012 – Friday of First week of Lent – Ezekiel 18:21-28

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Ezekiel brings forth the message of the Lord this afternoon,telling us that the Lord does not delight when a wicked man stays in hiswickedness and earns punishment, but rather the Lord delights when thewickedness man turns his back on his evil ways and has a change of heart. We have so many in our world today who turntheir backs on the laws of God and the laws of man, who want to stay on thoseevil paths and who do not want to hear the voice of the Lord calling out to them. We may say that the laws of God and the lawsof man are unfair, but what about the ways that we break those laws, that wegive into temptation and into our evil ways?

We hear this message during the first week of Lent, becauseLent in all about change our ways and turning back to God. It is hard to break old habits and to reformour lives. It is hard to break out ofthe chains of addictions, out of our laziness and complacency. But that is what the Lord is calling us todo. And he will rejoice when we are ableto do so.

3/1/2012 – Thursday of first week of Lent – Esther C: 12, 14-16, 23-25, Matthew 7:7-12

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"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you willfind; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks,receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the doorwill be opened.” We hear this famousverse as a part of the Gospel reading from St Matthew this afternoon. I remember that when I was talking to theseniors at St Richard during the Lenten retreat I was giving them about thedifferent names we have for God, one of them remarked did not like the image ofa door, because for that person, she was envisioning a closed door that put upa barrier in reaching God. However,another person at the retreat said that they envisioned an open door that givesus access to God. Our image from theGospel today tells us to knock at the door, for it will be opened for anyonewho knocks.

Queen Esther was a Jewish girl who became a maiden at thecourt of the Persian king, and she eventually became Queen. Through her wisdom and courage, she thwarts aplot against the people of Israel. Inour first reading, Esther prays to the Lord that she may speak his word, askinghim: “Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion.” She wants to speak God’s word to the king ofPersia, to be God’s holy message. Estherhas great fear, since she knows that her life and the lives of many Jews inhanging on what will happen next. Yet,in the face of this adversity, she places hear faith and trust in the Lord.

Sometimes we are afraid to open the door. Sometimes, we fear what will happen next inour lives. Sometimes, it is difficulttaking that first step or taking a risk. The Lord tells us to knock at the door – we have to be willing to takethat chance no matter how scary it may seem.

2/29/2012 – Wed of 1st week of Lent – Jonah 3:1-10

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The taleof Jonah in the Old Testament is often thought of as a children's storycomplete with a whale & a great adventure. In fact, as a college student, I recall attending a Sunday morningservice in a Baptist church in which there was a tent fashioned into a whale atthe front of the church in order to re-enact the story of Jonah. All of the children entered it in order tosimulate the fantastic journey that Jonah took, & they seemed absolutelythrilled to do so.

Yet, the real message of thebook of Jonah is a very adult one that gives us all an opportunity to stretchour understanding of God & his salvation. Today’s first reading tells ofGod's 2^nd call to Jonah and his less than enthusiastic response.

God tells Jonah "to go to Nineveh,the great city." Nineveh was thecapital of Assyria, the nation that had destroyed the northern kingdom ofIsrael and held the southern kingdom of Judah as a vassal state for almost onehundred years. Assyria was a brutal occupying force that forever changedIsrael's future. Jonah is called out by God to go and prophesy to the capitalcity of Israel’s enemy.

We could berate and criticize Jonah for his little faith. However, itmight be more helpful for us to identify with Jonah for a moment rather than tocriticize him, to empathize with the seemingly impossible mission to which Godhas called him. With the tasks we arecalled to do in our modern world, we could consider Jonah a patron saint towhom we ask for intercessory prayers. The message we receive from our modern secular world is that we cannotmake a big difference in the world, that we might as well just fall in line andmake the best living we can for ourselves and our family. Our calling from God and our values may tellus we need to head East to Nineveh, but we all too often turn around, walkaway, and get on the boat with Jonah as a means of escape. Perhaps we find it too difficult or toolonely to walk the way of our faith, to choose the path of faith over the waysof our secular world. And by runningaway, perhaps we find ourselves in the belly of the whale, or out of touch withour calling from God, or very distant from a sense of meaning and purpose.

We need to think about those things thatwe try to flee in our life of faith, things that we are being called to do byGod, but we are scared or uninterested or just don’t have the inclination to dowhat God is asking us to do. This storyof Jonah’s calling gives us pause to think, doesn’t it?

2/28/2012 – Tuesday of 1st week of Lent – Isaiah 55:10-11

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We hear a very short two-verse readingfrom the prophet Isaiah today. We hearfrom Isaiah a lot in the seasons of preparation of Lent and Advent, since theprophecies from this prophet often foreshadow events that will later occur inthe life of Jesus. Our region of theMississippi Delta is known for its rich farmland. And I have been told that some of the finestfarmers in the entire Delta are right here in our own parish. So, our analogy in Isaiah about how the snowand the rain hit the soil so that seeds and grains will burst forth in thefields, producing bread for those who are hungry. God’s word is supposed to do the same in ourlives. It is not supposed to return toGod with empty promises, but rather to accomplish the purposes for which hesent it to earth.

What purpose does God have for us thisLenten season? How is God calling out tous during this holy season? What seedsare being planted in our lives? Theseare good questions for us today as we hear this very brief message from theprophet Isaiah. Just as we are hopingfor a good planting season and harvest for our farmers this year in the Delta,we are hoping for a good Lenten season for us that will produce a bountifulharvest in our own lives.

2/26/2012 – First Sunday in Lent – Mark 1:12-15

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I recently read a quote by Pope Benedictabout his hope for all of the faithful during this holy season that we are nowentering: “May Lent for every Christian be a renewal experience of God’s lovegiven to us by Christ.” Those are verygood words for us to hear on the first Sunday in Lent.

Lent is a season that has a very distinctidentity. At the beginning of mass thismorning, we did not hear one of our traditional hymns proclaiming Christ as theLight of the World, or as our Savior and Redeemer. In fact, we did not start mass with anyprocessional music at all. Instead, westarted the procession on our knees and in silence. That’s a big contrast to how we normallystart mass, so right from the very beginning we know we are in a very specialtime of the year in our Church. WeCatholics use a lot of movements and body gestures during mass, don’t we? Kneeling is very profound body posture for usin which we acknowledge that we are in the presence of the sacred and thedivine, that we are involved in an act that is so very different than anythingelse we do in life. People in theancient world would kneel before kings and princes, so we today kneel beforethe king of kings.

Yet if Lent is supposed to be a period ofrenewal and an experience of God’s love for us, what does it mean to be thrustinto a desert, to accompany Jesus during these forty days of his journey in thewilderness? Verse 10 in the firstchapter of Mark’s Gospel tells us that the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus likea dove when John the Baptist baptized him in the Jordan River. In today’s Gospel reading, just a few verseahead of that, it is very curious that we hear about this same Spirit of Goddriving Jesus into the desert wilderness where Satan tempts him. Jesus was not surrounded by friends or familymembers in the wilderness, but rather amongst Satan, wild animals, andchaos. Yet, amongst all of that, God isstill with Jesus. God sends the angelsto minister to him, to be with him, to support him, to help him through thisjourney.

We kneel today out of humility andpenance during this penitential season of Lent, emulating the humility andresource shown by the many men and women who fell to their knees in this sameway in the Old and New Testaments. Wekneel putting God at the center of our lives. We kneel, knowing that we have an intimate relationship with God, orknowing that we want such a relationship.

I was with Father Mike O’Brien, FatherBrian Carroll, and some friends from Jackson last week for dinner, when one ofthem was asking me how I survived all of the malaria and the other tropicaldiseases I had as a missionary. Theyasked me why I stuck with it and why I didn’t just return home. And the Father Mike joked how while I was oncesurviving in the jungles of South America, and now I am surviving up in YazooCity.

Lent is a really good time for all of usto go through each year. It doesn’tmatter if we’re young or old, if this is the first Lent we’ve gone throughfaithfully, or if we’ve done this for decades. It doesn’t matter if we’re in Yazoo City or the jungle, or what is goingon in our personal lives. Lent is 40days accompanying Jesus in the desert wilderness – 40 days accompanying him onhis way to the cross. We need this opportunity each year to examine ourconsciences, to look at what is going on in our lives, to see where our faithis at this very moment, to go through a conversion of heart and to bere-directed to God. And just as Jesushad the angels ministering to him on this journey, we have God’s grace and ourfaith community accompanying us along our journey during Lent.

If you have ever been to a desertwilderness, it might seem very stark and desolate, but there is a lot of lifegoing on as well that might not be so obvious on the surface. One of the most beautiful places I have visitedin California is Joshua Tree National Park, a massive area east of Palm Springslocated in both the high and low desert region of that state. It is certainly a desert ecosystem, but thereare all kinds of birds, insects, and lizards there, and I’ve even seen jackrabbits, big horn sheep, and coyotes there as well. In the desert there is all kind of life andactivity going on, just like there will be a lot of movement, nudges, andactivity going on in our own lives if we take our Lenten disciplines seriouslyand if we really try to get a lot out of our own desert experience during Lent.

So, welcome to our 40-day journey in thedesert as we recognize the first Sunday of Lent. May this be a very meaningful time for all ofus.

2/22/2012 – Miércoles de cenizas – 2 corintios 5, 20 - 6, 2; Mateo 6, 1-6, 16-18

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Cuandorecibimos las cenizas sobre nuestra frente en la misa de hoy, escuchamos una deestas frases: “Recuerda que polvo eres yen polvo te convertirás" o “Arrepiéntete y cree en el Evangelio”. Estasfrases significan que hoy comenzamos unnuevo tiempo litúrgico: la Cuaresma. Es un tiempo especial de gracia en el que Dios nosinvita a vivir una conversión en nuestras vidas. Recibimos esta bendición en lamisa y la imposición de las cenizas.

Ensus enseñanzas en el Evangelio de hoy sobre las obras de piedad y la manera deorar, Jesús nos enseña sobre el reino de Dios. ¿Qué es el Reino de Dios? Es dejar que la voluntadde Dios se realice en la vida de cada uno de nosotros, viviendo como Dios quiereque vivamos. El Reino de Dios se nos manifiesta y se hace presente en el mundoa través de Cristo. Porque Cristo, encada momento, realiza la voluntad de Dios. El Reino de Dios es hacer en todomomento lo que agrada a Dios y hacer siempre lo que Dios nos manda. Lamentablemente, el pecado nos apartó de la voluntad de Dios. El pecado noslleva a hacer nuestra propia voluntad dejando a un lado la voluntad de Dios. Elpecado es lo que nos aleja del Reino de Dios. Este miércoles de cenizas, Jesúsnos invita a hacer presente en nuestra vida el Reino de Dios. El nos invita aabrir nuestros corazones a lo que Dios quiere y espera de nosotros.

Jesúsquiere que nuestra vida se realice de acuerdo a los planes de Dios; por eso,necesitamos vivir una conversión. Conversión quiere decir “cambios” en nuestrasvidas - cambios en el modo de vivir en nuestras relaciones con nosotros mismos- cambios en el modo de vivir nuestra relación con los demás, con la naturaleza,y con Dios. 

Creeren el Evangelio no significa simplemente estar de acuerdo con lo que nos dicela Palabra de Dios, pero significa ponerlo en práctica; vivirlo; hacerlovida. Una persona que dijera que cree en el Evangelio, pero que no se esforzarapor vivirlo, no estaría diciendo la verdad. El camino que nos lleva a vivir elReino de Dios, por lo tanto, es la conversión. No hay otro camino. Todosnosotros somos responsables del mal y del pecado que llena actualmente elmundo. Si queremos que las cosas cambien, necesitamos empezar a cambiar nuestrapropia vida, de tal manera que el Reino de Dios se haga presente en cada uno denosotros. 

LaCuaresma que ahora comenzamos es un tiempo de gracia. Es un tiempo desalvación. Dios nos concede la oportunidad y los medios que necesitamos paraemprender un cambio y una renovación en nuestra vida personal y comunitaria.Aprovechemos la ocasión que se nos presenta. San Pablo nos decía hoy en susegunda carta a los corintios: “En nombre de Cristo les pedimos que se reconciliencon Dios.” Nos recuerda que Cristo entregó su vida por nosotros. El nos quiere como verdaderos hijos y hijasde Dios. San Pablo decía también: “Como colaboradores que somos de Dios, losexhortamos a no echar su gracia en saco roto….ahora es el tiempo favorable;ahora es el día de la salvación.” 

Laceremonia de la imposición de la cenizas que tenemos hoy debe ser la respuestaque nosotros demos a esa invitación a la conversión. La imposición de la cenizassignifica que nosotros aceptamos la invitación que Dios nos hace a laconversión y que queremos, en serio, vivir un cambio en nuestra vida. El cambiono es para nuestro mal, sino para nuestro bien. Si vivimos de acuerdo alEvangelio, nuestra vida va a ser más plena, seremos más felices y haremos másfelices a los demás. Necesitamosaprovechar de este tiempo de gracia en la Cuaresma, en este tiempo depenitencia y de renovación espiritual.

2/19/2012 – Marcos 2, 1 – 12 – séptimo domingo del tiempo ordinario –

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Jesúsestá en una casa en Cafarnaum, proclamando el reino de Dios, anunciando sumensaje. Pero, hay una supresa, hay unainterrupción. Hay un grupo de amigos, yellos están quitando una parte del techo para entrar en la casa y hablar conJesús. Este grupo llevó su amigo, unparalítico, buscando curación en la vida de su amigo. Jesús vio la fe que este grupo de amigostenía, y dijo al paralitico: Tus pecados quedan perdonados. Es extraño, estas palabras de Jesús, porqueel paralitico está buscando una curación de su salud física, y Jesús estáperdonando sus pecados.

Lospecados y las enfermedades eran inseparables en la mentalidad de la gente en laépoca de Jesucristo. Cualquier judío habría estado de acuerdo en que el perdónde los pecados era condición previa para la curación. Pero, para estos judíos en esta época, y paranosotros en el mundo moderno de hoy día, tal vez no entendemos que hay curaciónde nuestras enfermedades y nuestros problemas físicas, pero también haycuración en el nivel emocional, y psicológico, y espiritual. Hay una interacción de todos de estosaspectos de nuestra vida, de nuestro ser.

Habíaun choque para los escribas y los maestros de la ley, porque el perdonar de lospecados era una exclusiva de Dios. Paraellos, para escuchar estas palabras de Jesús, es la blasfemia inexcusable. Podemos venir a Dios como los escribas y losmaestros de la ley, con nuestra arrogancia y nuestra propia voluntad, connuestras ideas rígidas, o podemos venir como este grupo de amigos delparalitico, con confianza en Jesús, con la voluntad de hacer cualquiera paratener el amor y la curación de nuestro Señor en nuestra vida. Necesitamos venir a Dios con fe y con nuestrasoraciones, pero no podemos quedar en los margines del mundo sin hacernada. Necesitamos acción en nuestra vidade fe, para participar en la vida divina, para llevar esta presencia divina atodos los rincones de nuestro mundo. Necesitamos recordar que los amigos del paralitico lo llevaron a Jesúshicieron todo, con su creatividad y su tenacidad, con su constancia yinsistencia. Esta actitud es importanteen nuestra relación con Dios, en la obra de evangelización que debemos hacer ennuestro mundo. En verdad, vamos aencontrar los estorbos y los obstáculos en nuestra vida de fe, pero con elEspíritu Santo y nuestra fe, con la gracia de Dios, podemos avanzar en nuestro camino.

Estamoscerca de Cuaresma, cerca del miércoles de las cenizas. En estos domingos pasados, escuchamos muchoscuentos de curación en los primeros capítulos de Marcos – del la curación delhombre con un demonio en la sinagoga, de la suegra de Simón, del leproso, y delparalitico hoy día. Jesús dijo alparalitico: “Tomó su camilla y salió de allí a la vista de todos." ¿Quédebemos hacer para tener la curación de Dios en nuestra vida, para avanzar ennuestra vida de fe, para preparar en esta Cuaresma?

2/24/2012 – Friday after Ash Wednesday – Isaiah 58:1-8

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In our reading from Isaiah, we hear aboutfasting, about repenting for our sins, in wearing sackcloth and ashes andpublicly declaring our desire to repent and change our hearts. We all just received ashes on our foreheadsthis past Wednesday, as we were told to turn away from sin and to believe inthe Gospel. Yet, what does this matterif we do not practice peace and justice in our lives? Sharing our food with the hungry, bringingthe poor into our house, helping to clothe the naked – this is what the Lordasks of us in our fast, in our Lenten disciplines.

I have heard people sometimes mock ourLenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and good works, but they are there for areason. They are what God desires ofus. And hopefully they will workhand-in-hand to change our hearts, to change our lives, to change our actions. Aswe begin our Lenten season, may we find disciplines that change our lives andhelp us live out the values of our faith that we proclaim. May our fasting and our Lenten rituals notbecome hollow and empty for us. It is easyto hide behind a trite phrase or slogan – may our Lenten practice really changeand convert our lives.

2/23/2012 – Thursday after Ash Wed – Deuteronomy 30:15-20

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Moses tells the Israelites in the middleof their journey in the dessert that they have the choice of choosing life orchoosing death. They can follow the lawsand commandments of the Lord, in which case they will arrive safely in the landof milk and honey that God has promised to them. Or, they can turn their hearts away from theone true God, they can serve and worship other gods and idols, in which casethey will perish.

The choice seems very simple, doesn’tit? But so many in our society choosethings that are against God and that are bad for them. I almost can’t bear to look in our localYazoo City newspaper, because I see articles of men and women right here in ourcommunity who are making bad choices and who are turning away from God in theirlives, and who are paying the consequences by having their lives unravel or inthe worst cases even finding themselves incarcerated.

We are beginning our Lenten journey thisweek. Lent is a wonderful time of theyear for us, where we can look deeply into our lives and see the ways that Godis calling us to change our lives. Mayour Lenten journey this year be a good one. May it help us change our lives and bring ourselves closer to God.

2/22/2012 – Ash Wednesday - Joel 2:12-18, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 –

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This season of Lent – the specialpenitential season of preparation – calls out to us today. We ourselves are “called to be Holy” duringthis holy season. We are called to beholy on this day that we have ashes placed on our foreheads as a public sign ofrepentance. We are called to be holyduring the season of Lent as we recall and trace Jesus’ path of ministry, as wefollow the footsteps of his passion, death, and resurrection, footsteps thatbring to us salvation as the holy people of God.

In today's first reading, the prophet Joelcalls the people of Israel to a communal rite of anguish and repentance as apath toward hope in God. Joel calls thepeople to repent with sackcloth and ashes, with prayer and fasting. The priests and the leaders of the community,the elders and the infants – everybody joins in this ritual of repentance.

Joel tells us to rend our hearts, not our garments,to return to the Lord. Perhaps this messagegets to the heart of what we mean by signifying Lent as a season in which weare called to be holy. We are not to focus on the externals, but on how our heartsare being changed and converted on the inside. There is a tension between our call to repent publically and Jesus’admonition of being aware of practicing our piety before others in order to beseen by them, in perhaps taking pride in the way we express our remorse andrepentance publically. If we focus onthe surface of the externals and the rituals, there is a danger that we willjust go through the motions of repentance. If we just go through the motions, this holy season will not belife-changing or transformative for us this year.

We arecalled to holiness during this holy season of Lent not just individually, butalso as a community. During Lent, we will all have daily devotional books in wecan all pray together as a community. Wewill have our traditional Wednesday evening soup suppers each week during Lentin which we will gather and journey together during this holy season. We also will receive different symbols duringour Lenten journey that will bond us together as a faith community.

As we start our Lenten journey with AshWednesday, may we rend our hearts for personal reflection that will lead us toa season of confession, change, and renewal. The trumpet is to be sounded in Zion, but not as a call that celebratesvictory, not as a call that signals the advance to war, but rather a call thatwarns those who are penitent that the day of the Lord is coming. Let us see beyond the smudge of ash that isplaced on our foreheads to the smudge that exists in our hearts. May this journey that we start on AshWednesday through this holy season bring our repentance from the shadows intosubstance, from ritual into reality, from a facade into faith. May we journey together as a community duringLent in our call to greater holiness.

2/21/2012 – Tuesday of 7th week in ordinary time- James 4:1-10

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James has been talking to us about the conflict that existswithin a community of faith, telling the people that this conflict and theiractions often can go against the Gospel of Christ, and often can go against thefriendship we have with the world and the friendship we have with God. Look at how sometimes we Catholics get mockedby our secular world, how we are looked down upon by others who claim that theyprofess the same Christian faith. Itmight even seem like we have competing spirits within us sometimes, doesn’tit? Sometimes it might seem like we havea devil on our shoulder who is trying to tempt us into doing something we knowin our heart is wrong.

In this six-week session of the Why Catholic program thatwe’ve been following, we’ve been looking at a lot of different ways topray. Prayer is essential in growing inour faith and in communicating with God. Some of these ways to pray may seem new and strange at first, but weneed to keep searching in order to find a way we can communicate with God andto listen to him with all our hearts. I have enjoyed journeying with thedifferent Why Catholic groups, in discussing different prayer approaches withthe members of these groups. If we don’tpray regularly, if we don’t cultivate a relationship with God, then the voicesfrom our world will eventually drown out our faith.

Where are we in our friendship with God? How do we hear him interacting in our lives?

2/19/2012 – 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B – Mark 2:1-10

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Last weekend, we had ourretreat for the confirmation candidates in Yazoo City. The youth had a really wonderful time looking athow we see God in many different ways in our lives. Think of the way we see God in differentwords. We have many different words andnames we ascribe to God. Some of thewords we have for God may be easy for us to relate to, as we often refer to Godas Father, Guide, the Source of Strength, the Good Shepherd, the Great Teacher,the Creator of the Universe, our Rock. It might be a struggle for us to use certain titles or words for God. Perhapswe are uncomfortable seeing God as our Judge. And although we are used to calling God “Father,” calling God “Mother”might not seem very comfortable.

As I thought about the readings we’ve hadthese past few weeks as we journey through ordinary time on our way to AshWednesday and the beginning of Lent this week, we see the image of God as ahealer and the great physician in these Gospel readings these past weeks. In these readings from the Gospel of Mark, wehave seen Jesus cast a demon out of a man at the synagogue, we have seen himheal Simon’s mother-in-law and then later cure a leper. Jesus does a lot ofhealings as Mark recounts the miracles he performed in the first and secondchapters of his Gospel. In the Gospelreading for today, we see a group of men so intent on bringing a friend oftheirs to Jesus for healing that they literally take the roof off the house inorder to get to him.

In Jesus’ day, if someone came down with an illness or disease,it was common to see these afflictions as the result of a sin the person hadcommitted. In fact, today, when Jesussees the faith of that group of friends that brought the paralytic man to himfor healing, this is what is say in order heal the paralytic: “Child, your sinsare forgiven.”

Whenyou think about it, we have come a long way in modern medicine and our thinkingabout illness since Jesus’ day. We thinkof some of the disease that used to kill thousands of people just a generationor two ago, and those diseases are just things we read about in a history bookas something that happened in the past. Yet, perhaps we still don’t understand how the emotional, psychological,spiritual, and moral facets of our being affect our physical health as well. And that is where the forgiveness of sinscomes into play, as it would cover all those other aspects of our health beyondour physical health. Perhaps we come toJesus for healing on a physical level, when we have some sort of disease orillness, but where we really need healing in our lives is in our spiritual orpsychological or emotional well-being.

Weoften hear a contrast between two groups in the Gospels. Today this is played out between the friendsof the paralytic on the one hand, who place their total trust and confidence inJesus, in his healing power and authority. And then, on the other hand, we have the scribes who question Jesus’motives, who wonder how he dare assume an authority that is only reserved forGod alone. In our lives of discipleship,we are called to have faith and trust in Jesus, to believe that he can reallyenact healing and miracles in our lives.

Iremember when I was over at a community reconciliation service at Holy Familyparish in Jackson with Father Mike O’Brien a couple of years ago during theAdvent season. We were both at oppositeends of the church listening to the sacrament of reconciliation. As part of the penance that evening, I wasasking the parishioners to go to the holy water font, to make a sign of thecross with the water, and to feel Christ’s love and healing power flowing inthem from the waters of our baptism. Oneof the elderly parishioners who came to me for reconciliation was strugglingwith a lot of health issues. When hecame back from the holy water font to his pew, he prayed while kneeling for awhile, and then he sprang to his feet and a jack rabbit and started shouting:“Thank you, Jesus! I have beenhealed! Alleluia! Thank you, Lord! I can feel your healing power in mylife! Thank you, Jesus!” I lookedup at where Father Mike O’Brien was on the other side of the church, and Ithought he was about to jump into the rafters – he was so startled by thisjoyful outburst. Father Mike had themost frightened, shocked expression on his face. But I wish that we could all feel the joythat this parishioner felt, at the healing power of Jesus he felt flowingthrough his body.

Iwonder if we are open to God’s presence and healing in our lives, in the manydifferent ways and dimensions that it comes to us, in the many different wayswe experience it? And are we willing tobe like that group of friends of the paralytic, willing to break down barriersand misconceptions, even willing to comethrough the roof in order to get to Jesus and his healing presence in ourlives?

2/12/2012 – Marcos 1, 40-45 – Sexto Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario

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Unleproso viene a Jesús en su humanidad. El se acerca a Jesús de rodilla para mostrar su humildad. En el mundoantiguo, un leproso es una persona muy separado en esta sociedad. El leproso sufre mucho en el dolor de suenfermedad y en el dolor de su soledad en su vida. En los tiempos de Jesús, había la creenciaque los leprosos y las otras personas con defectos físicos estaban abandonadaspor Dios.

Enel libro de Levítico, escuchamos sobre las leyes de Israel, sobre la separaciónde los leprosos en esta sociedad. La leydijo que los leprosos no pueden acercarse a las otras personas. Pero, el leproso mira a Jesús – él mira sumisericordia y su compasión y su sabiduría. Y Jesús mira la fe y el corazón de este leproso. La ley dijo que el leproso era intocable,pero Jesús tocó a este hombre intocable. En los ojos de Dios, en los ojos de Jesús, nadie es intocable, nadie esimpuro, nadie es sucio. El amor de Dios y la compasión de Dios quieren tocarnosy sanarnos como Jesús tocó al leproso.

Elcoraje de este leproso es un ejemplo para nosotros. El rompe las leyes judías que dijeron que élera intocable y marginada. El creía enel poder de Jesucristo. En sus palabrashumildes, él le dijo: “Si quieres, Jesús, tu puedes limpiarme.” El leproso quiere ser limpio – quiere entrary integrar en la sociedad, en la comunidad, en el culto de la religión. Y con esta curación, terminó su exilio.

¿Cómosomos nosotros separados de la misericordia y el amor de Jesucristo en nuestromundo? ¿Estamos ocupados con la limpiezade nuestro exterior y no importa la limpieza de nuestro corazon? ¿Tenemos la voluntad para arrodillarnos aJesús en nuestra humanidad, en nuestra humildad, en nuestra debilidades?

2/17/2012 – Friday of the sixth week in ordinary time – Mark 8: 34 – 9: 1

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Jesustalks about the cost of discipleship. Inlight of this message, we may ask ourselves: Why would these disciples havefollowed Jesus, a man who was about to be crucified? As in our modern society, I am sure thedisciples in Jesus' day had their fair share of rejection and suffering withouttaking on more. Objections to taking upour own crosses and following Jesus would appeal to our instinct forself-preservation, our longing for security and prominence, for health and along life here on earth.

Yet, I think only those who follow Jesus to the cross, thosewho carry their own crosses on their journey of faith, will know who Jesusreally is. If we stop half-way and don'tjourney to the cross, then we misunderstand Jesus and his teachings. He will just be another miracle worker oranother wise and compelling teacher. If we don't journey with Jesus to the cross, if we don't take up ourcrosses to follow him, what will we really know about the Messiah we profess tobelieve in and proclaim. Inunderstanding the cross of Jesus, in carrying our own crosses, only then willwe truly understand that Jesus is the son of God.

This image of the cross may still seem foreign and strangeto many of us in our modern age. But itis a crucified Messiah who reveals God as a vulnerable, suffering God. It may be a comfortable thought to desire aninvincible God who shields us from our vulnerability. But Jesus, the son of God who was crucifiedand who asks us to carry our own crosses, is the Jesus who hears the cry of thepoor, who defends the immigrant and the unborn, who suffers with others, whowas born among the homeless, who associated with the outcasts, who comparedreceiving the kingdom of God to the joy and innocence of a little child.

This is God. This isGod who asks us to take up our crosses, to follow him.

2/16/2012 – Thursday of sixth week in ordinary time – James 2:1-9

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What interesting words of wisdom we hearfrom James this afternoon. He tells usthat even though we profess to be followers of Christ, our actions may oftennot be congruous with the values Christ proclaimed. How often do we judge people on how they aredressed or how rich they are or by their status in society? James points out followers in the earlyChurch often did not welcome the poor in their assemblies, that they oftentreated people different depending upon their status in society.

We want to be a welcoming, diversecommunity of faith. We want to welcomethe child and the grandmother, the rich and the poor, the immigrant and theperson whose family has lived here for generations. And in many ways we in the Catholic Churchcan be proud of how diverse and welcoming we are. But it is something we cannot take forgranted. We need to reach out to manypeople in so many ways. We need to meetpeople in their reality, in the place where they are in their lives. May we always be challenged in our faith, maywe always look inside of our hearts to see the ways we need to change and growin order to really live out the Gospel message.

2/15/2012 – Wednesday of the sixth week in ordinary time – Mark 8:22 – 26

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In today's Gospel reading, we hear how Jesus restores thesight of a blind man. But there areother types of blindness that exist besides sight, such as blindness of theheart. The sight of the blind man isrestored in stages as he responds to the healing touch of Jesus. Finally, the Gospel of Mark tells us that theblind man “looked intently, was restored, and saw everything clearly.” Jesus tells him not to enter the villageafter his sight is restored, possibly a warning to avoid those who still are inspiritual darkness, blindness of the heart.

I think it is important to ask ourselves periodically: Arethere any blind spots in our lives that cloud or block our vision of God &his kingdom? With the power of God'sgrace, we can again walk in the light of his redemption. The beginning of the holy season of Lent isjust a week away, so it is fitting that we look at where our blind spots exist,to realize those areas of our lives that need illumination from the light ofChrist. May the spiritual practices weadopt during the holy season of Lent help us to restore our sight.

2/14/2012 – Tuesday of 6th week of ordinary time - Mark 8:14-21 -

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Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees& of Herod – that's what Jesus tells his disciples in today's Gospel. So, often the disciples don't understand whatJesus is talking about, just as we might miss his point sometimes as well, orwe might focus on some surface issue, missing his underlying message. Jesus points out to them that being able tofeed them was not a problem, taking note of his miracle in multiplying theloaves and the fish.

The leaven of the Pharisees is pride andscrupulosity, it is placing more importance to following a strict, rigid adherenceto the letter of the law, and often violating the spirit of the law. It is molding God and their religion intowhat they themselves want it to be rather than letting God be God. Do we do thesame thing in our lives of faith? Are weso busy telling God how to be God, trying to tell him what commandments weshould be following, that we don't have any time to listen to his will in ourlives?

What could Jesus mean be the leaven ofHerod? Could it be the lure of materialism,wealth, power, pride and selfishness that he displayed as the king of Israel,those values that seduce many of us in the modern world today?

The leaven of the Pharisees & theleaven of Herod – we need to be careful of them as we start our Lentendisciplines next week, as we enter the holy season of Lent in our preparationsfor Easter. May we not fall intotemptation – may our hearts & prayers be set on the Lord rather than theways of the world or our own rigid, distorted concepts of God.

2/12/2012 - 6th Sunday ordinary time – Mark 1:40-45; Leviticus 13:1-2, 46-48; Psalm 32:1-2, 5-11

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In today's readings, we hear very different responses toleprosy, a disease that was greatly feared in biblical times. In the Old Testament reading, we first hearof a very strict and law driven response to leprosy, aiming to protect thecommunity from becoming infected from those who are sick. Then, Jesus gives us a compassionate responsethat breaks through the barriers and prejudices of his society. I wonder what these readings tell us aboutthe Good News of Jesus, about how we are called to live out our faith?

From Leviticus, we hear how the ancient Jews dealt withleprosy and other skin diseases that had no known cures. These diseases were considered very seriousnot only because they were highly contagious, but because this ancient view sawthe afflicted patient as spiritually unclean and therefore unfit to participatein religious rituals. The priests wouldofficially declare such a person as unclean, and he would be quarantined inorder to protect the community. In acommunity-based society such as ancient Israel, such a separation was verysevere. At the time of his greatestvulnerability, the leper would be deprived of community support. It's difficult for us to comprehend how cutoff from society a leper would have been in ancient Israel; his only regularsocial contact would have been with other lepers. Our responsorial psalm today gives us someadditional understanding into this mindset, reminding us that in ancientbiblical times, many people regarded sin as the cause of leprosy and otherterrible diseases.

In the Gospel reading, in Jesus' interaction with the leper,we get a much different response. And un-named leper approaches Jesus insteadof remaining on the outskirts of society. Under Jewish law, the leper should have been warning Jesus not toapproach him. Yet, he kneels down and addresses Jesus as if in an act ofworship, begging him: “If you wish, you can make me clean.” By approachingJesus and interacting with him, the leper risks incurring a punishment muchharsher than the already grim reality of his disease. Yet, he sees a goodnessand authority in Jesus that surpasses the laws that he is called to follow.Rather than being shocked or repulsed by the leper’s boldness, Jesus is movedby the trust the leper places in him. Jesus' compassionate response is not hollow or sentimental; it ratherfires the hope of those who live in hopelessness, nurturing those who wish tofollow Christ in love and helping to perfect the faith of those who approachhim in confidence. The shock of this encounter continues when Jesus reaches outand touches the leper. I wonder if thisleper had ever been touched with love in such a way before, if another human beinghad ever embraced him?

We might ask ourselves at this point why Jesus touched thisleper in order to heal him, especially since Jewish law & tradition wouldhave prevented him from doing so. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus performs miracles with simply a word oreven an unspoken desire. A wave of his handwould have done the trick, without Jesus having to touch the leper’s diseasedskin. Yet, Jesus touches him - he makesa point in touching him. He goes beyond what is necessary to physically reachout to this leper, this outsider, in an act flowing out of God's abundant love.

Jesus' point of touching the leper reminds me of stories Iheard about Eva Peron, the first lady of Argentina over 50 years ago. I heardthese stories when I studied in Buenos Aires one summer. Coming from a humblebackground herself, Eva Peron as the first lady of Argentina would spend anenormous amount of time and energy in helping the poor. In frail health herself, even though she wasadvised by her doctors not to touch people who were clearly very sick, she didnot hesitate to hug and even kiss many of the poor that she would meet. Sheknew not only how much this meant to them, but also how much this contact meantto her. One elderly man told me abouthis encounter with Evita when he was a young man, how she hugged him as she methim at a train station. He had writtento her to ask her to provide him a suit in which to get married. A poor Argentine gaucho cowboy, this man hadnever had a nice set of clothing. Evitadid indeed give this man this suit, which he still kept sealed in a plastic bagin his closet more than 10 decades later, which he very proudly showed tome. This memory still brought tears tohis eyes. As human beings, we know howimportant our physical human touch is in reaching out to others. Jesus as the incarnate Christ used thisphysical touch as an important part of his ministry.

A message for us to take away from today’s insightfulreadings is that when we discover Jesus at work through the Body of Christ presentin our world today, we understand that there is no one who is outside the reachof God's mercy, that we are called the full realization of our human potential. In deed, the Body of Christ calls out toempower all of us, especially those on the margins of society. The Good News ofthe Gospel is that there is no outsider in the eyes of God, as we are all onein Christ. In the powerlessness of the cross, Jesus has taken on the“otherness” of the outsiders in all forms; he calls us to do the same.

2/11/2012 – Saturday of 5th week - Our Lady of Lourdes – Mark 7:24-30

2012-02-03T18:30:00.001-08:00

On December 8, 1854, over 150 years ago, Pope Pius IXannounced the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception to the world. Only 3 years later, the apparition of a younggirl appeared to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubrious in Lourdes, France,identifying herself with these words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Through this apparition of the Virgin Mary tothis young girl in France, the Blessed Mother revitalized & continues toenergize the faith of millions of believers. The feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was officially declared by the Churchin 1907, & we continue to honor the Virgin Mary with this feast on February11 to this day.

Countless pilgrims, many of them poor or sick, travel toLourdes each year due to the many ways healing has come to the faithful onthese pilgrim visits. The pilgrims cometo Lourdes inspired by Jesus and his mother Mary, by the love, mercy, andcompassion that they both exemplify in our faith. We hear in the Gospel today of the greatcompassion Jesus displays toward the crowd, how he does not want to send themaway hungry, thirsty, and tired. We onlycan imagine what this experience was like for the crowds, how they were movedand touched by Jesus in this act of compassion and generosity. May the Blessed Virgin Mary continue to leadus to Jesus, and may we place our faith in the healing presence he has in ourlives.

2/10/2012 – Friday of fifth week – St Scholastica – Psalm 81:10-15

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“I am the Lord,your God: hear my voice” – this is our psalm refrain for today. God tells the people of Israel how they haveturned away from his voice, how they had hardened their hearts. As we get ready to start the holy season ofLent in two weeks, we are called to look inside of our hearts, to see where theLord is calling us to change our lives and to change our hearts.

For us as Catholics, we have a lot ofexamples and role models to help us along our journey, to provide usinspiration and encouragement when we struggle or reach a dry period in ourlives. Today we celebrate StScholastica, who lived way back in the sixth century. St Scholastica was the twin sister of St Benedict. Benedict greatly influenced the way the monasteriesevolved all over Europe. St Scholasticafounded her own community of nuns only five miles from where her twin Benedictlived in Monte Cassino. St Scholasticais the patron saint of nuns.

May we look into our hearts today tosee how God’s voice is crying out to us, to see how we are called to aconversion of heart.

2/9/2012 – Thursday of fifth week – Mark 7:24-30

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Sometimes our Gospelreading can be comforting. Sometimes itcan be challenging or it can shake us out of our complacency. However, sometimes the message in the Gospelcan be very shocking, which how I see today’s Gospel. Jesus meets a non-Jewish woman, a Greek woman who was Syrophoenician bybirth. This desperate, courageous woman seeks out Jesus in order to heal her daughter, whowas possessed by an unclean spirit. She would have been seen as an uncleanperson to the Jews of Jesus' day. Jesusdismisses her at first, saying that he should first take care of the childrenof Israel, that helping this woman instead of a Jew would be akin to taking thefood out of the mouth of a child to give it to a dog. However, because of her persistence and greatfaith, Jesus heals her daughter.

Sometimes,we come to God, thinking that we know exactly what we want. We might notknow how God is going to answer our prayers, we might not know how we are goingto receive a call from God or experience healing in our lives. Yet, we mightask ourselves if we have the faith and courage to trust in God, to ask him toheal us and guide us in life. Are we astenacious as the Greek woman who begged Jesus to heal her daughter? Are we willing to go out on a limb and to takea risk in our life of faith.?

Through the example of people of great faith like this womanin today's Gospel, & through the intercessions of the Blessed Virgin Maryand the saints, may we trust in God & have faith in his ability to heal us& guide us along our journey of faith.

2/8/2012 – Wednesday of fifth week – 1 Kings 10:1-10

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Today, we continue to hear the story about Solomon, thistime about his encounter with the Queen of Sheba. The Queen of Sheba is actually a well knownhistorical figure from the ancient world whose kingdom was situated in eitherYemen or Ethiopia. She is referenced notonly in the Old Testament, but also in the historical writings of Josephus andin the Qur’an. We see her approachingSolomon, knowing of his great reputation of being a wise and holy man. He impresses her with the way he receives herand answers her questions. The quantityof precious stones and spices that she presented him in return were veryimpressive indeed.

What do we do to cultivate the acquisition of wisdom andholiness in our lives? Do we undertakeprayer and spiritual disciples? Do wetry to really live out our faith, to have our daily lives reflect the valuesthat Jesus teaches us?

We don’t really know why the Queen of Sheba visitedSolomon. Was it to observe his greatwisdom and to learn from him, or was it to test him? No matter what the case was, may we be intentin learning from our faith, in growing in wisdom and holiness as we travelalong our pilgrimage in life.

2/7/2012 – Tuesday of fifth week – 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30

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Today's first reading from the first book of Kings tells usabout Solomon, the son of King David. Atthe time of this reading. Solomon is now King and his father David is livingout his final days. David had planned onbuilding a Temple in Jerusalem, but that task now falls to Solomon.

Solomon speaks to the people of Israel in front of the Arkof Covenant in the newly constructed Temple, proud at having at last anappropriate place for their worship of the Lord, the place the people saw asthe residence of the God of Israel. Solomon makes a prayer of gratitude to the Lord as he speaks to thepeople of Israel who are assembled there.

As we hear about this newly built Temple in Jerusalem, as welisten to the gratitude and humility with which the people present themselvesbefore God, it makes me wonder if we really see ourselves as inhabiting theTemple of the Lord in our bodies which are truly Temples of the HolySpirit? And do we consciously understandthat we as a community of Christ's followers form the Body of Christ here onearth, entrusted with bringing Christ's Gospel to the ends of the earth? When I go into the prisons to celebrate masswith the inmates, I see how eager they are to hear God's word and to gathertogether with us around the Lord's table. May we always have an attitude of eagerness, gratefulness, and gratitudein coming before the Lord and in our identity as the community of the faithful.

I am also so touched and inspired by how many people come toour mass of anointing each month. We notonly find a special presence of healing in our lives through the sacraments wereceive today, but we also share food and fellowship as a community offaith. Let us give thanks to the Lordfor the opportunity to gather in his house today, for the blessings his givesus through these sacraments.

2/5/2012 – Marcos 1, 29 – 39 – Quinto Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario

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Lasemana pasada, escuchamos la narración sobre Jesús en la sinagoga de Cafarnaúm,enseñando con autoridad y curando un hombre con un demonio. Después de esta visita en la sinagoga, Jesússe fue a la casa de Simón y Andrés, donde Jesús encontró a la suegra deSimón. Después de su encuentro conJesús, quitó la fiebre de esta mujer. Lacuración de los enfermos por la parte de Jesús es un signo muy importante de suproclamación del reino de Dios.

Ynosotros podemos entender la importancia de curación de las enfermedades ennuestra vida. Hay enfermedades físicas, pero también hay enfermedades emocionales,morales y espirituales. Necesitamoscuración en todas de estos niveles de nuestra vida. Pero, las enfermedades y la muerte sonaspectos esenciales de nuestra vida, de nuestra identidad como sereshumanos. En mi papel como sacerdote, yovisito mucho los enfermos y los ancianos de nuestra parroquia. Las curaciones de los enfermos que escuchamosen Los Evangelios significan en nuestra fe cristiana que Dios tienemisericordia y ternura para nosotros cuando estamos enfermos, cuando estamossufriendo. Jesús está con nosotros paradecir que las tinieblas y las sombras y los dolores de nuestra vida tienen unsentido, un significado. La llamadacristiana dice que necesitamos acercarnos a la cruz de Jesucristo, pero al otrolado de sus sufrimientos, hay su resurrección, hay la vida nueva que tenemos enEl. Porque estamos cerca del Tiempo de Cuaresma,cuando caminamos con Jesús a su viaje a la cruz, este mensaje en el Evangeliode hoy habla con claridad para nosotros.

Jesús se acerca a la suegra de Simón, una mujer enferma, ensu curación de su enfermedad, en este signo del reino de Dios que está connosotros. Jesús se acerca a todas laspersonas que sufren, que abren sus corazones a su cruz y sus sufrimientos. Necesitamos darnos cuenta que Jesucristoestaba presente en Israel en la encarnación cuando vivía aquí en la tierra,pero todavía Jesús vive con nosotros – El vive en nosotros. Como susseguidores, tenemos confianza en Cristo, en su mensaje, en su viaje, en supresencia con nosotros, en su proclamación del reino de Dios.

2/5/2012 – Fifth Sunday of Ordinary time – Mark 1:29-39

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Jesus has just left the synagogue after teaching the peoplethere as one with authority & after curing a man possessed with an uncleanspirit. He enters the home of SimonPeter & Andrew, encountering Peter's mother-in-law, who is sick with aterrible fever. This simple descriptionfrom Mark’s Gospel of how Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law not only gives usinsight into Jesus' ministry & his proclamation of God’s kingdom, but ittells us a great deal about how we are a part of Jesus' ministry as hisfollowers, how living out the values of our faith can bring wholeness andhealing not only to ourselves, but to others.

Think of this incident of healing Peter’s mother-in-law. Youknow, when we get sick here in modern America, we usually go to the doctor orto a hospital if it is a serious illness, or we get a prescription of medicineto help us get better. Yet, when Iworked as a missionary in the jungles of Ecuador for 3 years, far from a hospitaland modern medicine, we often turned to a curandero for help, a traditionalfolk healer who often used physical touch, herbs, & other natural remediesto cure people from both physical & spiritual ailments. I remember oneweekend I was visiting a small village deep in the jungle when I came down witha terrible fever. I felt like I was onfire. The family I was staying with called the curandero, the village's folkhealer, who gave me a boiling hot herbal mixture to drink. He then prayed overme and wrapped me up in wool blankets in order for me to sweat out the feverduring night. When I awoke the nextmorning, I was full of energy; the fever was just a distant memory.

The people of ancient Israel who heard this Gospel storywould have been very familiar with the tradition of the folk healers that wasprevalent in their society, just like the folk healers I encountered in LatinAmerica. The poor in ancient Israel hadeasy access to such healers, resorting to them frequently. These folk healers often laid their hands onthe sick people, using touch as an important component of the healingprocess. The ancient Jewish people sawthese folk healers as brokers of the gift of healing from God.

In this particular healing story of Jesus and the otherhealing stories told in the Gospels, Jesus does more than cure people fromphysical disease. When we are physicallyill, it involves a loss of meaning in one's life either from a physicalimpairment or from the loss of function in life. We can see that the fever that debilitatedPeter's mother-in-law kept her from fulfilling her role as the mother of thehousehold. When Jesus heals her of herfever, she rises at once to serve her family and her visitors.

Well, just what implications does Jesus' healing of Peter'smother-in-law have for all of us living in Mississippi in the 21st century, ina place & time so different from ancient Israel? Just as Jesus, the healer,restores meaning to the life of Peter's mother-in-law, he gives meaning to ourlives, he heals us from our infirmities, he leads us away from those thingsthat keep us from God. Even beyond this,today's Gospel message challenges us to believe that we have the power to be ahealing community of Jesus' followers, to bring the love of Christ to both ourlives and the lives of those we interact with wherever we are.

Jesus was present in incarnate form in ancient Israel, proclaimingthe kingdom of God and touching the lives of the people there in so manyways. We need to realize that Jesus isstill incarnate in our world today in curing the sick, in preaching the GoodNews, and in expelling demons from our lives. Jesus does this through you and me, through the members of his Churchwho are now the Body of Christ present here on earth. If we, as a Church, truly live no longer forourselves, but for Jesus and his people, then Jesus who lives in us will befree to continue his mission of healing & salvation to all the world.

In the midst of our modern lives, our faith still calls usto Jesus, to the Good News of new life in him. St Teresa of Avila lived way back in the 16^th century. She isconsidered one of the greatest mystics who ever lived. Yet, a prayer that she wrote is very rootedin our earthly presence, telling us how we can embody Christ, as Christ livesin us in order to help us to change the world and change the lives of others:“Christ has no body now but yours, no hands but yours, no feet by yours. Yours are his eyes through which Christ'scompassion must look out on the world. Yoursare the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to blessus now.” It is important for us torealize that as we do not live through our own power, we also do not bringhealing or love to the world through our own power. We bring love, compassion, and healing toothers through Christ living in us, through the power of the Holy Spirit thathas been given to us.

In Mark's portrait of Jesus in today's Gospel, we are givena reflection of what we are called to be, of the love and healing we are tobring to the world. Like Jesus, theintegrity in which we live out our Christian faith in our daily lives shouldgive witness to the faith we profess. Itwill give hope & light not only to own our lives, but to the world.

Those who sacrificed to pass down the faith to us...

2012-01-28T05:49:00.000-08:00

This past week, we celebrated the conversion of St Paul on January 25, and then the memorial of St Timothy and St Titus on January 26. Timothy and Titus were companions of Paul who helped him in his missionary endeavors. When I was in the Glenwood Cemetery here in Yazoo City taking some photos of some graves to send to someone as part of some genealogical research, I passed by these graves of four nuns of the Sisters of Charity who died here in Yazoo City in the 1800s. Three of them died of yellow fever, while the fourth died of cholera. These nuns traveled from Kentucky right after the Civil War in order to establish a Catholic school in Yazoo City. We often take for granted the opportunity we have to go to church, often times in beautiful buildings and wonderful facilities. Yet, do we really understand all of the sacrifices that prior generations made in order to pass down the faith to us?

Winter in Yazoo City -

2012-01-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

Today is January 26, but you would think it is the middle of springtime. I took this photo this afternoon in front of our parish house in Yazoo City at St. Mary's.

1/29/2012 – homilia - el cuarto domingo del tiempo ordinario – Marcos 1:21-28

2012-01-24T16:25:00.000-08:00

Ennuestro Evangelio de hoy, la gente de Israel reconoce que Jesús habla conautoridad – con autoridad en la sinagoga en la asamblea de sábado, conautoridad cuando el demonio sale a su palabra, con una autoridad muy diferenteque los maestros de la le.

Hoy,no estamos en Israel en los tiempos de Jesucristo. Estamos en una parroquia muy pequeña en unpueblo en Mississippi. Pero Cristo nosenseña hoy como Él enseñó en esta sinagoga en Cafarnaúm. Hoy, en su palabra, Él habla como alguien conautoridad. Él nos ama y Él nosconoce. Él nos trae la salvación y laredención.

Paralas personas en el mundo antiguo en los tiempos de Jesucristo, ellos teníancreencia en los demonios, en el mundo do los espíritus. Hoy, en nuestro mundo moderno, muchaspersonas piensan que esta creencia es una superstición. Tal vez no conocemoslos demonios en la manera que ellos existen en el Evangelio de hoy, pero si,conocemos los demonios en nuestro mundo. Podemos hablar con las personas que viven en las cadenas de las drogas yel alcohol. Tenemos un mundo modernodonde hay mucha violencia doméstica, donde el terrorismo y el racismo yaviven. Hay muchos demonios que nos asustanen nuestro mundo.

Si,los demonios existen, pero la autoridad de Jesús existe también a su lado, anuestro lado. La autoridad de Jesús nosenseña y vence el mal. Hay una oraciónque se llama la Oración de Serenidad. Esta oración dice: “Dios, dame la serenidad de aceptar las cosas que nopuedo cambiar; Valor para cambiar las cosas que puedo; y sabiduría para conocerla diferencia.” Si, hay las cosas en nuestra vida que podemoscambiar con nuestras fuerzas. Pero,también, hay las cosas y los demonios que necesitamos dejar en los brazos deJesús. En el espíritu de Jesucristo, en el poder desu autoridad, podemos ser liberados de los demonios que existen en nuestromundo. Podemos avanzar en nuestro caminode fe.

Quote from the Dalai Lama -

2012-01-24T05:47:00.000-08:00

I met a lady named Nancy Welch while hiking on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in the summer of 2003. She and her husband are from the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and were riding bikes down the Camino. I kept on bumping into them as we continue on our journey in Spain, and saw them in a cafe in Santiago right before they were getting on the train to go back to Madrid. Nancy and I correspond through emails a couple times a year. Here is a quote she send me from the Dalai Lama - she said that reading about my prison ministry prompted her to send me this quote.

"Love and kindness arethe very basis of society. If we lose these feelings, society will face tremendousdifficulties; the survival of humanity will be endangered.”

2/4/2012 – Mark 6:30-34 – Homily - Saturday of the fourth week -

2012-01-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

Today, we have a veryinteresting Gospel reading, with the apostles having just returned from theirmissionary travels, excited about telling Jesus about all they did & allthey taught. And what is his response tothem? - “Come away to a desertedplace all by yourselves and rest a while." As I meditated aboutthis Scripture passage, I thought about the philosophy of the Society of St.Vincent de Paul, a group I was a part of in the Jackson area. Doing good works and helping the poor are animportant part of our faith and the ministry of Jesus, but they flow out of ourfaith and our spirituality. Ourcompassion for the poor and our outreach to them, our work for justice andpeace, our solidarity with them, must flow out of the faith and spirituality wecultivate from within. So Jesus told theapostles that they must get away, that they must pray, rest, and renew themselvesin their faith.

This so goes against thegrain of our society, where many of us feel the need to be connected by cellphone or internet 24 hours a day. When Iwas with a youth group several years ago at Catholic Heart Work Camp, the youthtold me that the hardest part of that experience was not having music or noisefilling up the space while they were working. And when I suggested to anotherpriest that our youth should maybe put away their cell phones and technologywhen they go away on a weekend mission trip, he looked at me as if I werestark-raving mad, like that was not even within the realm of possibility, thatwe couldn’t ask them to undertake such an arduous sacrifice of not having acell phone for the weekend. If we try tofill up our lives with all kinds of external and superficial noise, when do wehave time to listen to God in silence and in what He is calling us to do? When are we giving ourselves the space andtime to refresh and renew our faith? Wecan be moved with compassion for the poor like Jesus was when he saw the crowdwithout a shepherd to lead them, but we need to first feed our own faith andfind the time to maintain & nurture our connection with God.

2/3/2012 – Sirach 47:2-11; Mark 6:14-29 – Friday of fourth week – St Blaise -

2012-01-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

In our readings today, we hear about 2different kings of Israel. From Sirach,we hear a summary of the story of King David. From our readings from the 2^nd Book of Samuel these past fewweeks, we know that David committed adultery with Bathsheba and was not alwaysobedient to God, but that he had many admirable qualities as well. We also hear about King Herod today, abouthow he had impure thoughts about his own step-daughter, about how this led topromises that ended with the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist, eventhough Herod's conscience told him that this was not the right thing todo.

The differencebetween these 2 kings is that David was repentant of his sins & that healways desired to serve God in his heart. David had his weaknesses & was often led astray, but he alwaysreturned to God & repented, he always sought the strength of the Lordrather than relying upon his own strength alone. David's sins were forgiven, and God madegreat promises to David & his ancestors. In thinking about David, we might ask ourselves if we rely on our ownstrength and will too much rather than putting our trust in the Lord?

As we hear about King David & King Herod today from theBible, we're reminded that we also have so much that we believe as a Churchthat is not in Scripture, that is a part of sacred Tradition and the teachingsof the Magisterium. We celebrate St.Blaise today, and the traditional blessing of the throats with candles that wereceive on this feast day is one of the beloved devotional traditions of ourfaith. Blaise, a bishop in Sebastea,Armenia, was martyred in 316, only 5 years after religious tolerance wasgranted to Christianity in the Roman Empire. During the religious persecutions that still raged there even in thisera of supposed tolerance, Blaise hid out and lived as a hermit in solitude andprayer. Legend has it that as Blaise wascaptured, but when he was being hauled off to prison, he came upon a mother& her young son. The young son waschoking on a fish bone lodged in his throat. At Blaise's command, the boy coughed up the bone and his life was saved. After repeated beatings and torture forrefusing to worship foreign idols, Blaise was beheaded and has long beenremembered as a martyr of our faith.

As we receive specialblessings through the intercessions of St. Blaise on his feast day, may we givethanks for the community of saints, for those who have passed down the faith to us,& for the blessings & graces from God that we receive each day.

Blessing of the throat that you will receive at daily masstoday ---

Through the intercessions of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr,may the Lord deliver you from any ailments of the throat and all other diseasesand illnesses. May Almighty God blessyou – Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. AMEN.

2/2/2012 – Thursday - Presentation of the Lord – Luke 2:22 - 32

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It’seasy for us to forget that Jesus was raised in a devout Jewish family. Mary and Joseph faithfully observed all ofthe prescribed rituals and obligations of their religion. Exactly forty days after the birth of Jesus,they made the long and exhausting journey to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfillthe prescription of the Jewish law that obligated them to present their son tothe Lord. This law stated that “everymale that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord”. As prescribed by this law, Mary and Josephpresented the sacrificial offering of two turtledoves.

It is touching for us to see how conscientiously andlovingly Mary and Joseph observed the Jewish faith traditions of theirancestors, even though these traditions demanded considerable inconvenience andsacrifice of them to make the arduous journey to Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph taught Jesus well, as hecarried out these Jewish faith traditions throughout his adult life andministry, interpreting these traditions in the light of his identity as the Sonof God.

It is important for us to note that for the Holy Family andfor Jesus, there is no tension, no contradiction, between their commitment tothe prescribed Jewish rituals and their personal spirituality, their personalrelationship with God. As integralmembers of the Jewish faith community, the faith of Mary and Joseph was groundedin the ritual traditions of the Jewish people, rituals that sustained thecommunity for generations. These same rituals sustained the Holy Family andpassed on their Jewish faith to Jesus. As Jesus grew up with Mary and Joseph, he had intimate contact with theLord.

In our society, people often see a tension between beingreligious in a ritualistic sense and being spiritual, in devoting ourselves tothe pious practices of our faith & obeying the laws of God requiring us topractice social justice and to reach out to our neighbor, especially the poorand the oppressed. May we follow theexample of the Holy Family that we celebrate today on the feast of thepresentation of the Lord, may we have a balance faith that follows all of God’slaws and commandments.

2/1/2012 – Wednesday of fourth week in ordinary time - 2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17; Mark 6:1-6

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David doesn't completely put his trustin God, so he takes a military census of the men in Israel in order to see ifhe has a force large enough to take into battle. Before God even has a chance to rebuke him,David realizes that he has sinned. Herepents and acknowledges the foolishness of his actions. The prophet Gad comes to him with a messagefrom God, telling him that he will be punished for his actions. David is given three options for punishment.All are punishments mentioned in the third chapter of Deuteronomy for Israel'sfailure to keep their covenant with God. The choices are: 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing before theirenemies, or 3 days of pestilence at the hand of God. David chooses the lastoption, not because it is the shortest length of time, but because it is Godwho will administer the punishment directly. David would rather suffer at the hand of God than at the hands of man.He has more trust in the mercy of God than in the mercy of man.

It’s ironic that David wanted to take acensus to determine the strength of a potential fighting force, and now due tohis sinfulness and the sinfulness of Israel, those forces have been reduced by70,000 men who were killed by the pestilence. Yet, as God poured out his wrath on the people of Israel, he takescompassion on them and orders the angel of the Lord to stop the killing. David is willing to take the punishmenthimself and for his ancestors if God would spare his nation further bloodshed.

As we hear this story from the OldTestament, may we ourselves repent for those times that we ourselves blatantlydisobeyed the will of God in our lives. May we place our trust in the God of our ancestor, in our God of loveand mercy.

1/31/2012 – Tuesday of fourth week in ordinary time – 1 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30; 19:3

2012-01-23T09:31:00.000-08:00

In today’s reading from the first bookof Samuel, we hear about David and the death of his son Absalom. Absalom was not a good son at all. He did not follow God very faithfully at allas he journeyed through life. Absalomeven tried to plot the death of his own father in an attempt to becomeking. Yet when news of Absalom’s deathreached David, David did not rejoice, but instead cried out in his pain and hisdespair: “My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you.”

Life can be very painful indeed. Yet, we are to place our trust in the Lordeven in the midst of the struggles and the pain that we endure in life. Irecently was given this prayer written by Therese of Lisieux by Dr SaraWeisenberger -

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of ourfather's love — difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul'smiseries, her burdens, her needs — everything, because through them, she learnshumility, realizes her weakness —

Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift.Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events — to the heart thatloves, all is well.

May we accept the graces that God givesus in our lives, whatever those graces may be. May we feel God’s presence both in our joy and in our sorrows.