This is an exciting weekend for me. I have not had much of a break since before Easter. I have not made it on retreat yet and have not yet gone on vacation, as we here at St James Catholic Church in Tupelo have been devoting so much of our energy to recovering from the tornado that hit our parish the end of April right after Easter. I will be traveling to Chicago this weekend to do a mission appeal for the Comboni Missionaries at St Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church. I will be celebrating five masses there this weekend. It will be a world-wind trip. I leave on the Greyhound bus Friday night, arrive in Chicago around noon on Saturday, and Sunday night I will be back on the bus headed south to Mississippi. I had hoped to visit some family and friends on this trip, as I have not seen any family members for two years now, but I have to get back to Tupelo as soon as I can, since I whole army of volunteers from Eight Days of Hope will be coming to our parish this week to help our recovery efforts - for which I am so grateful!!! Here is the homily I am preaching this weekend.
It is really a treat to be back here
in Chicago – the city of my birth. I was
born in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the Northside, and although I have not
lived here since I was 12 years old, I have a great love for this wonderful city. I am currently a priest in the
Diocese of Jackson in Mississippi, where I am pastor at St James Catholic
Church in the city of Tupelo in Northeast Mississippi. Like your parish here at
St Stanislaus, I have a large Hispanic community in Mississippi. Our Diocese is mission territory for
the Catholic Church in the United States.
It has the lowest percentage of Catholics of any Diocese in our country
– at about 2.3%. I would not be a priest today – and
certainly not a priest in Mississippi – if it were not for the experiences I
had as a lay missionary prior to becoming a priest. I served for three years as a lay
missionary in a rain forest jungle in the country of Ecuador in South America
with the Comboni Lay Missionaries. I remember learning about St Daniel
Comboni, the founder of the Comboni Missionaries, prior to shipping off to
Ecuador. He set off as a young priest to
the Sudan in Africa, a journey which took him months. The stories of the struggles he endured, and
the love he had for bringing the Gospel to the people of Africa, gave me
strength and encouragement on my own missionary journeys.
The Comboni Missionaries are like
the sower who goes out and sows a lot of seeds in a lot of different places
that we hear about in today’s Gospel reading. Some of those seed stays on the
surface and doesn’t germinate. Some
seeds are scorched by the sun because they roots don’t grow very deeply. Yet, some seeds grow rich soil and bear
fruit. And that is what God desires. As the prophet Isaiah tells us: just as the
rain and the snow are sent down from the heavens to water the earth, to bring
fruits to the land, so the word of God is sent down to the earth to bear fruit
as well. I became a missionary because I felt
God calling me to follow him and to sow seeds of his Gospel message. I served God in a lot of different
ways as a missionary. I helped run a
distance learning high school that served youth and adults who lived deep in
the rain forest jungle and who had no other opportunities to earn a high school
diploma. I help run a carpentry and
mechanics workshop and school. I taught
religious education classes and conducted word and communion services. I ran a small business loan fund that lent
funds for different projects. And I
helped get a group of farmers assistance so they could obtain a rice milling
machine. I remember at the first year mark of
my three-year term as a missionary, wondering if I was having any impact or
making any progress in the lives of the people.
But sometimes we don’t see how the seeds we plant take root. We don’t see the fruits that they produce. The Lord taught me patience and
perseverance as a missionary. He helped
me get through the malaria and Dengue fever and pneumonia that sent me into the
hospital two different times. He gave me
patience to wait for the mail to come, which was only once every two to three
weeks. In a modern world when we can
call and text people on our smart phones dozens of times a day, I never spoke
to any of my families and friends even once since there was no phone service in
the jungle. The Lord taught me what I
could endure, such as having to wash my clothing by pounding them on the rocks
on the banks of the river. Today, the Comboni Lay Missionaries,
who are headquartered here in the United States in LaGrange Park just outside
of Chicago, have six different lay missionaries serving in different parts of
the world. One couple is in Ethiopia; they have
adopted three children from that country. They manage projects for the
diocese of Awassa. Another couple is in Peru. They work in the Catholic school system,
doing outreach to at-risk students.
Another couple, which has 2 daughters, is in Malawi. They are starting and
managing new pre-schools for the Combonis. These six lay missionaries are
sowing seeds that they hope will take root. But the main thing they have to serve God and
his people out of their hearts and out of their faith.
All of our recent popes have
emphasized the importance of all of us being missionaries by virtue of our
baptism into Christ. However, Pope Francis in particular
has emphasized this missionary call, saying “May the whole of ministry be in a
missionary key.” Even though we are all called to
missionaries wherever God places us in life, the Church has always sent
missionaries to the different corners of the world. The work of the Comboni Missionaries
in South America and Africa helps spread the Gospel to these parts of the
world. It helps proclaim God’s kingdom
to all. And for those who go out as
missionaries, they are able to bring a certain flavor and voice to our Church
back home in the United States, a voice of justice and solidarity and fortitude. The compassion and love for the poor
that I felt as a missionary continues in my work today in Mississippi. I will forever be grateful for the Comboni
Missionaries for the chance they gave me to serve God in the jungles of
Ecuador. I want to thank the people of St
Stanislaus for the support that they give to help the Comboni Missionaries, for
the way they enable missionaries from the United States to preach the Gospel
message through their work to different parts of the world.
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