9/27/2017 –Homily for Wednesday of the 25th week of ordinary time – St Vincent de Paul – Ezra 9:5-9

     Ezra was a scribe and priest at the time of the return from the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC.  This week, in our first readings, we have two readings from the Book of Ezra before we move on to readings from the Prophets Zechariah and Haggai.  Ezra is very upset about how the people of Israel had sinned and turned their backs on God.  Being in exile was a very dramatic and horrific experience for them, but they had intermarried with a lot of the local people, and had abandoned their faith and religious traditions for the pagan traditions of the native people. Ezra was calling the people to return to God’s law, but he was despondent and angry at how slowly the people were responding.  Ezra displays a simple humility in the way he approaches God in our reading today. 

     This same sense of humility is displayed in the saint we celebrate today: St. Vincent de Paul, a French priest who died in in the middle of 17th century, but whose influence is still felt so strongly in our modern world today. He founded two influential religious orders in his own lifetime: the Vincentians and the Daughters of Charity. His compassion and humility in serving the poor also served as the inspiration for the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which was founded by Frederic Ozanam and his companions at the University of Paris in 1835.  The St. Vincent de Paul Society is known throughout the world for the way it serves the poor as an expression of our Catholic spirituality.  When I served as Associate Pastor of St Richard parish in Jackson, I had the privilege of being on the ground floor of forming a conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at that parish, where it has become an important presence in serving the poor in the Jackson area.  I have seen a lot of parishioners have their lives changed dramatically through their ministry with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, as I've also seen the ways the Society has changed the lives of those who have received help.

      St. Vincent de Paul taught that true charity does not only consist of distributing alms and giving financial assistance, but also in helping the poor feel the fullness of their human dignity and freedom.  Vincent taught that our good works must never be separated from our faith, but rather must flow out of our faith.  Thus, he counseled that to be men and women of action and good works, we must also be men & women of prayer and deep spirituality.  He advises us: “You must have an inner life, everything must tend in that direction. If you lack this, you lack everything.”

        May we give thanks to the Lord for the way his Word interacts with our lives, for the many ways that God’s word indeed is with us.