13 July 2018 – homily for Friday of the 14th week of ordinary time- Hosea 14:2-10; Matthew 10:16-23

       Through the prophet Hosea, the Lord tells his people that he will heal their defection and love them freely.  The Lord will be like the dew for Israel, help Israel to bloom like a lily.  What a comforting image from this wise prophet.  However, we hear some not so comforting images from the Gospel of Matthew, of how Christ’s followers will be sent out like sheep amongst the wolves.  The Evangelist explains that the Lord will help his followers endure their persecution, putting words in their mouths that they will use in their defense, helping them get through this difficulty. 

         Our life of faith is not always comfortable and easy, is it?  We are confronted with persecution, suffering, and anger.  I thought of one of the saints we celebrated today – Teresa of the Andes.  She is one of the wonderful Carmelite saints who stands as a firm example of faith for us, in the tradition of other Carmelite saints such as Edith Stein, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, and John of the Cross.  Teresa of the Andes was made a patron saint of youth.  Teresa of the Andes, whose given name was Juana Fernández Solar, was a child and youth full of life, who lived in the country of Chile in the early 20th century in an upper middle class family.  She read the autobiography of Therese of Lisieux when she was a child; she decided that she would dedicate her life completely to God.  She worked hard to overcome her self-centered personality to become a young woman who served others.  Yet, for all of her hopes and dreams to become a nun and to live a saintly life, she only lived for nine months after entering the Carmelite convent after have contracted typhus.  Her life of faith still speaks to us today even though her short life lasted a mere 20 years. Although she died back in 1920, her brother was present at her beatification ceremony at O’Higgins Park in Santiago, Chile in 1987.  At her canonization in Rome in 1993, she became the first person from Chile to become a saint.  

         We never know what we will face in our lives of faith.  Life may not always be as straight a shot as we would like it to be.  For me, the lives of the saints speak so strongly to us as models of faith.  When we think of the adversity and the challenges that they overcame, we receive inspiration, courage, and role models to emulate in our own lives of faith.