In our psalm response today, the psalmist declares: “The Lord will not abandon his people.” It is easy for us to have faith in a statement like that when things are going our way. However, when we are going through difficult times or sufferings, we might not believe in those words at all. But we believe that Jesus is there with us in all facets of our life - in our joys and in our sufferings, in our accomplishments and in our humiliations, in our celebrations and in our sorrows.
Having done lay missionary work in South America, in Mexico, in Canada, and here in the US, in different parts of the Americas, I feel a deep devotion and connection with many of the great Catholic missionaries who came to the Americas to bring the Gospel. We just celebrated the feast day of St Junipero Serra on July 1, the Franciscan priest who was the head of the California missions in the late 18th century. Today, we celebrate Bartolomé de Las Casas, who in the early 16th century went to Cuba as a plantation owner. When he saw the oppression and abuse that was going on, he became a Dominican priest and a defender of the rights of the indigenous people of that island. He traveled back to Spain many times to alert them to the abuses that were going on. The violence and abuses that were a part of the Spanish conquest of the Americas were contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, according to de Las Casas. He saw the indigenous people of the poor whom the prophets and Good News of Jesus Christ proclaimed. He can be seen as one of the prophets of social justice in our Church.
The Lord does not abandon his people, even in the midst of our human frailties and weaknesses. May we be encouraged to proclaim and live out the values of the Gospel.
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