26 May 2021 - St Marianna de Jesus de Quito - Wednesday of the 8th week of Ordinary Time - Sirach 36:1, 4-5a, 10-17

      In yesterday’s first reading from the book of Sirach, we heard verses giving us instructions in the moral life according to God’s laws. Today, from Sirach, we hear a prayer that is offered up to the Lord on behalf of the people of Israel, asking for God’s assistance and for the light of his mercy to shine on his people.  In the light of our Catholic faith, we see this prayer as foreshadowing the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, asking God to gather together the tribes of Israel and to fill Jerusalem and its temple once again with the glory of God. By showing his mercy to the people of Israel, God will show his love and justice to all the nations. 

      We cry out to the Lord at times in our lives, appealing to his love and mercy in times of tribulation and suffering, just as Ben Sirach does in the prayer in our reading today.  It is up to us to embody God’s love and mercy in the world, even when we ourselves are treated harshly and violently.

      Today, we celebrate the feast day of a saint from South America who perhaps is not very well known here in the United States.   Mariana de Jesus de Paredes was born at Quito, Ecuador of noble Spanish parents. She was orphaned as a child.  She then was raised by her older sister and her sister’s husband.  Mariana was drawn to the Catholic faith as a child.  Later, under the guidance of a Jesuit priest confessor, she lived a consecrated life as a lay woman, practicing great austerity in devoting her life to prayer and prophecy with little sleep and little food.   An earthquake and an epidemic struck the city of Quito in 1645.  Mariana felt herself being called by God to offer herself as a sacrifice for the sins of the people of Quito.  When the epidemic began to subside, Mariana was stricken with illness and died on May 26th. She is known by the faithful as Mariana de Jesus or Mariana of Quito.  She was canonized in 1950. She is the patron saint of the Quito of Ecuador.   I remember arriving in Ecuador in May 1996 as a lay missionary with the Comboni Missionary religious order.  I remember that on the first Sunday we were in the country of Ecuador, we went to Mass in the old town center of Quito on the feast day of St Mariana de Jesus.  I remember seeing many different religious sister in their habits attending Mass.  It is a beautiful memory I have from my time in Ecuador, an experience which brought me here to the priesthood in the Diocese of Jackson.  I love the story of St Mariana de Jesus.  In her faith and in her humility, she brought the mercy of God to the people of her hometown.  Her example of faith calls out to us today.