In today's first reading, we hear about how it is important that people are taught correctly regarding matters of faith. When I was a seminarian up in Milwaukee just before being ordained as a priest, we had a week-long visit from a visitation team of priests, sisters, and lay people, all appointed by the Vatican to visit the seminaries who are educating men to be priests. The goal of the visitation team was to ensure that we as seminarians were being properly formed in the faith in our role as future priests, that our theology and moral ethics reflected what our Church teaches. Being faithful to the word of God is a daunting task indeed, one that we grow into as we journey daily as a pilgrim Church and a pilgrim people.
Today, this task is even more difficult as our secular world seems to be going in a very different direction than the Church. As I walk around in public in my clerics here in Mississippi where Catholics make up such a small part of the population, I realize how counter cultural the Church is in our society today, while it would not have been so a generation earlier in our society. That is a lot of what I like about going to pilgrimage, where people of faith are gathered together and are not the minority.
Our reading today from First Timothy challenges us to truly listen to the words of truth in Christs’ Good News, to not have a disposition for arguments and verbal disputes. We can get caught up in the ways of our modern world, in striving for earthly accomplishments and material gain. Yet, the radical Gospel message calls out to us and challenges us to take up our cross and to follow Christ. May we truly open ourselves to the Gospel. May the Gospel penetrate our very hearts, our minds, and our souls.
I also want to mention St Januarius, whose feast day we celebrate today. As the Bishop of Naples, he died in the Diocletian persecutions in the early 4th century. Traditionally, on this day and on two other occasions each year, the blood of St Januarius, which is kept in a glass container, liquifies. According to documentation, this miracle has taken place since the year 1389. The Church believes that this miracle takes place in response to the dedication and prayers of the faithful. When the miracle occurs, the mass of reddish dried blood, adhering to one side of the glass container, turns into completely liquid blood, covering the glass from side to side. This miracle of St Januarius’ blood made me think of the eucharistic miracle of Santarém that we heard about several days ago.
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