Growing up as a teenager in California, I always found the history of the California missions fascinating, even before I converted to Catholicism. We lived about 25 miles for Mission San Juan Capistrano, part of which still lays in ruins after a terrible earthquake in the 1812. Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan missionary originally from the island of Mallorca in Spain, is considered the Father of the California missions. He was canonized by Pope Francis in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC when Pope Francis visited our country. In recent years, those who really don’t understand the full context of world history and the reality of Father Serra and the California missions have criticized him and opposed his canonization. Statues of him were taken down and buildings named after him were renamed. California not longer included the California missions as a required part of its elementary school curriculum. It is easy to judge history that took place hundreds of years ago in a reality very different from our own, especially when our knowledge of history and that reality is very limited and focused on our own prejudices and biases.
Father Serra was appointed as the head of the Catholic Church’s missionary effort in California in 1767 when he was 54 years old. At that time, he was in very bad health with a leg that had been infected with open sores for years. He also suffered from a compromised respiratory system. Father Serra founded 9 of the 21 original California missions. This humble Franciscan friar had spent most of his priesthood as a professor of theology and philosophy in Mexico and in Spain. He then worked tirelessly in bringing the Gospel to the people of present-day California. His motto was - “Siempre adelante, nunca hacia atrás.” (Always forward, never back.) He never dwelt on past mistakes, but tried to learn from the past and to look forward to what he could do for God. Father Serra was a product of his time. He lived in the era of the Spanish Inquisition and served as a judge for the Inquisition. Yet, facts show that he had a great love for the native Californians to whom he ministered. At the time of his canonization, California’s bishops issued a statement, stating that Father Serra was a man “ahead of his times” and that he worked against an “oppression that extends far beyond the mission era.” There is a statue of Father Serra in the Capitol building representing the state of California for his contributions to the history and development of that state, having survived many protests to have it removed. The bishops stated that very few historical figures would be revered and honored if we expect them to be perfect and try to judge them according to some sort of ambiguous modern standards. It is interesting, Standard University in California is named after one of the notorious robber barons of the 19th century, and will not remove his name from their school, yet they renamed buildings and streets on their campus named after Father Serra. It is easy to cast a stone against others but not to look at our own faults, isn’t it?
We hear the prophet Amos proclaim in the first reading today: “Seek good and not evil, that you may live.” I thought about this in the context of Father Serra and his missionary work in California and his dedication and sacrifices to spreading the Gospel message to the world. I pray that we would all seek the good, that we would seek the new life we have in Christ, and that we would portray the values of the Gospel in our words and our actions.
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