6/20/2014 – Friday of 11th week in ordinary time – Matthew 6:19-23

      Today, we hear a Gospel that is particularly relevant to a lot that we are experiencing as Catholics in the world today.   Jesus warns us not to store up our treasure here on earth, where moths and decay can destroy and consume those treasures.  Instead, we are to store up our treasures in heaven.  We can be so intent as to want to achieve worldly success and worldly treasures, that the treasures that are important to our faith can be ignored and shunned in the process.

      This Sunday, on June 22, we will celebrate the feast day of the Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, men who were martyrs for the faith in England in the 16^th century.  Thomas More was a very spiritual and religious man, a lawyer and the chancellor of England under King Henry VIII.  More’s conscience and keen sense of morality kept him from approving of the king’s divorce to Queen Catherine of Aragon, of his remarriage to Anne Boleyn, and of the establishment of the Church of England.  More refused to personally break from his Catholic faith and from denying the pope as the head of the Church. John Fisher, a Cardinal and Bishop of Rochester in England, also refused to recognize these same matters as Thomas More.  Both of them were beheaded in London in 1535. Both of them were canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935, 400 years after their deaths.  If Thomas More and John Fisher had seen their treasure in earthly things, their decisions and the way they lived their lives would have been very different.  We think about how the values of this world can lure us away from we need to be in issues of faith.  It is something we face today, especially in the way our society is becoming more secular and anti-religious.   Let us pray today for the intercessions of St John Fisher and St Thomas More to help us and guide on to the treasures and values of our faith.

6/21/2013 – Friday of 11th week in ordinary time – St Aloysius Gonzaga – Psalm 34 –

       “From all their distress – God rescues the just.”   We hear this in the psalm today, as the psalmist declares that he blesses the Lord at all times.  We can give blessings to the Lord very easily for our joy and our comforts, but can we bless the Lord in the midst of our sorrow and our distress? 

         God rescues the just, but sometimes the rescue is not from earthly dangers.  The saint we celebrate is Aloysius Gonzaga, who was born into an aristocratic Italian family, but who died at the age of 23 while studying in Rome as a member of the Jesuits from the plague that he contracted while nursing some sick patients when an epidemic broke out in Rome in the late 16^th century.  Aloysius was known for his great piety, and was honored by many since the time of his death.  He is buried in the Church of St Ignatius of Loyola in Rome.  I remember visited that church in Rome when I went there with the St Richard Youth Choir in 2010, and remember the many people who came to that church looking for St Aloysius’ grave site.

         As we bless the Lord in our joys and our sorrows, we follow the journey of faith where he calls us here on earth.  Sometimes it is quite a difficult journey, but we are called to lift it all up to the Lord.

          In 1729, Pope Benedict 13^th declared Aloysius to be the patron saint of young students. And in 1926, he was named patron of all Christian youth by Pope Pius11th.  We pray this prayer for his intercessions for our youth today:

St Aloysius ,you were a faithful follower of Christ as you were studying to enter the Society of Jesus. You steadily worked toward perfection in your life of faith while you generously served victims of the plague in Rome. Help our youth today who are faced with a plague of false cults, false gods, and false values in our modern secular world. Show them how to focus their energies toward God and to use them in service toward others. Amen.