7/24/2015 – Friday of the 16th week in Ordinary Time – Exodus 20:1-17

     In our first reading today, as we hear God give Moses the commandments he wishes his people to follow, we might think about how following God’s laws and commandments are foundational to our Christian faith and to our lives of discipleship.  Having said that, we know that it is not always easy following those commandments and apply God’s law to the reality of our lives.  Reading those commandments, they might seem clear-cut and straight-forward, but when seen in the light of our complicated human lives, it is not so easy or straight-forward, is it?

      This month, in our calendar of saints, we have the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.  I thought about them when I thought about the commandment of honoring God and his name and not taking his name in vain.  Supposedly there were seven young men named Maximian, Malchus, Marcian, John, Denis, Serapion, and Constantine.  During the persecutions conducted by the Emperor Decius in the middle of the 3^rd century before Christianity became a recognized legal religion, they hid in a cave to save their lives because they refused to make pagan sacrifices.  The cave was sealed, and legend has it that they fell into a miraculous sleep and later woke up approximately 300 years later where they were seen by the townsfolk of the city.  This incident was revered by both the Christian and Muslim traditions because it was interpreted as validating the resurrection of the dead that is a part of our belief. Martyrdom was respected and honored in the early Church and was the true sign of sainthood for the sacrifices and testimony those individuals made for the faith.  Whether the story is true or not is not the point.  The point is: How are we honoring God and his holy name in our lives and what sacrifices and commitment are we making to follow our faith as disciples of Christ.

        A year ago, our Adult Faith Formation program here at St James read a book by Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister about the Ten Commandments.  What I liked most about that book was how it challenged us in the way we looked at those commandments, seeing them in different and new ways.  May we honor God in the way we try to follow the Ten Commandments in our lives.  May we honor him and praise him in our words and in our actions. 

7/26/13 - Friday of 16 week in Ordinary Time - St Anne and St Joachim - Matthew 13:18-23

         So many of us in Mississippi have gardens.  I see the great care and pride people here take in tending their gardens and growing wonderful fruits, vegetables, and flowers.  We know that if we grow our plants on rocky soil or without the proper amount of water and nutrients, then they won’t develop properly and won’t produce their flowers or their vegetables or fruits. 

         God needs to proper ground to sow his Word.  His Word needs to be nourished and cared for once it is planted in someone’s life.  Today we celebrate the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary – St Anne and St Joachim.  Their names are not in the Bible, but they have been passed down to us through Tradition.  One Tradition hold that after years of being childless, Anne and Joachim received a visit from an angel who told them that Anne would bear a child. Anne promised to dedicate this child to God in a special way.  No matter what the details are, we can imagine the care and the love in which Anne and Joachim nurtured their daughter in the ways of the faith.  They provided fertile soil for Mary to become the Mother of our Lord – the Theotokos. We can imagine how the teachings and example of Joachim and Anne led Mary to respond to God’s request with faith and trust - "Let it be done to me as you will."  We can imagine how Mary used what she learned from her parents to bring up her own son in the faith. 

         We give thanks to the faith that has been passed down to us.  We give thanks for the fertile soil that has nurtured our own faith.  May we continue to provide fertile soil for God’s Word in our lives.