17 June 2016 – Friday of the 11th week in Ordinary time – 2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20; Matthew 6:19-23

       When we hear Jesus warn us about storing up all of treasure that are the things of this earth and in the process disregarding those treasures that are of God’s kingdom, we may think about all the different earthly treasures people put their trust in: not only the accumulation of material possessions and material wealth, but also power, control, accolades and accomplishments. When we look at the need for power and control in our society, we see acts of intolerance and violence spill into our daily reality. So many of us are disheartened when we see all the violence around us, as we try to understand how someone could be motivated to carry out a mass shooting or a suicide bombing that kills so many innocent victims. 

       I got to see my brother Cameron when I went on my mission appeal last weekend in Indianapolis last weekend, a special treat for me since I don’t get to see him very often in the midst of our busy lives.  As a teacher in a Chicago suburb, he talked about how the violence and crime and gang warfare that have infiltrated so many neighborhoods of that city have become the norm of life up there.  As of Memorial Day weekend, there have been more than 1,500 shootings in Chicago this year, an increase of more than 50% over the previous year, with more than 250 people killed.  Indeed, every weekend in the Chicago area there are dozens of shootings and attacks, many of them seeming so senseless.

         In our first reading from the 2^nd book of Kings, the Queen mother who kills all but one of her grandchildren who is hidden in an attempt to gain control of the throne after the death of her son the King of Judah is as shocking to us as some of the reports of the crime and violence that occurs in our cities in modern America and places across the globe.  In response to the shooting that killed so many in Orlando, Florida over the weekend, just the latest incident of terror and violence to rock our country, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago called for great efforts on gun control.  He stated that: “In response to hatred, we are called to sow love. In response to violence, peace. And, in response to intolerance, tolerance.”  Indeed, we need to find ways to implement our Gospel values into a solution that will address the violence and terrorism that we hear about each day.  We may want tolerance and kindness ourselves when we are hurting or when we are reaching out for help, but how do we show tolerance and kindness to others in those messy, complicated realities that we often face in life?  There are no easy answers to this complicated reality, to be sure.  Thus, we need to ask ourselves: Where are our treasure and our values stored as we journey through our lives here on earth?

6/14/2016 - Tuesday of 11th week in ordinary time - Matthew 5:43-48

 The scribes and Pharisees were always trying to trap Jesus, to get him to contradict his Jewish faith, to have him clarify what it means to follow the law of God in our lives. When we hear Jesus say today that we need to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, perhaps Jesus is thinking about the Old Testament passage from Leviticus that states: “You must not exact vengeance, nor must you bear a grudge against the children of your people. You must love your neighbor as yourself.”  Notice that there is no prohibition against acts of revenge against strangers and outsiders in the passage from Leviticus that I referred to.  

     And then there is the question of enemies, perhaps referring to those we are hostile toward and those who are hostile toward us.  I thought about this in the context of the shooting in Orlando over the weekend, with one gunman killing more than 50 in a nightclub in that city and injuring more than that number.  Rather than asking for vengeance or revenge, Bishop Kopacz responded yesterday, proclaiming: 

     “As Bishop of the Diocese of Jackson, I ask all the faithful to offer prayers and acts of mercy on behalf of the lives of so many innocent people extinguished in the blink of an eye by a deranged and misguided gunman in Orlando yesterday morning. We pray for them and for their families and friends who are now facing an unimaginable grief.

      “This senseless act of hatred adds to the seemingly unending number of acts of violence in our world against the life and dignity of each and every human person. In the face of such evil, now more than ever, we must respond with the love and compassion of Christ in order to bring true and lasting peace in our families, our communities and our world.”

       May we be instruments of God’s peace.  May we never resort to hatred, vengeance, or revenge. 

Give me your failure -

What a wonderful quote.  No matter where we are in our lives, no matter what our reality is, God meets us in the midst of our challenges and our brokenness.  

"Give me your failure, God says. I will make life out of it. Give me your broken, disfigured, rejected, betrayed body, like the body you see hanging on the cross, and I will make life out of it. It’s the divine pattern of transformation." —Richard Rohr.  

homily - 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle C - Luke 7:36 - 8:3

This weekend I am on a mission appeal in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis at the parish of St Michael the Archangel.  Here is the homily I am preaching this weekend.  

      Paul, that great missionary for our faith, calls us to more than the observance to the law.  There were many in the early Church who were like Simon, the Pharisee, in the Gospel.  Simon had good intentions.  He wanted to learn from Jesus.  But he saw his faith as the observance of law, as an intellectual assent.  In contrast, we have the woman in the Gospel who enters into a relationship with total surrender and with humility, who acknowledges her sinfulness and asks for forgiveness. Her act of faith and love still speaks as a testimony to us today of what it truly means to be a disciple of Christ. 

      As Paul went out to the world as a missionary, preaching the faith to the people in the area surrounding Ancient Israel, the Office for the Propagation of the faith here in the United States sends out those of us who are serving in ministry in the mission territories to different diocese throughout our country to talk about our missionary experiences.  Our work in faraway lands is an important part of proclaiming the Gospel, but perhaps we forget about the mission territory in our own land.  As was mentioned, my name is Father Lincoln Dall.  I am a Diocesan priest from the Diocese of Jackson, mission territory in our own country.  

       In fact, you probably picture Mississippi as being in the heart of the Bible belt in our country, which is true.  We have a large Diocese geographically, taking up most of the state, all except that cluster of counties around the Gulf Coast.  In fact, our Diocese is the largest geographically in the United States East of the Mississippi River.  However, even though we are so large geographically, our Diocese has the lowest percentage of Catholics in any Diocese in the United States, estimated to be about 2.3%. There were priests in the state of Mississippi during the time of the Spanish explores, until the time that the Spanish settlements were disbanded in the territory of Mississippi.  Our Diocese was established in 1837 by Pope Gregory 16th.  Currently we have about 100 parishes and missions, but most of those churches are rather small, reflecting the rural nature of our state. 

       I have been a Diocese priest for 8 years. My first assignment as pastor in the communities of Yazoo City and Belzoni in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, the cotton growing region that is formed along the Mississippi River.  While stationed in the Delta, I served 3 parishes and two prisons.  I remember telling a priest in California that the territory I served in the Delta encompassed about 1,400 square miles, his jaw just about fell on the floor.  However, in those two counties, there was only about 37,000 people. 

        For the past 3 1/2 years, I have been serving in the city of Tupelo in NE Mississippi.  The parish where I am pastor, St James the Greater, is actually more than 100 years old.  During most of our parish’s history, we had been served by priests from a Benedictine monastery in Culman, Alabama a couple of hours away.  Tupelo had been a very small Catholic community throughout most of its history.  However, in the 1970s and 1980s, a lot of Catholics moved down from the Midwest for jobs, from places like Illinois and Michigan and Missouri.  And in the past 10 years, we have had an influx of first generation Americans from places like Mexico, the Philippines, and Vietnam.  

       You can probably tell from my accent that I am not originally from Mississippi myself.  I actually grew up in Chicago and Los Angeles.  After having been a missionary in Canada and South America for 7 years, I felt God calling me to be a missionary in my own land.  For more than a century, the majority of our priests in Mississippi came from Ireland.  There are also a lot of priests from different parts of the US who like me felt the call to be of service in the missionary territories of our own country.  We have different priests from religious orders serving in our Diocese - the Redemptorists, the Society of the Divine Word, the Trinitarians, the Norbertines, and the Christian brothers.  And recently we have had a lot of priests arrive from India to help man our parishes.
       I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to share with you our experiences in the Diocese of Jackson.  We are all brothers and sisters in Christ and it is important for us to be in solidarity together in proclaiming God’s kingdom here on earth.  Thank you for your prayers and your support.  

5 de junio de 2016 – décimo domingo del tiempo ordinario - Lucas 7, 11-17

       Los milagros eran una parte importante de la proclamación del Reino de Dios en el ministerio de Jesucristo.  En los milagros en los Evangelios, hay tres veces cuando Cristo levantó a una persona muerta a la vida.  El más famoso es el cuento de Lázaro en el Evangelio de San Juan.  Los Evangelios de Mateo y Marcos relatan el cuento de la hija de Jairo, un líder en la sinagoga.  Hoy, oímos acerca del hijo de una viuda en la ciudad de Naím.  En el caso de la resurrección de la hija de Jairo y de Lázaro, se le preguntó a Jesucristo específicamente para ayudarles.  Sin embargo, en el Evangelio de hoy, el escenario sucede de manera muy diferente. Jesús ve que la muchedumbre lleva al muerto a la puerta de la ciudad y la madre del muerto está llorando. Sin embargo, nadie se acerca a Jesús.  De alguna manera, Jesús sabe que esta mujer es viuda y que esto es su único hijo que ha muerto.  Jesús da lástima y compasión por ella.  Nadie reconoce que él es Jesús y nadie le pide ayuda, sin embargo, Jesús inicia este milagro y levanta el muerto a la vida.

        A menudo en los Evangelios, vemos que Jesús reconoce el dolor y la tristeza en la vida de la gente, que la gente necesita sanación en sus vidas.  Él tiene compasión para la viuda de Naím como la ve el dolor y la pena.  A veces, puede ser como el hijo de Naim en nuestra vida de fe.  A veces, estamos dormidos en la vida o como los muertos vivientes en lo que respecta a nuestra espiritualidad, viviendo en el piloto automático o simplemente haciendo los movimientos de la vida.  Tal vez necesitamos Jesucristo específicamente para despertarnos a la vida de fe.

         Por lo tanto, ¿cuáles son algunas maneras que tenemos que ser despertado en nuestras vidas?  Tal vez no queremos mostrar nuestro verdadero ser a Cristo.  Tal vez no queremos mostrar a Cristo y a nosotros mismos las dificultades y los desafíos y las tentaciones que tenemos en nuestra vida.  Pero no importa la forma en que tratamos de esconder estas cosas de Dios, Dios nos conoce y está ahí para ayudarnos. Podemos mirar la manera en que Cristo conocía a la viuda de Naím y su realidad sin ningún explicación. Dios sabe cuando estamos haciendo nuestro mejor esfuerzo, pero sabe también cuando estamos en un vacío en nuestra vida.  Dios sabe cuando pensamos en cosas que un cristiano no debe pensar.  Dios sabe cuando estamos comprometidos a hacer lo que sea necesario para crecer en nuestra vida de fe.  ¿Escondemos algunas cosas a Dios porque nos avergonzamos? No debe ser como eso.  Dios es Dios – él puede tomar cualquier realidad que tenemos que darle. Pero tenemos mostrar la verdad a Dios en nuestro camino de fe.  Si no estamos auténtico con él, él no puede ayudarnos. 

        Es posible que tengamos que estar despertado de nuestro cinismo, de nuestra sarcasmo, de nuestro descontento – eso es otra manera que estamos dormidos en nuestra vida de fe.  ¿Ha notado que no es popular en nuestra sociedad para decir que estamos contentos en nuestra vida?  Así que muchos en nuestro mundo sólo quieren quejarse o destruir en lugar de ayudar a nuestro prójimo o mejorar algo.  A veces, alguien hace un comentario agradable para nosotros, y en lugar de responder en amabilidad,  respondemos en una manera sarcástica o con una broma.  Nos puede quedar atrapado en un círculo vicioso en el que nunca podemos encontrar la felicidad, para quedar en nuestro descontento.  Sin embargo, el salmista dice: "Te alabaré, Señor."  No importa dónde estamos en nuestro camino, tenemos razones para dar gracias. Podemos alabar al Señor y encontrar la paz en nuestros corazones. ¿Estamos criticonas en nuestra vida de fe en lugar de dar gracias?  

         En la definición propia de nuestra espiritualidad cristiana, la espiritualidad significa despertar. A veces no nos damos cuenta de la manera que estamos dormidos o que estamos muertos en nuestra vida.  Cuando dormimos en nuestra vida, es posible que nunca podemos comprender la belleza de la vida - la belleza que Dios tiene reservado para nosotros en nuestra existencia humana.  En nuestra vida de fe, Dios puede despertarnos si estamos abiertos a esta posibilidad.

6/5/2016 – 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle C – Luke 7:11-17

      Performing miracles was an important part of Jesus proclamation of God’s kingdom.  Amongst the miracle stories in the Gospels, there are 3 instances where Jesus brings a dead person back to life.  Most famous of these 3 stories is the account of the raising of Jesus’ friend Lazarus in John’s Gospel.  Then, both Matthew and Mark recount the story of the raising of the daughter of Jairus, a leader in the synagogue.  Today, we hear about the raising of the son of a widow in the city Nain.  In the case of the raising of Jairus’ daughter and of Lazarus, Jesus is specifically asked to help, to heal them and to bring them back to life.  Yet, in today’s Gospel, the scenario plays out very differently.  Jesus sees the dead man being carried out of the gate of the city and he sees the man’s mother weeping.  Yet, no one approaches him.   Somehow, Jesus seems to know that this woman is a widow and that this is her only child who has died.  Jesus is moved with pity and compassion for her.  Without anyone recognizing Jesus, without anyone asking him for help or showing any sign of faith in him, Jesus initiates this miracle and raises the dead man back to life.

      So often in the Gospels, we see Jesus reaching out to those who are overcome with grief and sadness, to those who are broken and who need healing. He has pity on the widow of Nain as he sees her pain and grief.  Sometimes, we can be like the son from Nain in our lives of faith.  We can be asleep or like the walking dead in regards to our spirituality, being on autopilot or just going thru the motions.  Maybe we need Jesus to wake us up as well, to enliven our faith in a new way.

      So, what are some ways that we need to be awakened in our lives?  Maybe we are trying to hide our true selves from God, not admitting who we really are, not wanting to look at some difficult things we are going through in life. But no matter how we try to hide, God knows us and is there to help us, just like he knew what the widow of Nain was going through without her having to explain her situation.  God knows when we are doing our best, but he knows when we are just coasting or getting by.  God knows when we are thinking things that a Christian should not be thinking.  God knows when we’re committed to doing what’s necessary to grow in our lives of faith.  Are we trying to hide something from God because we are ashamed or embarrassed?  Well, we shouldn’t be.  God is God  - he can take whatever reality we have to give him.  But we have to be real about it.  We have to be real to him.

       We may need to be awakened from our cynicism, our sarcasm, or discontent – that may be another way we are asleep in our lives of faith.  Have you noticed that it almost unpopular to be content or happy in our society today?  So many in our world just want to complain, rather than try to make things better.  Sometimes, someone makes a nice comment to us, but instead of reciprocating with kindness or a gracious spirit, we are sarcastic and try to make a joke about it.  We can be trapped in a vicious cycle where we can never find happiness, making that state of discontent the new norm. And yet the psalmist says: “I will praise you, Lord.”  Yes, no matter where we are on our journey, we have things to be grateful for.  We have reasons to give thanks.  We can praise the Lord and find peace in our hearts.  Do we need to be less critical and judgmental and be more grateful and content?  Perhaps that is true if we really look at the state of our lives. 

      We can be asleep in that we afraid to search for the destiny God has for us, unwilling to see our journey of faith as our true destiny.  Do we see our lives as a spiritual journey and a pilgrimage with God accompanying us every step of the way, or are we just in it for adventure and for pleasure?  We can get in a rut, not motivated and just walking in circles.  Those who are spiritually asleep are not motivated by love, but disciples of Christ certainly are.  Those who are spiritually asleep are not concerned with being a servant just as Jesus was a servant, not concerned with living out acts of mercy and charity with our brothers and sisters.  Those who are spiritually asleep are not motivated by their faith.  If we allow our faith to guide us in our lives, God’s grace and the Holy Spirit will work in us and guide us in way that we could never imagine, in ways that we could not figure out on our own.

      The late Jesuit priest Father Anthony de Mello says that by its very definition, spirituality means waking up.  Sometimes we don’t every realize that we are asleep or like the waking dead.  Being asleep, we may never understand the loveliness and the beauty that God has in store for us in our human existence. In our lives of faith, let us allow God awaken us. 

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus - Friday - June 3, 2016

Join us for a mass to celebrate the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus at 12:10 at St James Catholic Church in Tupelo, Mississippi.  We will pray the litany of the Sacred Heart at the conclusion of mass.