Homily for the Week of October 18, 2009

29th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2009

Isaiah 53:10-11

Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22

Hebrews 4:14-16

Mark 10:35-45 or 10:42-45

This weekend we honor and identify with those of our church who leave the comfort of their homes and communities to go to other places in our world to bring the news of Jesus to those who have not yet heard of Him. It also has a close identification with our country and with Cadyville. Two hundred years ago an 18 year old girl by the name of Pauline Jaricot was born to a wealthy family in France. She was young and beautiful. Her father owned a silk factory in Lyon, France and Pauline worked in the factory. In 1799 many young men ad women left France to become missionaries in what was called New France. In 1799 New Orleans was the center of the Catholic church in the United States. It included all Catholics east of the Mississippi River including Florida, Quebec and all of Eastern Canada. It also included Cadyville. Pauline's brother was one of these young men. One day Pauline received a letter from her brother, a student at the Seminary of St-Sulpice, in New Orleans in which he described the extreme poverty of the Catholic people in Louisiana. As the result of her brother's letter Pauline organized a group of silk working women which she called the circle of 10 to support the French Catholics in the United States. Each woman was asked to pray each day and give a penny a week. Pauline then sent the money to her brother.

Approximately 160 years ago millions of men and women were starving to death in Ireland because of the potato blight known as the Great Potato famine. Catholic Missionary priests and nuns invited many of them to come to Canada. The missionary priests at St. John's in Plattsburgh then invited them to came to Cadyville to grow potatoes on the Hardscrabble Road. In a short time they helped Father Rooney to build St. James Church. Cadyville was a mission community at that time. Interestingly enough some money was provided to these Irish Catholics by the women working in the French silk factories in the building of this church. They could not have survived without the charity of Pauline Jaricot.

Last year an extraordinary document came to light, one that reflects true heroism in the heart of missionaries. The document was a letter from Father Christian de Cherge, one of seven French Trappist monks murdered in Algeria, North Africa in May 1996. A few years before the murder took place, Father DeCherge prepared a letter to his family to be opened should he be killed.

He recognized the evil of what might strike him, but wrote of his desire for a moment in which to beg God's forgiveness for his own sins and to forgive with all his heart the one who would kill him. He began his letter: If one day, and it could be today, I should fall victim to that terrorism which seems now to be launched against all foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and to that nation. Addressing directly the unknown one who might kill him, he called him friend of the final moment, who will have known not what you were doing. He put into practice the self-giving love of Jesus mentioned in our readings today.

In our first reading today Isaiah tells of the suffering servant: If he gives his life as an offering for sin, the will of the Lord will be accomplished through him. We know that God wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

We see Jesus the suffering servant of Isaiah and realize that we who follow him are to share in His suffering. In the Gospel today Jesus asks James and John Can you drink the cup I shall drink or be baptized in the same bath of pain as I? Jesus stresses that he did not come to be served but to serve -- to give his life for others.

As we celebrate World Mission Sunday we are reminded that our missionary work takes place not only among family, friends and neighbors, but also extends to all peoples. Two thirds of the worlds people have not yet been reached with the Good News of salvation in Christ. We must help them to hear, and to experience the saving love of Jesus, teaching and healing of those who serve.

One other example of service is perhaps the hardest one for us to see. Each of us are call to self sacrifice in helping others. We are also called to cry out against injustice and to make our lives holy through the Sacraments.

I hope that some of you here today would offer to be one of those willing to leave home and help those who not only struggle for food, but also for spirituality and religion. Perhaps none of you will ever spend a minute of your lives as a foreign missionary or even visit a country where missionaries labor at great personal pain. Let us remember in this Mass all Catholic missionaries. Holiness is not a luxury for a few, but it is a duty for each of us.

Most of the time we recognize people of importance in our country by the number of Secret Service or security people they have around them, or the number of bullet proof black vehicles that surround them, or the number of persons they have to arrange the stage before they speak. Jesus teaches us that it cannot be like that with us. Jesus came not to be served but to serve others, especially the poor and those who need healing. His greatness is seen most clearly in his laying down his life for others.

Through Baptism we share in the Church's ministry to serve all who are in need. That is also our purpose or our mission. And because of this each one of us are missionaries in working for peace and justice in our homes, our parish, and our world.