Monday, October 19, 2015

Homily: October 19 2015 - Saints Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, and companion martyrs

Since 1926, the third Sunday of October, yesterday, has been set aside for the Catholic Church around the world to renew its commitment to missionary work.  So yesterday, was World Mission Sunday. And for many decades many men and women from this country would answer the call to bring the Gospel to Africa, to Asia, to the Middle East, to Oceania.  Now, many priests and religious from those countries, come here, yes, to care for immigrants from their native land, but also to do some of the hard work of evangelization that American Catholics are sometimes unwilling to do.

It takes great courage, great conviction for the Gospel to leave ones native land, and a great openness and trust in the Lord.  Such conviction and trust, perhaps we need to better cultivate, especially among our young people.  Missionary work and evangelization are more important than CYO sports, or business school.

We celebrate today saints who left the comfort of their native land to bring the Gospel to North America.  Saint Isaac Jogues, Saint John de Brebeuf, and their Jesuit companions came from France, in the mid 1600s, to what was considered, New France, to the Northern U.S. and southern Canada, primarily Quebec.  These men were considered martyrs even for setting out on their missionary journey, for their mission was full of peril, hardship, the likelihood of death.

Imagine the courage it takes, the conviction for the Gospel, to leave your home, knowing that you would likely die for the message you carried.  Conviction for the Gospel must have burned in their breasts. They were impelled by love of Jesus Christ and for the desire for the salvation of souls.
Listen to these words from the spiritual diary of St. John de Brebeuf, to get a sense of this man’s conviction: “Jesus, my Lord and savior, what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name…I bind myself in this way so that for the rest of my life I will have neither permission nor freedom to refuse opportunities of dying and shedding my blood for you, unless at a particular juncture I should consider it more suitable for your glory to act otherwise at that time. Further, I bind myself to this so that, on receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit.”


Imagine the sort of prayer life that brings a man such tremendous freedom, to give his life away for Jesus.  May each of us be filled with similar conviction for the Gospel, in bringing Christ to souls and souls to Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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