July 14, 2024

Dear Parishioners,

Jesus sends out the twelve apostles on a mission to preach and heal right after his rejection at Nazareth. This must not have been the most encouraging preparation for the apostles. Our Lord could have sent them out on mission after he had all his successes around Galilee. But, no, he waits until after his first defeat. It’s like he wants the apostles, and all of us, to know that failure is not as bad as we think it is.

            The prophet’s success isn’t measured by his conversions or how good his homilies are or how much money he earns for God or how eloquent or good-looking he is. The prophet’s success is measured by his own faith: how he trusts in God and is obedient to God.

            If you look at all the prophets of Israel, including Amos, our prophet this week, none of them are successful in bringing about Israel’s conversion and salvation. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and all the others are told specifically what to do: preach to the leadership and to the people about reforming their ways. The prophets preach and the leadership and people do not reform. It must mean the prophets were not good at their jobs, right? That they were bad preachers, not holy enough, not blessed? No. God, in many cases, tells the prophets ahead of time that their mission of preaching will not work and that Israel will not repent. But he sends them anyways. Why? Because God cares about the prophet’s relationship to himself. He wants the prophet to trust in him and be obedient.

            It’s in our failures and crosses that our faith is really exercised. Then is when we really lean into God and make that act of surrender. OK, Lord, I can’t do this on my own and this is painful, so I surrender to you, I trust in you, and I let you take control. That is the grace-filled action. This is why Jesus emphasizes to the apostles not to take anything with them on the journey. All they need is to rely on God.

            We’ve all had our failures, rejections, and crosses. We’ve had an experience where we’ve felt weak; where we’ve been confronted with our poverty. Whether that happened long ago in the past or it is happening presently, don’t feel bad about it. In fact, it’s a blessing. Reach out to God, and he will carry you.

            In my mind, somehow all of the acts of surrender we make in the face of our failures are graces that benefit not just us, but the Kingdom. God uses them in his cosmic way to make beautiful the world and human life, particularly those lives in the future. Your suffering and trust in God is like gold that’s being formed through intense geological processes and deposited in some deep vein in the earth. One day someone will uncover that gold and benefit from it. And we’re benefitting now from the gold deposited by the sufferings of our ancestors and saints.

            There’s a lot of gold around the altar during Mass–chalices, ciboria, crucifixes. The value is not there. The value is out in you, in your surrender.

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I mentioned in last week’s letter about the prayer cards in the pews you’ll find. This is a simple way for you to write down any intention you may have. You can make it anonymous or you can write your name down, as well as indicate if you’d ever like to talk or pray with a priest about your prayer. When you finish writing your intention you can either drop it in the collection basket or hand it to one of the priests after Mass. Use as many cards as you’d like and as often as you’d like. I’m grateful for the opportunity to pray for you and to bring your intentions before God when I do my personal prayer.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. James