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Gospel: Matthew 10: 34-11:1
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is righteous
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because he is a disciple–
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples,
he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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There’s one thing that all parents, grandparents, priests, and ministers of the Gospel have in common: We plant seeds.
Seeds of kindness, hope, wisdom, love, and faith, often, in the hearts of younger generations – children and grandchildren.
Sometimes we live to see the fruits of our labor. Other times, we don’t.
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Such was the case for Father Isaac Jogues.
Isaac was a French Jesuit, who was one of the first missionaries to bring the Gospel to the Native Americans in the 1600’s. Four years before he was martyred, Isaac was beaten and tortured so badly that he was already regarded as a “living martyr.”
He spent his ministry in America planting seeds of faith without seeing its fruit.
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Ten years after his death, a girl named Kateri, whose feast day we celebrate today, was born in the village where Isaac was killed. Her parents and brother died in a smallpox epidemic when she was four. Raised thereafter by her uncle, Kateri was left nearly blind with scars across her face.
The locals called her, “Tekakwitha,” which meant, “she who bumps into things.”
Throughout her childhood, Kateri listened to other French priests who passed through her village, following in the footsteps of Fr. Isaac.
Although she said nothing to them as a child, when she turned eighteen, she sought to be baptized. In a village that gave no welcome to Christians, Kateri became a Christian.
After enduring a year of abuse by her relatives for professing her faith – as Jesus predicted in today’s Gospel – Kateri decided to make a 200-mile journey on foot to a Native and Christian village outside of Montreal.
There she embraced a life of penance, praying for the conversion of her people, accepting Christ as her Spouse.
Almost 350 years later, in 2012, Kateri was canonized as the first Native American Saint.
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While Fr. Isaac died without ever seeing the fruit of his labor, he reminds us that some of the seeds we plant will, in time, bear good fruit.
May we all plant a seed of faith today.
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Image credits: (1) emmausbiblechapel.net (2) Saint Kateri Catholic Church(3) Heart Treasure, WordPress