FEAST OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS OCTOBER 19, 2015

BLUE MARSH LAKE

"JUST UP THE STREET': fishing, boating , swimmng, hiking

Founders’ Day, October 19, 2015     Feast of the North American Martyrs

Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf and Companions

The great desire to practice and preach the love of Christ in differing cultures still moves many a Christian to great sacrifices.  Among the Jesuits that we have known personally we have had friends working not just in different countries such as Chile, Bolivia, Japan, India, Phillipines, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Russia.   I am sure that you can think of other countries that I am missing.   But also whatever the country we remember today those working on the margins of society with the homeless, the imprisoned, the sick who are abandoned, the disabled, the refugee.   And do not forget the thinkers on the margins of issues such as faith and justice or the meaning of Jesus for the various religions.    This is our Jesuit work to reach out to the margins and to plant Christ there.  For me to be able to count among our friends and acquaintances not just Jesuits but also men and women who have done these things and done so in the name of Christ and his love makes me feel blessed even if my own ministries have been more conventional.

Today we celebrate a particular example of a mission on the margins, a mission of great sacrifices made by young French Jesuits who gave themselves entirely to the evangelization of the native peoples in the North American French colony.   They studied the native language and culture.  They studied the native religious beliefs and customs.   They patiently offered salvation to their new friends.  

Here I quote from a Wikipedia article:  

Jesuit missionaries learned Indian languages, and accepted Indian ways, to the point of conforming to them, especially when living among them. According to Jérôme Lalemant, a missionary must first have "penetrated their thoughts... adapted himself to their manner of living and, when necessary, been a Barbarian with them."^[3]:42–43 To gain the Indians' confidence, the Jesuits drew parallels between Catholicism and Indian practices, making connections to the mystical dimension and symbolism of Catholicism (pictures, bells, incense, candlelight), giving out religious medals as amulets, and promoting the benefits of the cult of relics.^[3]:43

But even historians who recount the ambiguity of their efforts, pointing out the sins of the colonizers and the European sicknesses that devastated the tribes, even they know that these men brought their convictions about God’s love to the people with whom they interacted.   These Jesuits gave their lives because they knew that Jesus loved these tribal people and they desired to love them as well.

Addressing our ministry and the ministry especially to the young today, Father General Nicolas speaks with the same penetrating language that inspired our North American martyrs:

“So in the Jesuit vision of reality there is a high esteem for God’s creation, and there is no situation, no human situation..that is alien to us.   So our challenge is how to find God in the hearts of those who don’t come to Church and even those who don’t even believe in Christ.   This is the challenge that we carry with us, and I like very much that the pope calls us to go out and find God.”

We at the Center here are called to go out at least figuratively and find God among the alien.  And we have so many resources at our disposal.  We have opportunities for that silence that assists us in addressing our own margins of doubt and sin.   We have opportunities in our prayer to reimagine Christ’s love for those on the margins.  We have opportunities for study and reflection to find the language that best speaks to them and to all those who are searching at least to understand themselves if not also to understand their world and the God who walks with them.

Jogues and his companions would urge us on.  They would see the growth in the hearts of the young and old whose lives pass through here.   Many actually serve those on the margins and all hear that call.   Let us consider ways to respond.