7/3/2012 – St Thomas the Apostle – Tuesday of 13th week of ordinary time – Ephesians 2:19-22, John 20:24-29

         Paul tells us today that we are no longer strangers or sojourners, but rather citizens, holy ones, and members of God’s family.  When you think about it, we all want a sense of belonging in life.  Hopefully we feel that sense of belonging as followers of Jesus in a very special way, a belonging that fills a lot of the gaps that exist in our lives.  This past weekend, we closed down one of my parishes in Yazoo City, as we had the last mass there with our wonderful Bishop, Joseph Latino.  That parish – St Francis of Assisi -  had been in Yazoo City since 1939.  It severed the African American population of the area, with the school connected to the parish providing a wonderful education to so many children until the day the school closed its doors in 1970.  We celebrated its wonderful heritage and history, and gave thanks to God for all of the blessings we received through this parish throughout the years.  We are grieving now, but we do so with a sense of hope as we move forward as the Catholic Community in Yazoo City at St Mary parish.

         Thomas wanted proof in order to believe.  Yet, sometimes we don’t get the tangible proof we want.  We receive different signs and graces from God all the time.  Sometimes they are not the signs or the proof that we asking for, but that is what God gives us on our journey.   Tradition has it that Thomas, the one who is known as the doubter, went to India to bring the Good News of the Lord to the people there.  We recently received three priests from India as missionaries here in Mississippi, part of the tradition that Thomas brought to that country.  
           We continue to celebrate the Fortnight for Freedom in our country as declared by the Bishops.  This is a challenging time for us as a nation and as a Church.  We see a government and a society that is becoming hostile to the message of Christ and to the way we are called to live out our faith.  We need to witness to the world - that is the mandate we receive from Christ - "Go out to all the world and tell the Good News" as it says in the psalm this morning.  Proclaiming that Good News is not easy, especially in our modern world.  But that is what we are called to do. 
          “Blessed are those who have not seen and who believe.”  May we thank God for the grace to believe, even in the midst of the challenges and struggles that we go through in life.