Hopefully today’s Gospel reading of the vine and
the branches sounds familiar. We are connected to Jesus and the other believers
in our faith in a very special way. I was very touched by the way that members of the
Knights of Columbus went out to visit Billy Hoing this week as he is in home
hospice. Billy was always a very devoted
member of the Knights, supporting all their different events and taking one of
the late night shifts on one of the hours that the Knights covered for the
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Reaching out to others from our faith and the
values of the Gospel is foundational to how we are connected to Jesus.
May 1, which fell on Friday of last week, is
always the day we celebrate St Joseph the Worker. But it also the feast day of another saint we
celebrate, St Peregrine. St Peregrine has become very popular in recent
years because he is the patron saint of both cancer patients and those who are
suffering from AIDS and HIV. As a wealthy young man in Italy in the last part
of the 13th century, Peregrine was a member of a group that advocated
against the pope. He was in the audience heckling St Philip Benizi,
the head of the Servite order of priests and brothers, who had been sent to St
Peregrine’s home town to heal some of the divisions and conflicts that existed
there. Peregrine physically attacked Philip as he tried
to speak. The guilt St Peregrine felt from this incident
brought about a gradual conversion in his life, leading him eventually to become
a priest in the Servite order, dedicating himself to a life of preaching,
holiness, and devotion to the poor and the sick in society. At the age of 60, Peregrine himself came down
with a very terrible cancerous legion on his leg. The night before his leg was going to be
amputated, Peregrine prayed before Jesus on the cross, and had a vision of
Jesus coming down from the cross and touching his leg. The cancerous legion was cured in Peregrine,
and he lived another 20 years. The prayers and intercessions of St Peregrine are
solicited by many cancer patients and their families. When we are sick and suffering, we often pray for
a physical miracle in our lives. While Peregrine had the miracle of cure from his
cancer, perhaps the greater miracle in his life was the way he turned to God in
a live of service and holiness, quite a change from the way he saw the Church
as the enemy while he was a youth. The example of Peregrine still speaks to us
today, just as our Gospel story of the vine and the branches speaks to us about
our connection with Jesus. Let us to try find ways to live out that connection
in our lives.
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