Dear friends, I’m delighted to be here in Piedmont today to celebrate your 60th anniversary as a mission church. This building was started in 1961 and completed in 1962 through the generous support of the Catholic Extension Society, a donation from Msgr. Walter Royer, and the remainder from the generosity of the faithful – your families and friends. This church is a testament to the vibrancy of our Catholic faith here in northeastern Alabama. As Archbishop Toolen commented at the dedication, [your church is] “one of the most beautiful mission Churches ever built in the diocese.” It is a privilege and joy for me to be here to share in the festivities and gratitude to God for His faithfulness to us.

Thank you, Father Thomas [Nattekkadan], for the kind invitation and your dedicated priestly ministry here in rural Alabama.

Our readings today take us on a magnificent journey! It is a journey of faith that touches each of us. This journey of faith in our Catholic tradition is embedded not just in ideas or an ethical way of living but it is grounded in the fact of a person that the early Christians and disciples encountered in their life journey. As a consequence, they were so moved that they couldn’t get Him out of their heads, or out of their hearts.

When I lived in northern Michigan, I used to see deer behind my residence – a bit of wildlife! I knew they came around because I would see their tracks where they walked during the winter months. The neighbors also told me that the indentations in the snow were caused when they would bed down at night. They were very elusive and would scatter if they heard a noise, but they were looking for something. The Psalm says, “As the deer longs for running streams, so my soul longs for you, my God!” (Ps 42:1) We are all thirsting for something, longing for something, hoping for something, desiring something to fulfill what our hearts may be lacking. Every once in a while, we get a glimpse of it, something so very true for us, something so beautiful, a sense of inner peace and joy. It is a verification that I am made for something, and my yearnings keep me moving in a direction to help fulfill what I’m missing.

Jeremiah was struggling with similar questions: Who am I? Why am I here? And he writes at the very beginning of our reading, “The word of the Lord came to me saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” (cf. Jer 1:5) So, like Jeremiah, who was wondering about his own life – why he was born and what was his purpose – God has a plan for you and for me. That could be written about us, too, “Before I formed you … I knew you!”

How comforting it is: God knows us! He knows what we need and what He made each of us for.

Oftentimes, I have this prayer: “Lord, what do you want of me? What is my life supposed to be for You?” Then I think back to some of the people He chose and how they messed up in their lives. Still, He chose them and through them accomplished what was necessary to be done for His plan! I think to myself how often I’ve messed up, didn’t get things right, didn’t say the right thing, or made the wrong decision. Yet, He chose me to say and do something as part of His masterplan.

St. Paul was no saint at the beginning. He was persecuting Christians until he had a dramatic experience on the road to Damascus that utterly changed his life. Afterward, his life went forward. He didn’t look back. He gives us this beautiful reflection on what “love” means in our second reading. Now, love can mean many different things! Ultimately, I think love, not so much with an emotion or a feeling that comes and goes, has something deep down to do with the desire for the good of the other, the beloved. [It is] the deep and profound wish that the ultimate destiny of the other be true. He puts it in plain terms that many couples who get married choose for their wedding day – love is patient, kind, not jealous, and so on. (cf. I Cor 13:4-13) It is like the glue that holds relationships together. Without this glue, we would fall apart. We are nothing but a clanging gong, as St. Paul says. We can know this destiny with certainty because of others who have gone before us whom we call “saints.” We are asked to embark on this journey that will eventually lead us to see that ultimate reality of God “face to face.” We will recognize Him and see Him and He us!

Honestly, I’m excited for that day but with a sense of trepidation and fear! We could say that there is a tension between desire and fear that plagues us. It is also the place on the journey of life we are called to be with the Lord – the answer to our longing and destiny to be fully ourselves.

In the Gospel, [we hear about] the fascination of Jesus, having preached a brief homily in the synagogue excited those with Him: “All spoke highly of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His mouth.” (cf. Lk 4:22) But they couldn’t believe it because they knew His family and were filled with skepticism and doubt. He says, “Do here … the things we heard were done in Capernaum.” (cf. Lk 4:23) In other words, be amazed at what the Lord is doing in your life! Live it! Know yourself! Know that you are loved! You are being given a hope beyond anything you could have imagined. It is an interior peace and wonder that exceeds our expectations and our limitations and calls us beyond our weakness and sin.

For these reasons, we are connected with a God who is eminently merciful and full of compassion. We are lifted up because we have experienced the mercy of God in a most personal and powerful way.

Our challenge as Catholics is to live what we have met in Christ! May your week be filled with joy and peace, wonder and awe, as we journey together in faith until that day we can see the God who has loved us, willed each of us, and has a plan for each of us –[until He] enables us to see Him face to face! May God bless you all!