27th Sunday in Ordinary Time C.
October 3, 2010. Our Lady of Grace – all Masses. Habakkuk 1:2-3,
2:2-4. 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14. Luke 17:5-10.
The beginnings of the Church were so small that no one
noticed, except a few Bethlehem
shepherds and three wise men. Jesus later told his first followers,
“If you have faith the size of a mustard see, you would say to this mulberry
tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Things
looked very bleak on the day that Jesus, the tiny mustard seed, died on the
cross. It appeared that the big world had won and the tiny mustard seed
had been destroyed. Yet Jesus rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit came
rushing upon his small group of disciples with the mighty power of God. The Roman Empire tried to kill and destroy the tiny mustard
seed as it began to grow. The more that the followers of Jesus were
executed, crucified, beheaded and burned at the stake, the more the people who
believed in Jesus continued to grow. In the year 312 the Roman Emperor
himself became a Christian and soon all of Europe
entered the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Christ
has continued to grow throughout the world. Most Christians now live in
North and South America. The first
believers in Jesus in Korea
were lay people who were baptized by Christian soldiers, lay people, from Japan.
Over 10,000 Christians were executed in Korea in one century in an attempt
to destroy the mustard seed Church. Today 40% of the people in Korea
are Christian.
Our relationship with the Church in Ghana is a small seed that Christ
planted here eight short years ago. Already this tiny mustard seed has
grown into a deep and vibrant friendship with the people of Ghana, far beyond anything we could
have planned or arranged. Our friendship with the people of Ghana
is a miracle of God’s grace.
Christie Lareau traveled with me
and three other parishioners to Ghana
this past spring. I have asked her to tell us about what she
experienced. Much of the future growth of the people in Africa and the Church
in Ghana
depends on education. Fr. Sylvester is the second priest that we have
brought here from Ghana and
sponsored at the University
of St. Thomas. I
ask Fr. Sylvester to say a few words to us.
After their comments-
This is Respect Life Sunday. Our Catholic faith
challenges us to take a strong moral stance on all pro-life issues.
Abortion is against the law in Ghana.
There is little debate about abortion in Ghana because the society as a
whole takes a very strong and public anti-abortion stance. The father of
Mark Owusu, the first priest from Ghana that OLG sponsored, died
recently. He was only 57. That is the average life expectancy in Ghana.
One of the strongest pro-life issues in Ghana is the high infant mortality
rate and the large number of mothers who die in childbirth. We are
working with the local medical school to bring doctors from OLG to Ghana
to teach. That is another of our deep and firm respect life activities as
Catholics. Please be actively involved in respect life issues here
and please support our wonderfully fruitful mustard seed mission in Ghana
.