141 days of digital mass and #socialdistancing

339 days of #celeryjuicing

I woke up with a buoyant feeling. Perhaps because I was cradled in Mama Mary’s arms after praying the rosary and receiving the eucharist in person, in communion with others at Holy Family in Artesia yesterday. I got supported by my hubby who drove home while I drove to church, a 50 miles round trip distance.

Today’s sharp and resonant homily was delivered by Fr. Joachim Ablanida: “Corruption is like a ball of snow. Once set to rolling, it increases. It was like Israel before Jesus came. God lamented. Yet, God’s plan can’t be prevented by men’s corruption. Jesus came and started with a small group of followers, a small mustard seed that grew to a large following. Yet, men are still not immune from corruption today. Will you now choose to be a tool for corruption or God’s? God has chosen Israel, we are now the new Israel that must resist corruption and be the leaven, the mustard seed that propagates God’s word.”

Wasn’t that a brilliant homily with several metaphors to remember our sacred purpose to help propagate God’s words by our non-corrupt actions? From seed to deed…

That was the life of John Lewis who chose non-violence as his lifetime theme. He believed that we all belong to a The Beloved Community, “an affirmation of his faith in humanity — the willingness to believe that man has the moral capacity to care for his fellow man. When we suffered violence and abuse, our concern was not for retaliation. We sought to understand the human condition of our attackers and to accept the suffering in the right spirit. We believed that ends and means were inseparable, so if we wanted a peaceful society, then we has to use the methods of peace and goodwill. Our protests were love in action. We were attempting to redeem not only our attackers, but the very soul of America.”- John Lewis, Afterword, road to freedom, photographs of the civil rights movement 1956-1968, High Museum of Art, 2008.

His body lies in state inside the Capitol. May John Lewis rest in God’s power and eternal peace. He has been promoting #civilrights and #equalityforall for 65 years since beaten up in #selmaalabama

“”We got to make America better for all of her people. When no one is left out or left behind, because of their race, their color, because of where they grew up, or where they were born,” he said. “We’re one people, we’re one family.”

Attribution:

The casket of Rep. John Lewis crosses the Edmund Pettus Bridge by horse-drawn carriage during a memorial service for Lewis on July 26 in Selma, Ala.

John Bazemore/AP