The privilege of live-streamed masses is listening to two great homilists. The first is Fr. Montoya, l at Incarnation Church in Glendale, who spoke about “Our faith is centered on remembering” also known as Maria Ressa’s “The present moment of our past.”
He began by asking: “Is it the fault of the tree that it produces deficient fruits?” In Jesus’ religious heritage, Jacob was scheming and dishonest; David committed adultery and had the husband of his mistress killed to marry her; four women were mentioned: a seducer, another a prostitute and another committed adultery.
In Jesus’ genealogy, his ancestors did not incarnate the love of justice, fidelity, and mercy.
Is it then the fault of the tree giving these defective fruits, he asked? Should we instead look at the root of the tree, the promise of the Messiah, instead of its branches?
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“You are blessed,” said Fr. Decipeda. “When you have cancer, it means you have time to make amends, time to put your affairs in order. Everyone has a family, its own dysfunctionality. But, each family is blessed if we focus instead on the strengths, instead of the weaknesses.
He then called to the altar three couples to share how they have lasted this long.
The first couple is newly married and shares the love of God and dancing, in church activities. The second couple of 51 years shared that the husband leaves the house to avoid conflict when faced with anger; another couple of 26 years, both great singers and pianists, spoke of the difficulty of them getting pregnant.
The experiences differed yet common to all three couples were their love and commitment to one another.
Fr. Decipeda spoke of St. Paul who was loved by God even when he deemed himself unworthy of His love: “I fell, I failed and I fell from grace.”
He then spoke of vocation as a call to Holiness, by your response with commitment, therein lies your holiness.
By centering on the Eucharist, we bring back holiness to the family; thereby the family to the Church.