“Search Me O Lord and Try Me, Test My Soul and My Heart.” Today’s Saint, Junipero Serra certainly heard, prayed, and lived out this prayer. For he began his professional life as a Spanish university professor teaching philosophy, and after ordination to the priesthood, also taught theology. But despite his academic giftedness and successes, he felt called to become a missionary.
This led to his being sent to the Apostolic College of San Fernando, Mexico City in 1749. Beginning the next year and for the following six years Father Junipero would oversee five missions to the Pame Indians in the Sierra Gorde mountains.
A Saints Mission
It was in this time, that the priest-scholar learned a new set of skills, those of a missionary. This included learning the native language and working side by side with the local people in the fields.
For those of us in the United States, his movement in 1758 would affect many of our fellow country men and women of the west as he served Mexico and the lower portion of California for the next eleven years.
Father Junipero would go on to found missions in places like, San Diego, San Francisco, and Monterey and Carmel. At the California missions, incredibly, Father Junipero baptized six thousand Indians and confirmed five thousand.
In addition, he introduced agricultural methods and tools that resulted in a better quality of life and also defended his flock against military violence and oppression through interceding on their behalf though meeting with military and government officials.
Moving Forward
As we reflect on Saint Junipero Serra’s life and our own, we can add to it today’s reading from Genesis. A reading that includes the very human response to hesitate to God’s call to us. In this reading we hear how God is calling Lot, his wife, and their two daughters to run to safety.
God is very direct in saying: “Flee for your life! Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. And yet, Lot hesitated, perhaps as we do at times, looking for a way that suits us—maybe like Lot who doubts that God’s plan will work or even that we are worthy of it.
My brothers and sisters, God speaks to us in varied ways, and many times when we least expect it. He even allows us the time to process what He is telling us as He did with Lot, so that we can move forward in doing God’s will, God’s plan for our lives.
Eyes On the Horizon
The part of this reading that struck me was God’s command, “…don’t look back.” It reminded me of two things the first was the verse from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
At first, this is hard to reconcile with the importance of remembering the good that God has given us and the people we love. But God’s direction to not look back in the case of Lot and his family was to look toward what He had in store for them.
Anyone who has ever tended a plow or even mowed a lawn knows that if you want to go in a straight line you have to look straight ahead at a landmark. Saint Junipero and today’s reading reminds us of being willing to trust God enough to focus on where He is leading us.
And, if it all seems too much at times, when our lives are like turbulent waters, and we can always be like the disciples and cry out Lord, save us, trusting that He always will.
Saint Junipero Serra…Pray for us!
- Father David's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. You can view the Mass (and the Rosary at the 30-minute mark) on the Family Rosary YouTube page.
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