The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just. — Psalm 19:10
Mass Readings: Amos 7:10-17 / Matthew 9:1-8
Today is the feast of Blessed Juniper Serra, the 18th-century Spanish Franciscan who established nine missions in what is now the state of California. In fact, he established San Francisco in 1776, the very year that, on the other side of the continent, some Englishmen decided to break away from their mother country.
He’s certainly an American figure, though he was never an American citizen in the strictest sense of the word. Still, I think both Latino residents of North America and Anglos, regardless of citizenship status, can appropriate him as one of theirs. That, and the recognition that all of us now living on this continent are children of God, can make this year’s celebration of our birth as a new nation, conceived in liberty, a joyous and unifying event.
Prayer: Blessed Juniper Serra, may all who call America home learn to live in harmony.