Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time October 18, 2020

10955 SE 25th Avenue Milwaukie, OR 97222 ª 503-654-5449 Email: [email protected] ª www.sjbcatholicchurch.org ª Office hours: Mon - Thur 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Fri Closed Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time October 18, 2020 (Saint Jean: 1593-1649; Saint Isaac Jogues: 1607-1646; Laymen René Goupil & Jean de Lalande) October 19–Memorial Patron Saints of North America, co-patrons of Canada Deep in the dense and endless forests of Iroquois nation, Jean de Brébeuf, bound tightly to a post, slowly stretched his neck and head toward the canopy high above, and prayed. An Iroquois war party had attacked his Huron mission the day before. He had a chance to escape but he chose to stay. The baptized and neophytes looked to him, needed him, and were captured with him. Saint Jean had long before witnessed, and chronicled, the Iroquois’ depraved treatment of their Indian enemies. Now he was the captive and now he would be the victim. The painted braves prepared their instruments of torture and the ritual butchery commenced. The Iroquis peeled Jean’s lips from his face and cut off his nose and ears. Saint Jean was as silent as a rock. They poured boiling water over his head in a mock baptism and pressed hatchets, glowing red hot, against his open wounds. A hard blow to the face split his jaw in two. This was pain beyond pain, a living holocaust. When the saint tried to encourage his fellow captives with holy words, the Indians cut out his tongue. Near the end, they cut out his heart and ate it. Raw. Then they drank his warm blood. They wanted the blood of this lion to course in their own veins. Eye witnesses to Saint Jean’s torture and death, which took place alongside that of Fr. Gabriel Lalemant, escaped captivity and gave detailed accounts of what they had seen. Fellow Jesuits recovered the two bodies days later and verified their wounds. Brébeuf’s skull was placed in a reliquary in a convent in Quebec City. It is still there today. St. Jean de Brébeuf was born in Bayeux France. Bayeux is a comfortable town with low, sturdy buildings and a handsome Cathedral. It’s the kind of town people want to move to. But Saint Jean went in the opposite direction. He left Bayeux to become a Jesuit priest. When he was chosen to become a missionary, he crossed an ocean to New France (Canada). He was well educated and was the first European to master the Huron Continued on page 2 Continued from page 1 hawked to death for making the sign of the language, to study their customs, and to write a Huron- cross on the forehead of a Mohawk boy. French dictionary. He was a mystic who had an intimate Incredibly, just when Jogues was about to be relationship with Our Lord and a vivid spirituality full of burned alive he was rescued by Dutch traders saints and angels. He took a vow of personal perfection, from present-day Albany, New York. Jogues striving to rid himself of every sin, no matter how small. returned to France half a man; skeletal, lame, He canoed thousands of miles over open waters, and and with stumps where some fingers had trekked and portaged vast expanses of prairie and woods been chewed down to their knuckles. On in search of a congregation for the Truth. In a frontier home soil again, he went to the local Jesuit culture of trappers, loggers, and ruffians, he held his own. house, where the porter assumed he was an The Indians called him “Echon”—one who carries his own indigent beggar. weight. His oar was always in the water. For all this Jogues specifically requested to return to missionary labor, there was some success. But there was Canada, and crossed the Atlantic one last time more disappointment. Some of his assassins were Huron in 1644. He was assigned to Montreal, where apostates. he crossed paths with Jean de Brébeuf, who A heroic death is not the fruit of a lukewarm life. Saint thought Jogues was a living saint. When Jean was prepared for his gruesome martyrdom by many Jogues asked permission from his superiors to years of struggling to breathe inside of smoke-filled cabins, again evangelize among the Mohawks, he told by suffering the bites of swarms of mosquitoes all night a friend “Ibo, sed non redibo.” “I will go, but I long, by shivering through cold nights, by eating will not return.” He was a prophet. He and disgusting food without complaint, and by trekking layman Jean Lalande were captured and tom- rugged terrain while poorly shod. Once, he fell on the ice ahawked to death on October 18, 1646. Their and broke his collarbone, making it impossible for him to severed heads were placed as trophies on navigate jagged terrain upright. He crawled thirty-six Indian pikes. The North American martyrs miles on his hands and knees back to his mission. Saint were canonized in 1930. Jean prepared himself for death through disciplined prayer https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/october-19---saints-jean-de- and meditation. He prepared himself out of a profound brbeuf-isaac-jogues-and-companions/ acceptance of God’s will. Our faith teaches that grace builds on nature. This just means that a plant grows in the Pastoral Corner by Fr. John Marshall ground. Bad soil; sick plant. Rich soil; healthy plant. The “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar seed of faith planted in Saint Jean by his parents and and to God what belongs to God.” priests was dropped into rich, black, human soil. God’s grace grew in him. God’s grace thrived in him. God’s grace This is possibly one of Jesus’ most never died in him. And that same powerful grace comes to notable sayings in the Gospels and likely us today through the intercession of this mighty oak of a the most misunderstood. In this episode of man. the Gospels, the Pharisees try to entrap Saint Isaac Jogues came as near to martyrdom as any Jesus. If He answers one way, He will be man who ever lived to tell about it. Jogues was a professor deemed sacrilegious and a fraud, and on in France who crossed the ocean to work among the the other, an enemy of the Roman Empire. Huron. For six years he labored as far west as Lake Knowing their malicious intentions, Jesus Superior, one of the first French men to see that lake of surprises them with this answer to render lakes. He was kidnapped by Mohawks in 1642 and held to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God captive for thirteen months, during which time he what is God’s. witnessed, and suffered from, an orgy of barbarity similar Yet it is what Jesus does before giving to that later suffered by Brébeuf: torture by fire, removal of this answer that clarifies the meaning of fingernails, gnawing away of fingers, whippings with His answer. In this episode from the thorn bush branches, cuttings, etc. Jogues’ companion, Gospel, Jesus asks the Pharisees for a coin Jesuit lay brother René Goupil, a trained medic, was toma- Continue page 3 Continue from page 2 Rincón pastoral por el P. John Marshall that depicts the image and inscription of the Roman Emperor. The coin is a repre- “Paga al César lo que es del César ya Dios lo que es de Dios”. sentation that each person belongs to the State. The coin is used for commerce to Este es posiblemente uno de los dichos más notables provide for our needs and the needs of de Jesús en los Evangelios y probablemente el más those who are less fortunate. However, incomprendido. En este episodio de los Evangelios, los each and every one of us also bear an image fariseos intentan atrapar a Jesús. Si responde de una and inscription that is worth far more than manera, será considerado un sacrílego y un fraude y, por a metallic coin. Each human being bears the la otra, un enemigo del Imperio Romano. Conociendo sus image and likeness of God to whom we malas intenciones, Jesús los sorprende con esta respuesta belong. To God, we owe Him everything. para dar al César lo que es del César y a Dios lo que es Dios. In light of this Gospel passage, Pope Sin embargo, es lo que Jesús hace antes de dar esta Francis proposes a question: “From the respuesta lo que aclara el significado de Su respuesta. En question posed to him by the Pharisees, Jesus este episodio del Evangelio, Jesús pide a los fariseos de draws a more radical and vital question for each una moneda que representa la imagen y la inscripción del of us, a question we can ask ourselves: to whom emperador romano. La moneda es una representación de do I belong? To family, to the city, to friends, to que cada persona pertenece al Estado. La moneda se work, to politics, to the State. Yes, of course. utiliza para el comercio para satisfacer nuestras But first and foremost — Jesus reminds us — necesidades y las necesidades de los menos afortunados. you belong to God. This is the fundamental Sin embargo, todos y cada uno de nosotros también belonging. It is He who has given you all that llevamos una imagen y una inscripción que vale mucho you are and have. And therefore, day by day, we más que una moneda metálica. Cada ser humano lleva can and must live our life in recognition of this la imagen y semejanza de Dios a quien pertenecemos.

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