Memorial of St. Marguerite d\u2019Youville<\/em><\/p>\n (Rm 2:1-11; Ps 62; Lk 11:42-46)<\/p>\n ***********************************************<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026tithes of mint and or rue and of every garden herb\u201d (Luke 11:42). So begins the commentary of this Sunday\u2019s readings in The Word Among Us<\/em>, which will provide the framework for most of this homily.<\/p>\n The message we are given is to keep our priorities of loving, not judging and working for justice paramount, and not let ourselves get distracted by easier, more palatable religious observances.<\/p>\n According to the Law of Moses, Jewish families were expected to give 10 percent of all their produce and possessions as an offering to God. This tithe was used to help support the Levitical priests, who offered sacrificial worship in the Temple, and to help care for the poor of the land. Nobody in Israel should go hungry, and it was up to everyone to make sure that didn\u2019t happen. This was part of God\u2019s command to the Israelites to love their neighbors.<\/p>\n So why was Jesus criticizing these Pharisees so openly and bluntly? They were paying their tithes, weren’t they?<\/p>\n Well, yes and no. Many scholars believe these Pharisees were indeed giving a tenth of their produce, but were choosing to take that from their kitchen seasonings, and not much more. They were doing just enough to look good, but that was all. Just enough to appear to be obeying the Law. Our Israeli guide in the Holy Land told us the main question to this day among the Jews is more \u201cWhat do I need to do to be a good Jew?\u201d rather than \u201cHow can I love my neighbor more fully?\u201d That is a minimalist stance that it seems has endured for thousands of years!<\/p>\n This was Jesus\u2019 constant concern about his opponents: by focusing so much on God\u2019s Law, they lost sight of the people the Law was meant to protect and support. Nobody can live off garden herbs! But that didn\u2019t matter; they just wanted to satisfy the bare minimum<\/p>\n In an April 2016 address, Pope Francis discussed this very issue. He cautioned us against seeing almsgiving as a \u201cburden or an annoyance from which to free ourselves in haste.\u201d Rather, he said, we should \u201cstop and look in the face, in the eyes of that person who is asking me\u201d (Jubilee Audience, April 9, 2016).<\/p>\n Someone who does this well is Deacon Hyland Fraser who shared the preaching task with me on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. On a side-trip to a church by a market one day, we passed by a couple begging on the sidewalk. They were still there later as I browsed in the market, so I stopped, chatted with them in my broken Spanish, gave them some money, and as my camera was hanging down from my neck, asked if I could take their picture, to which they demurely shook their heads.<\/p>\n The next day, in his homily, Francis shared his encounter with that couple. He also returned to them, but remembering these words of Pope Francis, he knelt down, looked them in the eye, took the man\u2019s hands and asked if he could give them a blessing. They understood, nodded and he did so. Then he asked if they could give him a blessing, bowed his head, and received their blessing. His eyes filled with tears as he shared this with our group of pilgrims, while I was convicted. Here was a deacon teaching an archbishop how to relate to the poor! He did this in the spirit of the late Jean Vanier, who teaches that the poor are always being given to. If we want to give something to the poor, give them dignity by allowing them to give something to us, even if it is just a cigarette, and we will be giving them the gift of dignity.<\/p>\n A big and valuable lesson learned \u2013 see the people we are helping. Focus on the child of God in front of us. Do this, and we will end up obeying God\u2019s commands more fully than if we were to focus only on the commandments themselves.<\/p>\n According to St. Paul, \u201cThe whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, \u2018You shall love your neighbor as yourself\u2019\u201d (Galatians 5:14). Generosity, kindness, compassion, forgiveness \u2013 this is how we fulfill God\u2019s laws.<\/p>\n The readings today summarize all this with three clear mandates: love God by loving others; strive to be just, and do not judge. We could add, let go of any temptation to rely on legalism and externalism.<\/p>\n That is what the readings are calling us to. And we have a model to follow \u2013 St. Marguerite d\u2019Youville, whose memorial we celebrate today. Marie-Marguerite Dufrost de Lejemmerais was born at Varennes, Quebec, on October 15, 1701. Following the death of her father in 1708, Marguerite\u2019s family lived in poverty. Thanks to generous relatives, Marguerite was able to study at the Ursuline Convent in Quebec for two years. When she returned home, she taught her five younger brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n In 1747, Marguerite was given charge of the colony\u2019s general hospital which was deep in debt. Trusting in Providence, she worked hard and saved the hospital. In 1765, fire destroyed the hospital but she rebuilt it within four years. Following a brief illness, she died on December 23, 1771. Marguerite was declared blessed in 1959 and on December 9, 1990, the first Canadian-born saint.<\/p>\n The Eucharist is an encounter with God\u2019s love, mercy, justice and unconditional love, giving us dignity and profound worth. May our celebration empower us to love from the heart, let go of judging anyone, and strive to be fair and work for justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HOMILY WEEK 28 03 \u2013 Year I Love, Do Not Judge, and Work for Justice: Memorial of St. Marguerite d\u2019Youville (Rm 2:1-11; Ps 62; Lk 11:42-46) *********************************************** \u201c\u2026tithes of mint and or rue and of every garden herb\u201d (Luke 11:42). So begins the commentary of this Sunday\u2019s readings in The Word Among Us, which will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies","category-ordinary-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2869,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions\/2869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Marguerite-dYouville-225x300.jpg\")
In 1722, she married Francois d\u2019Youville, who proved to be a selfish and indifferent husband, involved in illegal liquor trading. When Francois died eight years later, he left Marguerite with two children (four infants had died) and enormous debts. When she had overcome her financial difficulties, Marguerite rented a house in Montreal in 1737 where she and three companions, the first Grey Nuns, sheltered needy women. For several years, the four were slandered and persecuted, accused of being drunkards and prostitutes.<\/p>\n