Every year, our Mundelein community celebrates a special Mass for the Preservation of Peace and Justice near the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. We honor all he did to bring about peace and justice in our nation, and remind ourselves of the many facets of peace and justice in our Church and how our faith calls us to respond.
We welcomed Father David Jones, Mundelein Seminary Class of 1989 and Pastor of St. Benedict the African in the Englewood neighborhood in the Archdiocese of Chicago, to lead us in prayer at Mass. His homily challenged us to follow Jesus’ example from the Gospel reading, and unite with others in faith.
“When Jesus invited the man with the withered hand to ‘come up here before us,’ he signaled how important it is that there be no division, and certainly no subtraction, in the synagogue, that this church be a place reserved for addition, and, if God really has before him good men trying to be godly men, then it shall flourish as a place of multiplication,” Father Jones said in his homily. The full homily is available below.
Members of the seminarian African Choir led our community in joyful singing of traditional South African, Swazi, and Nigerian hymns as we celebrated together. An appreciation for the global church and its diversity of gifts is engendered when the community celebrates Mass and sings in multiple languages.
That which seems to make the other different does not stand a chance in a place where He who appears stands to make all one.
Father David Jones | “Come Up Here Before Us” | Homily for the Mass for the Preservation of Peace and Justice
Gospel Reading: Mark 3:1-6
Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.
