Homilies From St. Patrick Catholic Community

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Fr. Eric Tellez

What is Homilies From St. Patrick Catholic Community?

A collection of homilies and liturgies from St Patrick Catholic Community in Scottsdale, Arizona. We are Christian disciples in mission.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

My early childhood, the first seven, eight years was in a little town called Duncan in Arizona. It's near the eastern state line. And there, my brother and I and later on my siblings, we had a great experience. I love playing there. Grandma was across the street.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

The adults seem to treat me very nice and I had many friends. So I had a great experience and it was sad when we moved next door to Safford. So I missed that and I remember telling my dad how much I love Duncan and all the memories we had. Eventually, my dad had to tell me that he did not share those type of memory. Why?

Fr. Eric Tellez:

He said when he grew up there, the Mexican Americans were not allowed to speak Spanish in school. They were punished for that. And then he said in the movie theater, they had to sit in a way in the back. They weren't allowed to date different girls and were not allowed to the dances. And my initial thought was, no, dad.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

That's not my view of Duncan. I'm how can you say that? The people that you were talking about, the adults were so nice to me. I had great friends there. Don't ruin my vision.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Don't ruin my image of that. As I got older, we overheard mom and dad talk, adult talk. And some of the conversation would be about my dad working at the bank and some of the discrimination and prejudice that he personally experienced. But that kind of opened my eyes a little bit. When I went into the seminary, you're figuring these are guys that wanna be priests.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

I'm sure they're all good guys and that they're great. And yet when I run into seminary, there were seminarians there who would not go to the Spanish mass. That should be in English. I am not going to that mass. They gotta know where they're at.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

And many of them would not sit at dinner table with those speaking another language. The reason was they'd be making fun of me and I wouldn't know it. You can say, that's not a big deal, but you weren't there seeing the body language, the mindset, and what their intent and attitude was. And I'm thinking, you're gonna be in the most international organization, more than the International House of Pancakes, And you have a problem with that? Over time, I'd listen and begin to understand many stories.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Two weeks ago, and this is over time, this has happened with my dad, I was able to share memories of Duncan. And the reason I would do that is to tell mom and dad, you were a great mom and dad, and you were good. And I think my dad, even though he does not have good memories, doesn't like talking about Duncan. But I think he would say, thank God my boys did not have to experience that idea. And he could celebrate with me my memory, but I also understood better about what he had to deal with.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Rather than telling my dad, that's not the way it is anymore. Get over it. That you're making a big deal out of it. I began to understand my dad's story better. This Sunday, the church has asked people to have the option to honor and remember migrants and refugees.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

This day was established in 1914 by Bishop or rather by Pope Benedict the fifteenth. And the mindset was to remind people that they are human beings first, before facts, before ideology, before saying who belongs, who's legal, who's not. If the church is reminding people, everyone is created in the image of God and their humanity matters. The bible is full of stories of migrants. It is migrant stories one after the other.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Abraham leaves his homeland and goes to a foreign land as he follows God. Joseph of the old testament is sold into slavery by his brother, and he ends it up in Egypt instead of his homeland. Israel leaves slavery in Egypt and goes to a whole new place, migrating, being refugees. The Israelites are forced into his exile by Babylon and the enemies, and they're forced to go to a foreign land. And Christians grew throughout the entire Roman Empire.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Our whole history of humanity and who we are as Christians, followers of God, is stories of migration and being refugee. In today's second reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians, it is his favorite community. He has a close loving relationship with the Philippians. It's today what we would call modern day Greece. Now, it wasn't like the Galatians and the Corinthians where Paul always had to slap their hands.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

False teaching. You guys are being bad. But he loved the Philippians. Well, one, they cared about Paul, but two, they would help out financially. Philippians, Philippi was a city based with former retired Roman soldiers and their families.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

So for them, honor, citizenship, prestige is important to them. But there's a problem that Paul sees. They only think of themselves. And the division happens because they won't include others, that they exclude other people. And so Paul is telling them today, be humble as Christ is humble.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

In other words, think of others interest. Don't think of only yourself interest. Think of others. So in other words, he's not saying love one less. Don't love yourself less.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

He's saying, make room for other people. Why? Because Christ does that. And so he is asking us to listen, not to use citizenship, not to use status and honor and love of the empire to exclude or ignore the interest and the importance of others. Our theme, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace has been introduced to you the last couple of weekends as we honored Saint Francis of Assisi.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Pope Leo has named the entire year the honoring Saint Francis of Assisi on the eight hundredth anniversary of his death, but more importantly, about his teaching. And two things that Francis spirituality would talk about migrants and refugees. One, human fraternity. That is probably the number one thing, and you thought Saint Francis was just about animals. He speaks of honoring the dignity that all people, no matter who they are, are created in the image of god.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

When the crusades were going on, when the Christians were fighting and killing, he went on his own to speak to the sultan to understand, to listen, to be an instrument of God's peace. What a risk. But he modeled not just talked about the image of people. All our brothers and sisters, all matter. Their humanity is the most important thing.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

And that's central to the teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi. The second thing is probably the one that I struggle with along with you in the beautiful prayer that we're praying at every mass from now until June. Lord, help me not so much to be understood, but to understand. You have no clue how mad I get at god. Why won't people understand me?

Fr. Eric Tellez:

I gave clear instructions. This is how you block a punt formation. You messed up. You're not listening. I'm speaking of humanity being important.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

I'm speaking that people value and you don't understand me. What's your problem? I think we're all there. We all wanna be understood. But if we're just stuck there, and we don't listen, we don't understand.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Here's what I know about you. Here's what I love and know about you. Stories touch you. And you change. It's not my preaching that's gonna change any of you.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

God knows I've tried for thirty one years here and you haven't listened. But when I use stories, it works. When I show videos of stories, I see men holding back their tears. I'm not crying, you're crying. We have stories of people who are migrants and refugees.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Why they leave? Their fear. What are they struggling with? What are they going through? Right now, our diocese of Phoenix mental health office is going to our brothers and sisters at parishes who celebrate mass just like I do, who live in fear of deportation and separation.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Not being treated as human beings, especially children, and the suffering. And here's what I know, stories change you. You are people of compassion. You are people who are moved. And once you get to know stories, you change.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

Once I stop denying my father's past, dad, you're making a big deal out of it. You're ruining my vision of my memories of Duncan. This isn't the way it should be. Dad, let it go. It happened so long ago.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

That's what I wanted to tell my dad and I did. Until one day, I understood that his story helped me understand better. You're good people. But today after mass, there are gonna be stories after stories every week from now on with our resource table that tell you stories of migrants and refugees. The pain they're suffering, the mistreatment, the lack of humanity.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

It's there. You can use facts, you can use ideology, you can use different reasons why you don't agree with them, and you can disagree. But what the church is saying is humanity comes first. So I invite you then to pick up some items there every week. We'll be there with new stories, new information about what our pope, what our church teaches about migration, about refugees.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

And through those stories, I think we can really turn Saint Francis of Assisi's prayer from being understood, but to understand. We're gonna pray the prayer again in just a moment, and I ask you just to pause. And what I'd like to do is stop under the word understand, and just pause for just a few seconds if you can remember to do that. Everybody got it? I feel like I'm coaching football here, because my players ignore me after the instructions.

Fr. Eric Tellez:

They all go, yeah. Yeah. Then they then they don't do it. So we're gonna just stop, and I ask you to think about what does that mean? Why are we so concerned with being understood, being right?

Fr. Eric Tellez:

It's about me making sure my point is clear. And Saint Francis is transforming us to say, once we understand, we get a better insight, and people's story change us. Dad, thanks for being a great dad, and mom, thanks for being a great mom. Because I wanna share you memories of Duncan. Even though it wasn't good for you, I'm glad you can celebrate and know that your son did not experience the same things you did, and I honor your story, dad.