Always Forward, Never Back

Wednesday, July 1, 2026 – 13th Week in Ordinary Time – Year A, Cycle 2

Amos 5:14–15, 21–24, Psalm 50:7–13, 16–17, Matthew 8:28–34

Our first reading today gives a pretty good description of how we should live our lives. It says, “Seek good and not evil, that you may live. Then truly will the Lord, the God of hosts, be with you. Hate evil and love good and let justice prevail.”

This wise message from the prophet Amos was written over 700 years before the birth of Jesus, but it was nothing new even in Amos’s time. This is the life God has been calling all people to live since the beginning of time. It’s, unfortunately, the life Adam and Eve failed to live when they fell to the influence of the evil one and chose their own desires over the blessings, love, and freedom God had given them in the Garden of Eden. They didn’t disobey God by accident. They freely chose to do so, just as we do when we commit sin.

The saint we honor today, St. Junípero Serra, truly sought to live out God’s call to “Seek good and not evil.” He was born in Spain and, as a young man, entered the Franciscan Order. He became a priest and spent the first 35 years of his life in the classroom, first as a student and then as a professor of theology. He was also famous for his preaching.

Answering God’s call to be a missionary, he gave up everything and traveled to the New World to convert the native peoples in central Mexico to Christianity. Eventually, he was called to make the 900-mile journey into the area that would one day be California to establish missions. His work in this area of the West Coast took place from 1769 to 1782 while, at the same time, on the East Coast, the Revolutionary War was taking place.

He founded nine missions, including San Juan Capistrano, San Diego, San Francisco, and Santa Clara. He suffered much in his work for the Lord, but his motto was, “Always forward, never back.”

St. Junípero had an unquenchable zeal to bring the native people to Christ and to improve their lives. However, today, in our upside-down culture, some look at him as an oppressor of the native people. Even in his own time, in his work to serve the Indians, there was a constant tension between his efforts and the Indians, the government, and the military.

Undeterred, he found strength in a strong prayer life, often praying from midnight till dawn. During his missionary ministry, he baptized over 6,000 people and confirmed over 5,000. St. John Paul II called him “an exemplary model of the selfless evangelizer.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus encountered two men who had given themselves over to evil. They were possessed by demons, and when they saw Jesus, they immediately knew who He was and, in fear, said, “What have You to do with us, Son of God?”

There was a large herd of pigs nearby, and the demons begged Jesus to allow them to enter the pigs if He drove them out of the two men. In His power as the Son of God, all Jesus had to say to cast the demons out of the men was, “Go then!”

Ironically, after Jesus cast out the demons from the men, the people of that Gentile region, the Gadarenes, didn’t celebrate the miracle He had done. They weren’t joyful that this great holy man was in their midst. Instead, they were scared and begged Him to leave.

If we read this same story in the Gospel of Mark, we’re told that one of the men freed from the demons wanted to go with Jesus, but instead Jesus told him, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord has done for you.”

When he returned to his home and told everyone what Jesus had done for him, all were amazed.

For us, this Gospel story and the life story of St. Junípero Serra are great examples of how, even when we truly seek good and not evil, even when we truly seek to serve God and neighbor according to God’s call for our lives, no matter how much good we do, there will always be opposition. The enemy, of course, ensures this. He doesn’t want faith, hope, and love to prevail. But even in the midst of struggle, God calls us all to live our lives of faith by the motto of St. Junípero:

“Always forward, never back.”

Amen!