Today's first reading from the tedious book of Leviticus is a summary of the Jewish Liturgical year. Feasts were established so that they might never forget the great events of history God saved and established his own people.

These events do not all have the same importance to us. Some of them have been transposed into a Christianized interpretation. But they are important because they are part of the salvation history of the entire world.

Within the cycle of a year the church unfolds for us the entire mystery of Christ, from his incarnation and birth to his ascension and a blessed hope for return as reflected in the day of Pentecost, the Assumption and Queen ship of Mary, which we celebrate in a few weeks.

Jesus was rejected by the people of his own town, his neighbors. Perhaps even more painful than rejection is "forgotten." I spent two days talking about the Real Presence, perhaps today, we might reflect on the painful absence.

As a young child I always looked forward to the holidays when my aunts and uncles would come to visit my grandparents who lived next door to us. None of them had any children of their own. My brother and I were the solo members of our generation.

As I got older and entered the seminary and began to develop a reputation and identity for myself; it was painful to be the recipient of a litany of "remembering Kid mistakes", every absentminded thing I ever did. These relatives would brag about me to their friends and peers, but to my face, "I could never do anything right". It's almost as if they saw success as a personal threat and the only self-defense was personal belittlement.

I did my best to shrug it off, but only after many years did I learn that you don't shrug off your stuff. Your stuff is your stuff until you become so full you can only huff and puff and finally explode.

In the gospel today Jesus is dealing with these friends and family who say: if you're so different, If you're not one like us how could you claim to be a messenger of God?

In our own lives we want to be remembered on important days such as birthdays and anniversaries. In the same way throughout the course of the Liturgical year we are called to remember and to celebrate the great events in the life of Christ and the saints.

Today on this first day of August we remember St. Alphonse Ligouri, founder of the Redemptorist, a great Liturgist, after whom is named the Liturgical Centre in St. John's, MN.

He was also given a powerful ministry in moral theology, which he reformed in the light of Sacred Scripture. Among his works is his masterpiece entitled: The Glories of Mary. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of his death.