St. Joseph Catholic Church/Mission San José
1 August 2026
In his May 2026 encyclical Magnifica Humanitatis, Pope Leo XIV uses two central metaphors (nos 7-10): the first, to warn humanity against the Tower of Babel syndrome which demonstrates hubris, and the dangers of unchecked pride. Genesis 11 (1-9) tells the story of the Tower of Babel where people speaking a single language tried to build a city and a high tower “with its top in the heavens.” (v 4) They yearned to make a great name for themselves. They desired to guarantee stability and power. The project was conceived without reference to God, supported by a uniformity that eliminated diversity.
The people chose uniformity over communion. Babel reveals grandiosity, and sacrifices human dignity and aspires to reach heaven without God’s blessing.
Second, by contrast, the book of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1-2) addresses vulnerability. After the Babylonian exile, a portion of the people return to Jerusalem to find the city in ruins, the walls collapsed, and the gates burned. When Nehemiah saw this disastrous state of his ancestral city, he could experience only silence. He did not want to impose solutions. So, he convened all the families and assigned each of them a section of the holy city to rebuild. He listened to their concerns and coordinated their efforts. The city was reborn due to the shared responsibility of all: women, men, priests, artisans, households, and young people. It was a unified task with God as the center, shown by the prayer and fasting of all the people. Communion and harmony resulted.
We have a choice. Humanity is facing a choice: avoid the “Babel syndrome” where uniformity erases differences; or chose, as Nehemiah did, to enable his people in a unified task under God to build and construct a structure that respects and honors every person’s human dignity and abilities.
In his 1867 oil painting, French artist Jean-François Millet depicts a trio of peasant women at sunset gleaning the last bits of wheat after the harvest. This is wheat dropped from the reaping that lies hidden, full of potential, but left behind. For nearly 155 years, the Sisters of the Holy Family have gleaned the fields, empowering others, including the poor, underserved, and marginalized, to discover their innate abilities not to build a tower of babel, but rather a church and society that respects, like Nehemiah and his co-workers, the common good. Gleaning is the deepest vocation of the Holy Family Sisters, bending in humility, as sunset moved into darkness, searching carefully, treasuring each individual grain, expecting only precious remnants.
The jubilarians we honor today have splendidly continued this mission of gleaning first envisioned in the 1870s by Mother Dolores Armer, Sr. Teresa O’Connor, and Monsignor John Prendergast: These are mere snapshots of a much larger motion picture:
-Sr. Anne Gelles’ inspiringly ministry to and teaching blind students (she travels tomorrow to Oregon to bring into her life her 6th guide dog for the blind; since today the liturgy honors Alphonsus Liguori, she might want to name her new companion, Alphonsus!)
-Sr. Mary Lange’s untiring work with two-year olds in Day Care, and with Congolese and Afghan refugees, and serving as director of Field Education at St. Patrick’s Seminay
-Sr. Kathy Littrell’s long-time service in congregational leadership, and facilitation of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults as they prepared to become members of the Catholic Church
-Sr. Aurora Perez’s community service, and her commitment to the Diocese of Oakland’s ministry to people with developmental challenges (SPRED), and working too as a restorative justice volunteer with prisoners
-Sr. Carole Pesce’s seventy-five years ministering in different dioceses teaching religious education, guiding faith formation, and providing leadership
-Sr. Ann Silva who exemplifies “welcoming the stranger” by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, caring for the needy, as Jesus instructs in the crucial text of Mathew 25, absolutes for entering eternal life
-Sr. Marie Stafford carries on her religious commitment nurtured through many years, keeping in contact through cards, letters, notes, phone calls and Facebook
The individual and community service of these seven religious women, built on and supported by the Sisters of the Holy Family, exemplify, almost without comment, the vision in today’s Scripture readings. Where one gleaner is, the whole community is present.
Psalm 34 claims that our humanity is authentic, when we fulfill the mandates spelled out by Isaiah (58:7-10): feed the hungry, take care of the afflicted, bring light and not darkness, heal wounds. In these responsibilities, conducted with love and commitment, we will hear God affirm, “Here I am.”
Matthew’s account of the Beatitudes (Mathew 5: 13-16) is set in the context of the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus goes up the mountain, sits down, and his disciples come to him. They have been gleaned by the Holy Family Sisters as they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Who are they: the poor in spirit, those mourning, those who are meek, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers. They and their gleaners/teachers will hear the Resurrected Lord proclaim, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”
We rejoice in and congratulate these Jubilarians, and the Holy Family Sisters, that creating unity, by caring for others, is always more important then building a Tower of Babel.
Gerald D. Coleman, P.S.S.