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And Jesus cured many diseases and drove out many demons.
In the book that the wellness group is reading called
“Spiritual Practices for the Brain” by Anne Kertz Kennion,
says that our brains are hardwired for empathy and compassion.
Not everyone agrees in the scientific community, but a majority do.
It talks about this one thing called “mirror neurons.”
Mirror neurons are when we see a morally good behavior,
we immediately make a connection in our brain.
The neurons fire, and we want to immediately imitate it.
Whether that action is by us or by somebody else,
it literally creates neural pathways in the brain with which to repeat.
For example, one can see two strangers,
a stranger helping an elderly woman
out of the car in the middle of the rain.
Imediately our brain connects
and says that is a good thing.
“I ought to do something like that.”
Then we will look for an opportunity
either to replicate it or witness it again.
It brings about an emotion called “elevation.”
Elevation is the emotional response or the warm feeling
one gets when one witnesses a morally good act.
We have all been there!
When somebody does something
that is random and beautiful, we think inside,
“Wow, whoa, that is amazing.
I wish I had thought of that, or I could do that.”
The book talks about how if we are surrounded
by a number of those inside a group,
it is known as a “social contagion”
and the behavior is literally contagious.
Contagious! Contagious!
Good behavior is actually neurologically contagious in our brains!
This is very good news!
The reason why I bring this up is
because we need more of this and
we need to be around more of this for it to stick.
That is why community is so important
because when we witness morally good behavior,
we tend to want more of it and replicate more of it.
That is why a group like the scouts are so important.
We celebrate them this morning and highlight their efforts.
They gather together to do good works,
and then they see it modeled by their scout masters.
And then they repeat it, and then they become like them,
and we get the infamous term,
“You are just like a boy scout, right?”
It is meant to be a put down,
but it is actually a compliment
because if you are a “boy scout,”
then you are doing something morally right!
We have witnessed it and in some ways it is very powerful.
But it is not just Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts!
We as Christians are called to this consistent behavior.
We are called to witness to this in our life.
The reason why this is so important is
because you see it in today's scripture.
Jesus performs this very first miracle in Mark's gospel
with Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.
Now, it was so overwhelmingly contagious
that people who saw it wanted more of it.
They brought the whole town to the door
because they were seeking to replicate it.
Then he went away to pray, to recharge himself,
and they were looking for more.
You can see how it is contagious, even in those days.
And with Jesus a number of followers just kept on following
because there was something good that happened there.
How else could you explain that?
Jesus comes along and says to Simon Peter come and follow me.
And they drop their nets and they come and follow him
because there was something happening
that was beyond even their own desire.
They are neurologically saying, “Wow,
there is something special about this guy.
I need to follow him.
I need to replicate what he is doing.”
You see that is the sort of community we want to be,
this community that sees good moral actions
and then replicate them.
It is one of the reasons why we come to church on Sundays,
to be around other people who are of like mind
and want to replicate this behavior in our lives.
But it goes beyond just coming to church here
and celebrating at this Eucharist.
We are we are called to go beyond that
and actually model and witness that behavior in our own lives
so that others will see that and say,
where are they going or where do they get what they are doing?
Where do they get the strength to do that?
Jesus models this behavior for us
because what does he do after having healed and administered to people?
He gets up early in the morning and prays.
How important that is if Jesus, the Son of God
needs to pray and recharge himself,
then we as disciples need to be honest and say like,
are we going to be better than Jesus
that we can do without that personal connection?
No, we need to be men and women and boys and girls of prayer,
and we need to, to do it every day, not just on a Sunday.
We come to recharge ourselves so that
we can give example to others, we can witness to our faith.
We cannot witness to that which we do not have the strength to do.
It is not that we just do it inside our community of St. Simon's,
we are called to be that witness in the whole of Silicon Valley,
beyond these doors, beyond these walls and,
and into the greater community.
It is what we stand for as the Catholic Church in Silicon Valley,
a witness to all as so that all are drawn by this good behavior.
We are constantly at work as a greater Catholic community to do it.
Today we begin our, our annual ADA appeal,
and we recognize how we are
one Catholic Community of Santa Clara County
and how we are called to witness this behavior
by helping other parish communities.
Now I am going to invite John Gemmetti,
who is on our finance committee to speak a little bit
about the Annual Diocesan Appeal and share some thoughts on that.
“Good morning, everyone.
Taking some inspiration from Father Brendan. I am going to try my best to, to keep this under four minutes!
My name is John Gemmetti, and if my voice sounds familiar to you,
that is good as that probably means you attend mass pretty regularly
because I have been a lector here for five years since I joined the parish.
Today, however, instead of reading the first or second reading
or the petitions, I am honored to be speaking you today
as St. Simon's chairperson for the 2024 Annual Diocesan Appeal.
This year's ADA theme is “Supporting the mission together.”
The theme echoes the collaborative spirit that defines
St. Simon's Parish and the Diocese of San Jose.
Through the ADA, we have an opportunity to embrace
the theme of togetherness, to support one another
as we testify who God is in our lives,
and to seek to be Christ's lamplighters
that will leave a legacy and a trail of love
for all Catholics throughout our Silicon Valley community to see.
In the coming weeks, you will have the opportunity
to contribute to this collective effort.
We have had an excellent track record in recent years
in surpassing our parish goals,
and I know Father Brendan and I are extremely confident
that we will surpass our goals once again this year.
The funds raised through your generous support
will play a crucial role in supporting the various ministries,
programs and initiatives that will make the San Jose Diocese flourish.
Contributions to the ADA will benefit our own community, but also others.
You may recall in 2023, we extended a helping hand
to Christ the King Parish in South San Jose.
Through the generosity of our parishioners,
we were able to provide them more than $50,000.
They face unique challenges.
For example, they have 11 masses on Sunday, but only two priests.
Our contribution assisted them in expanding their ministries
and meeting the spiritual needs of their community.
This year, our parish goal is $266,000 like last year.
All funds over our goal will be directed
towards supporting Christ the King Parish and their mission.
I invite you all to prayerfully consider how you can contribute
to this year's appeal, whether through
your financial support, your time, and your talents,
or through the power of your prayers.
Each of you will receiving a brochure and a letter from Father Brendan
with further details about ways to contribute.
And we also have copies of the brochure and the pews today.
Feel free to take one home.
There are many ways to give, and it takes practically no time at all.
You can give online via QR code or directly online at dsj.org/ada.
We also have a banner up today in the, the donut room.
And the QR code is actually on that banner.
That is going to link you to the site where you can contribute.
It is so quick and easy.
You can probably scan and contribute from the time
it takes to get your phone out and scan it.
By the time you have walked back to your car,
you could have completed your contribution.
You can also bring your contribution to mass.
You can put in the offertory baskets.
We also accept stock or IRA contributions.
You can become a sustaining donor by creating an online gift
that will recur each year.
I really want to challenge all of you in the workforce
to check with your company's human resources department
to see if they have a matching gift program.
It is such a low effort, high reward way
to potentially generate extra contributions
from companies here in Silicon Valley.
On behalf of myself, Father Brendan, Father Tuc, Father Chris,
in the spirit of unity and generosity guide us in the year ahead
as we support the mission together.
I will be outside after Mass for any questions you may have.
Thank you all for your time.
So why give to the ADA?
Because we want to witness to our faith in the larger community.
We want to give action to our faith and hopefully others will see
and mirror our behavior through our witness.
Whether in word, deed or action,
may we act in faith and bring healing to others.
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