Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, France, Jul 26, 2021 / 09:00 am
Catholic Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen celebrated a Mass on Monday marking the fifth anniversary of the murder of Fr. Jacques Hamel in a terrorist attack.
The Mass took place at the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, in northern France, where Hamel was killed by supporters of the Islamic State during Mass on July 26, 2016.
In his homily, based on the day’s Gospel reading, Lebrun said: “The Kingdom of God is built from the smallest of seeds or a little leaven. How can we not think of Fr. Jacques Hamel, an anti-celebrity priest, working in a parish that was apparently little-noticed, who sowed by his presence, by his welcome, by his preaching?”
“It takes time, the time of the plant that grows, the time of the leaven that makes the dough rise. Time is an ally. We are only at the fifth anniversary, if I dare say so.”