Homily
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time B
15 July 2012
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
Audio
The gospel of Jesus' sending of the first apostles is not just a chance for us to remember the foundations of our Church. No, in a very personal and real way, it is a chance for us to reconnect with our mission in life ,a mission that is in every way for each of us and for all of us, apostolic. When we talk about the mission of the first apostles, we talk about three things - they were sent to teach, to sanctify and to rule. They were sent to announce the Gospel, to drive out evil and to make God's kingdom more visible and real. This apostolic mission has remain unchanged for thousands of years now, carried on by the bishops of the Catholic Church, the unbroken successors of the apostles. This is the simple mission of the Church, lest we get confused about what the Church really does. It is simple - the Church, teaches, sanctifies and governs. By the Church, I mean not only the bishops, I mean all of us. The bishop is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the mission of the Church is accomplished, and his priests are his closest helpers, but his ministry is ultimately at the service of our mission. The bishop doesn't do the work of the Church for us, he animates our work, for we have all been baptized as priest, prophet and king.
So Jesus' sending in today's Gospel should remind us of our baptismal grace and of our confirmation, through which we received the fullness of God's Spirit to do these very things. And there are no excuses for not doing them, for without cost we have all received our status as God's beloved and graced children, so without cost we are to give. God can call anyone, and indeed he calls everyone, as Amos attests to in today's first reading. Amos was just a dresser of sycamores, a tree man, and nothing more, and yet the Lord called him to prophesy to the strongest in Israel. So none of us has an excuse. Instead of accepting our excuses, Jesus gives us instructions so that if we have stopped teaching the Gospel by our words and example, if we have stopped in our struggle against evil, or if we have stopped building up God's kingdom, we may start again.
The first thing Jesus says is that we are to go out two by two at the very least. It is true that the world is changed more by heroes, prophets and saints than by committee meetings, but Christianity is not ultimately an individualistic religion. Jesus from the beginning forms a communion of persons and his Church is never a collection of individuals but always a mystical body, an organism. In living out our apostolic mission in life, it is never our mission to start our own church, for Christianity only makes sense if there is one church, the one church Jesus founded, and no others. It is rarely our mission to seek holiness alone or to go on mission alone, for ultimately Christianity is not a me project, it's a we project. If our sense of mission in life does not work together in the Church with others, or doesn't attract others, then it is not apostolic. It is not from God. We reject many guys who want to go to seminary simply because they are doing their own thing in life, and are not heavily involved in their local parish. Christianity is not a religion of loners working on their own thing. Jesus sends us out two by two.
The second thing Jesus says is that we are to go out poor. Imagine going on your next trip with no wallet and no suitcase. What we will find, of course, is that the more poor, vulnerable and dependent we are, the more we are able to see God at work and to trust in his divine providence. Christianity can never be ultimately about seeking security, insurance and self-sufficiency. No, it is a radical dependence and focus upon God and others. This summer, I gave three KU college students and three of our seminarians at our inner city prayer and action mission in KCK the task of trying to feed 60 high school kids for 5 days with $500. That's less than $10 a week or $2 a day, and yes, there were lots of hungry boys in the group. I gave them an impossible task, but by the end of the fourth week of our prayer and action mission experience, the group only spent $200 a week. By asking for help, and letting people know what we were doing, the group realized how many resources were out there. Even though we were in a poor area of Kansas City, Kansas painting houses and doing yardwork, still the donations kept coming in, and we had to give our leftover to someone else.
Thirdly, Jesus says to stay in the same place until we leave. I have to admit, that for quite a while, I laughed at this line in the Gospel, like it was a mistranslation or the most redundant and least helpful phrase in the Bible. I usually dismissed the line as unimportant. But I've had others explain to me that Jesus is giving great advice here, against people who always think the grass is greener on the other side. This is a spiritual mistake, to think that if this or that external circumstance is changed, then I will be holy. We often times feel limited where we are, when the truth is there is every opportunity to love and to preach, sanctify and build up in the exact circumstances in which we find ourselves. So we find in the end that this is profound spiritual advice. Stay where you are until you leave. It means, I think, that unless we find a way to be holy where we are right now, we'll find the same excuses in the next place as well.
May the Lord's good advice and instructions take away our excuses for not fulfilling the apostolic mission he has entrusted to each one of us. Instead of shying away from it, let us embrace it again joyfully, and find new ways to teach by what we say and do, to battle against evil with all our heart, mind and strength, and so drive it out of the world, and to make God's kingdom more real and visible through our service in the Church. Amen.
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time B
15 July 2012
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
Audio
The gospel of Jesus' sending of the first apostles is not just a chance for us to remember the foundations of our Church. No, in a very personal and real way, it is a chance for us to reconnect with our mission in life ,a mission that is in every way for each of us and for all of us, apostolic. When we talk about the mission of the first apostles, we talk about three things - they were sent to teach, to sanctify and to rule. They were sent to announce the Gospel, to drive out evil and to make God's kingdom more visible and real. This apostolic mission has remain unchanged for thousands of years now, carried on by the bishops of the Catholic Church, the unbroken successors of the apostles. This is the simple mission of the Church, lest we get confused about what the Church really does. It is simple - the Church, teaches, sanctifies and governs. By the Church, I mean not only the bishops, I mean all of us. The bishop is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the mission of the Church is accomplished, and his priests are his closest helpers, but his ministry is ultimately at the service of our mission. The bishop doesn't do the work of the Church for us, he animates our work, for we have all been baptized as priest, prophet and king.
So Jesus' sending in today's Gospel should remind us of our baptismal grace and of our confirmation, through which we received the fullness of God's Spirit to do these very things. And there are no excuses for not doing them, for without cost we have all received our status as God's beloved and graced children, so without cost we are to give. God can call anyone, and indeed he calls everyone, as Amos attests to in today's first reading. Amos was just a dresser of sycamores, a tree man, and nothing more, and yet the Lord called him to prophesy to the strongest in Israel. So none of us has an excuse. Instead of accepting our excuses, Jesus gives us instructions so that if we have stopped teaching the Gospel by our words and example, if we have stopped in our struggle against evil, or if we have stopped building up God's kingdom, we may start again.
The first thing Jesus says is that we are to go out two by two at the very least. It is true that the world is changed more by heroes, prophets and saints than by committee meetings, but Christianity is not ultimately an individualistic religion. Jesus from the beginning forms a communion of persons and his Church is never a collection of individuals but always a mystical body, an organism. In living out our apostolic mission in life, it is never our mission to start our own church, for Christianity only makes sense if there is one church, the one church Jesus founded, and no others. It is rarely our mission to seek holiness alone or to go on mission alone, for ultimately Christianity is not a me project, it's a we project. If our sense of mission in life does not work together in the Church with others, or doesn't attract others, then it is not apostolic. It is not from God. We reject many guys who want to go to seminary simply because they are doing their own thing in life, and are not heavily involved in their local parish. Christianity is not a religion of loners working on their own thing. Jesus sends us out two by two.
The second thing Jesus says is that we are to go out poor. Imagine going on your next trip with no wallet and no suitcase. What we will find, of course, is that the more poor, vulnerable and dependent we are, the more we are able to see God at work and to trust in his divine providence. Christianity can never be ultimately about seeking security, insurance and self-sufficiency. No, it is a radical dependence and focus upon God and others. This summer, I gave three KU college students and three of our seminarians at our inner city prayer and action mission in KCK the task of trying to feed 60 high school kids for 5 days with $500. That's less than $10 a week or $2 a day, and yes, there were lots of hungry boys in the group. I gave them an impossible task, but by the end of the fourth week of our prayer and action mission experience, the group only spent $200 a week. By asking for help, and letting people know what we were doing, the group realized how many resources were out there. Even though we were in a poor area of Kansas City, Kansas painting houses and doing yardwork, still the donations kept coming in, and we had to give our leftover to someone else.
Thirdly, Jesus says to stay in the same place until we leave. I have to admit, that for quite a while, I laughed at this line in the Gospel, like it was a mistranslation or the most redundant and least helpful phrase in the Bible. I usually dismissed the line as unimportant. But I've had others explain to me that Jesus is giving great advice here, against people who always think the grass is greener on the other side. This is a spiritual mistake, to think that if this or that external circumstance is changed, then I will be holy. We often times feel limited where we are, when the truth is there is every opportunity to love and to preach, sanctify and build up in the exact circumstances in which we find ourselves. So we find in the end that this is profound spiritual advice. Stay where you are until you leave. It means, I think, that unless we find a way to be holy where we are right now, we'll find the same excuses in the next place as well.
May the Lord's good advice and instructions take away our excuses for not fulfilling the apostolic mission he has entrusted to each one of us. Instead of shying away from it, let us embrace it again joyfully, and find new ways to teach by what we say and do, to battle against evil with all our heart, mind and strength, and so drive it out of the world, and to make God's kingdom more real and visible through our service in the Church. Amen.
