am I absolutely poor?

Homily

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time C2

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

3 July 2022

Independence Day Weekend

AMDG

Am I absolutely poor?

I don't know how long you've been listening to the Gospel, but there's no way around this question.  It keeps coming from Jesus, over and over.  It arrives again today.  Am I absolutely poor?

He asks for my good.  He thirsts for my faith.  For the Kingdom of Heaven can only be entered through faith, by those who are available, detached, ready, open, vulnerable, empty and generous. He sends the 72 in just this way.  He wants to send you in just this way.  His Kingdom cannot be lived if I am attached, addicted, afraid of losing, trying to control, manage and figure out my life.

Am I absolutely poor?

I'm sorry folks.  It's the only way.  It's how Jesus lived, hand to mouth, owning nothing.  It's how he instructs us in true freedom.  My life can only grow in the measure I give it away.  Every gift hoarded is lost.  Every gift given is multiplied.  You cannot be a disciple without also being a missionary.  There is no faith without action.  Most of all, the only way to be a missionary is through poverty.

The biggest criticism of the pro-life movement is that pro-lifers don't put their money where their mouth is, that there couldn't possibly be enough care for every child who is born.  I take this criticism with a grain of salt, for skeptics are impossible to satisfy.

Still, Jesus invites us win or lose, to put it all out there.  I was blessed last weekend to witness a Jayhawk vow poverty with the Sisters of Life in New York, an order that wants to own nothing but the chance to walk with moms struggling to choose life for their children. I was not merely inspired by Sr. Miriam's Bethel's vow of poverty, I felt small knowing how much I hoard what I have.

Am I absolutely poor?

The laborers are few because all of us in some way calculate what I'm willing to give, and what is not going to work, instead of simply trusting the path Jesus has invited us on for our own good.

Each of us will live poverty in our own way, not recklessly, but yes absolutely.  Everything I have that I do not need or am not using is a gift that comes with the responsibility to place it at the service of the Gospel of Life and the Kingdom of Heaven.

It's how I will be truly free, through poverty.  The freedom we celebrate in the US this weekend is like any gift.  It can only grow the the measure it is given away.  May I celebrate this weekend not a freedom from anybody getting in my way, but a freedom to give my life to someone I believe in.

To do that well, I have to be absolutely poor.  The Gospel of Life could not be clearer.

Am I absolutely poor?