Saturday, June 27, 2020

A Missionary Discourse - Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary TIme, Year A


 A link to a video of the Mass where I preached this homily is included below.

          My father liked to walk, a lot, so we Meyers walked a lot.  Fortunately, I like to walk a lot, too.  One of my favorite things to do when I was in school in Washington was walking around the city to visit the many monuments and statues and learn something about historic figures whose stories have faded over time.  You can imagine, then, that I’ve been following the controversy over taking down statues pretty closely.  I’m not going to get into the politics or the emotions of all of that, but I do want to talk about an embedded narrative that emerged earlier this week that speaks directly to the message of today’s readings—our roles as Christ’s missionaries to the world.

         After statues of Saint Junipero Serra were toppled in San Francisco, Ventura, and Los Angeles, the bishops of California issued a strong letter condemning the actions as lacking the discernment of Serra’s entire contribution to history.  Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary of Los Angeles, posted the letter on his social media sites and received many positive comments.  But there was also a notable number of comments that essentially said, “Making a statement is all fine and good, but what are you and the other bishops going to do about it?”[1]  Bishop Barron quickly responded on Twitter, “That’s the laity’s job.  You are meant to sanctify the public space. . . .  Vatican II taught that the secular arena belongs to the laity.”[2]  What does he mean by that?

         Whether clergy or laity, we’re all baptized priests, prophets, and kings (or queens, if you prefer).  As Saint Paul tells us in our second reading, we die with Christ in baptism so that we may also live with him in the newness of his life—his life as priest, prophet, and king.  So in baptism, we’re given three jobs to do for the rest of our lives—we’re called to sanctify, to teach, and to govern, respectively the jobs of priests, prophets and kings.  “Baptism is a life-changing event.”[3]

While both clergy and laity are priests, prophets, and kings, we exercise our roles in different ways and largely in different realms—the clergy predominantly in the Church, and the laity predominantly in the world.  Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, is very clear on this point.  I quote:

What specifically characterizes the laity is their secular nature.  It is true that those in holy orders can at times be engaged in secular activities, and even have a secular profession. But they are by reason of their particular vocation especially and professedly ordained to the sacred ministry. . . .  But the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations.  They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven.  They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven.[4]

While the responsibilities of clergy and laity overlap, the laity’s primary responsibility is carrying the Good News of Jesus Christ into the world.  You are Christ’s missionaries to the world! You are called, as our Psalm so beautifully puts it, to “Forever sing the goodness of the Lord” out in the streets.  How do we do this?  Let’s look at our readings.

         Today’s Gospel is our third and final installment from Matthew Chapter 10, known as the Missionary Discourse, where Jesus instructs the disciples before sending them out into the world to proclaim the Good News.  In today’s passage, Jesus explains the conditions and rewards of discipleship, and, together with our other readings, gives us insight into what it takes to be Christ’s missionaries to the world. “This reading is one of our many reminders that Christianity is much more than an armchair activity or a prie-dieu proposition.”[5]  Jesus explains that the life of the missionary involves grand gestures, like taking up a cross—suffering, and rejection—but it also involves simple acts of kindness, like receiving and welcoming the stranger and giving a cup of cold water to the little ones.  We see a great example of this in our first reading.  Sure, we all know that Elisha is a missionary of God, but what about the Shunammite woman?  She is too.  She welcomes the prophet, gives him food and drink, and even builds a room for him so he’ll always have a comfortable place to rest as he continues his mission.

         Being missionaries of Christ isn’t a matter of claiming turf or competing for airtime.  It’s a cooperative effort where all of the people of God use our respective talents and varied walks of life to order and sanctify the world by living and proclaiming the Gospel in our daily lives. Whether we’re doctors, lawyers, teachers, students, scientists, engineers, stay-at-home parents, first responders, military, priests, or even deacons, we all have a role to play as missionaries of Christ.  At times, we’ll be called to take on big, pressing issues—we seem to have no shortage of them these days.  But we can never forget, that even the smallest considerate gesture offers eternal reward[6] and may well be the very first step in tackling those big, pressing issues.

         I like to walk a lot, and I especially like to walk early in the morning while praying the rosary.  This past week, I walked along River Road in Franklin Township, and over a 4-day period, I passed maybe 40 people in total, two of whom were parishioners, the rest strangers, walking, jogging, or biking.  Thirty-eight out of 40 of them, 95 percent, greeted me as we passed each other.  You’ll be happy to know that both parishioners greeted me.  Otherwise, they’d be the subject of a very different homily. Some of the people said good morning to me; some waved; one flashed me the peace sign; and two asked me to pray for them.  I don’t know if it was my debonair good looks, my alluring personality, or the rosary clenched in my hand that caught their eyes, but I do know that they were Christ’s missionaries to the world who offered me a moment of spiritual communion and a glimpse of God’s Kingdom in their own unique ways.  They made my day and gave me great hope for humanity.  That’s the role of the missionary.





[1] Robert Barron, “Why ‘What Are the Bishops Doing About It?’ Is the Wrong Question,” Word on Fire, June 24, 2020, https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/why-what-are-the-bishops-doing-about-it-is-the-wrong-question/27757/.
[2] Robert Barron, Twitter, June 22, 2020.
[3] Elizabeth M. Nagel, Elaine Park, Mary Pat Healy, Workbook for Lectors, Gospel Readers, and Proclaimers of the Word, 2020, Year A (Chicago, Liturgy Training Publications, 2019), 204.
[4] The Second Vatican Council, “The Dogmatic Constitution of the Church – Lumen gentium,” Vatican City (November 21, 1964), https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html, 31.
[5] Mary M. McGlone, “Love Makes Us Worthy,” National Catholic Reporter, vol. 56, no. 18 (June 12-25, 2020), 19.
[6] Nagle, Park, Healy, 206.

No comments:

Post a Comment

God is listening . . . comment accordingly.