The 14th. SUNDAY (Year C)
(Isaiah 66:10-14;
Galatians 6:14-18; St. Luke 10:1-12, 17-20)
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In our first two readings we were given an appreciation of
the essential character of Mother Church: she is -- and we her children are -- according
to St. Paul:
A new
creation.
Recalling St. Augustine’s jubilation for Eastertide, we can
truly say that for a new creation there must be appropriately new nourishment,
as the great prophet Isaiah himself foreshadow long ago by saying:
Rejoice with (Mother Church)
and be glad because of her: Suck fully of the milk of her comfort; carried in
her arms … may your hearts rejoice and your bodies flourish;
for even Isaiah could not conceive of God’s faithful being
nourished by the very Body and Blood of His only begotten and most-beloved Son
made flesh.
Now, in the Gospel reading we heard of the Lord Jesus sending
out seventy-two disciples to proclaim the Kingdom
of God in His name; seventy-two followers who had learned to delight in their
proximity and communion with Jesus and the strength it afforded them: a
proximity and joy that should be our present-day experience in Mother Church.
He sent (them) ahead of Him
in pairs to every town and place He Himself intended to visit.
Their instructions were both simple and firm: first of all,
they were being sent in Jesus’ name, they were not beggars; moreover,
they had a clear message to proclaim, they were not to be pleaders or cajolers:
Into whatever house you
enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person
lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to
you. Stay in the same house and
eat and drink what is offered to you, for the labourer deserves his payment. Do
not move about from one house to another.
Whatever town you enter and
they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to
them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’
As you can see Jesus wanted His disciples to be
single-minded and sincere: they were not to seek money, but neither should they
be embarrassed about accepting whatever the house or town could offer by way of
food and drink, for "the labourer deserves his payment".
Jesus likewise desired that they should be humble, but in
no way lacking confidence in their mission: for their message was from the
Lord, not from their own imagination or fancy.
In His name they were to announce a fact: namely, that
"The Kingdom of God is at hand for you"; and to those willing to
listen to their message they were to bestow a special Gift from the Lord: 'Peace to this household.'
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today, I read at Mass
a passage from the prophet Amos (3:1-8; 4:11-12) which I suggest you read for
yourselves if you were not at Mass today, Tuesday of the 13th.
Sunday), because we never hear anything like that in the universal Church these
days.
Mother Church today almost exclusively speaks words of
peace with and for the world; words expected of her by the powers that be, no
matter what evils are openly being committed by men. Neither does she interpret anything as a sign
from God as did the prophets of old! Has
prophetic interpretation come to an end in the Church? Has God no way of addressing, warning, men
other than through channels closed to whatever is not welcome to modern men, be
they religious or worldly? For no matter
what portents afflict mankind, even a lethal, world-wide, pandemic lasting for
years; or ice-melting on mountain glaciers and in polar oceans, causing sea-levels
to rise all over the world; while earth’s temperature rises causing climatic
changes threatening food resources and human health; in all these things Church leaders seem to say
only what the world expects them, or their own fears allow them, to say.
Natural, though by no means normal, events which the prophets
in our Scriptures thought demanded -- as communications from God -- to
be explained and interpreted for the people, provoke no word of warning for our
sinful and proud, deliberately-levelling-down-to-satisfy-all world. Even a presidential promoter of abortion by words
and official deeds is allowed to play the part of a ‘Communicating-Catholic’. What
would have happened to Mother Church had Saint Ambrose thought in such ways?
Jesus did not want His disciples either to seek people's
approval, or to hold back in their proclamation of His Gospel for fear of
disapproval, and therefore He assured them:
Whoever listens to you
listens to Me. Whoever rejects you rejects Me, and the One who sent Me.”
You can imagine how thrilled the disciples must have been
when their mission proved to be a great success: the Lord gave the Word and
great was the company of unseen angels contributing towards the accomplishment
of the work; the disciples, to their amazement, simply gathered in the
harvest. Despite their initial fears --
arising from the awareness of their own incapacity -- they found that, in all
their endeavours for the Lord, they had, most assuredly, been given:
Power to trample on serpents
and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy, (so that) nothing would
harm (them).
No wonder then that they "returned rejoicing!” Why, even the demons had been subject to
them in the name of Jesus! They were, indeed, amazed, thrilled, and astounded!!
However, notice what Jesus said in response to their
enthusiasm:
Do not rejoice because the
spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
And that is what St. Paul had in mind when, as you heard,
he wrote:
May I never boast except in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified
to me, and I to the world.
St. Paul loved to teach his converts that belief in Jesus,
together with baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, makes us members of the Body of Christ.
He believed this so firmly, and understood it so concretely, that he
could then go on to say that, having become members of His Body, we too, therefore,
have been crucified in Him and with Him:
Through the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
Let us just try to understand what this meant for
Paul. In his contemplation of this union
between Christ and the believer, Paul -- absorbed in divine truth and filled
with an overwhelming desire to respond to and co-operate with the Father’s
calling -- had been led to recognize that:
In Christ Jesus neither does
circumcision mean anything nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation.
No earthly power or pride can save us from the destructive
power of sin; only the totally gracious gift of God’s Spirit in response to
Jesus’ self-sacrificing love on Calvary can bring us salvation.
Paul had been granted the insight that, -- through the
power of Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension -- we, who as
baptized believers have become members of His Body are a new creation, have
also -- by the power of His Spirit -- risen heavenwards with Him. We still live in, and experience, our
weakness on earth; but we are now endowed with a share in Jesus’ heavenly life,
a share that enables us to live, henceforth, in a more heavenly way for
heavenly prospects. Paul tells us that
if one must boast, one should boast about what the Lord Jesus has done for us
on the Cross, in His Resurrection, and by the gift of His Spirit. Circumcision means nothing: that is, personal
pride in one’s own holiness gained by legalistic observance of a written Law,
and national pride in the exclusiveness of one’s birth; all that means nothing
Paul says. Uncircumcision too means
nothing: the ancient Greeks' boasting in their superior wisdom, the Romans'
vaunting of their worldly power, the modern super-powers with their super-bombs
and missiles, all that too, ultimately, means nothing.
For a Christian there can be only one cause for boasting:
what Christ has done for us and for all who are willing to accept Him as Lord,
and to obey His Spirit bequeathed to us in Mother Church, the only power on
which we can surely rely:
There are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit who works all in all; (for) one and the same Spirit
works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
(1 Corinthians 12: 6, 11)
He is, indeed, the Spirit of Glory, Who alone can ensure
our names "are written in heaven".
Therefore, People of God, we are encouraged today, by the
prophet Isaiah, to rejoice in Mother Church: the Church Our Lord continually sustains,
promotes, and protects through the working of His Spirit, so that, as He
originally and enduringly intends, we may ever be able to drink deeply of, and
find delight in, the abundance He gives her.
We are encouraged to rejoice in such a way over Mother
Church because, as Isaiah foretold, it is in her and through her that:
The Lord’s power shall be
known to His servants.
For, though scarred and disfigured by the sins of both high
and low: by her hierarchy, by her ‘basic’ priests and ‘common’ people; though mocked
and hated, ignored and abused, by a lustful and willful world all around, Mother
Church is mankind’s only authentic meeting-place with God, thanks to His
enduring faithfulness to us in Jesus.
In her, however, Jesus always meets us on His terms, not on
ours: He lovingly condescends, comes
down, to meet with us; we do not in any way compel or require Him. Above all, He comes thus freely and lovingly
when, at Holy Mass, we do what He requires of us ‘in memory of Him’.
And this most sublime fulfilment comes our way today when,
in response to His command, we assemble as one on His Sabbath Day, to offer
worship, praise and honour, glory and thanks to God our Father. On this glad occasion we share in the
heavenly and eternal liturgy being celebrated by our High Priest and Saviour. Here, He does indeed come to us Personally, in
the Eucharist, and draws us, by His Gift of the Spirit, ever more and more with
Himself towards the Father. He inspires
and enflames us with that Love which makes Him one with the Father and the
Spirit; that Triune Fire of eternal Love which is the glory and the very Being
of God, and which can – O wonder of wonders! -- be shared by us in Jesus
as life everlasting. A communion both
total and fulfilling, with what sublimely transcends us: the Almighty God,
hidden, yet humble and so very, very, good.
A communion causing us joy ever more fresh and fulfilling; a communion bestowing
on us a peace beyond all previous awareness or present conception; a communion
where both deep personal contrition and transfiguring delight in God can calmly
embrace us and each other.
