Homily - 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) (2018)

Last Sunday afternoon, I attended an event hosted by the Diocese on Living as Missionary Disciples. The speaker reminded us that our primary purpose as Christians is to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. For another day I will share more about what I learned – however, I am excited to say that what we’re doing in this parish is pretty remarkable to promote living as missionary disciples. Anyhow, as I sat through the presentation and reflected on it over the following days, I kept coming back to the first principle of living as missionary disciple: the need for a renewed encounter with Jesus Christ or at least an openness to such an encounter. And I’m convinced that this is the starting point, truly the foundation, for our response to the crisis facing our church today, as well as the crisis we experience in our families and our own personal lives. In the midst of the chaos, the anger, the frustration, the hurt, the disappointment, the embarrassment that we may feel in the wake of this recent crisis, my friends, there is HOPE. It is Jesus Christ who knows us and loves us personally and intimately. It is Jesus Christ who wants nothing more than for us to know God‘s great love, and the peace and joy that comes from being in this relationship. It is Jesus Christ who so much wants us to know and experience this love that he was willing to suffer and die for us. It is in this encounter with the person of Jesus Christ that brings us meaning and purpose, joy and peace, and yes hope in the midst of crisis. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Recall the exchange between Jesus and Peter in last week’s Gospel: as Jesus’ disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him, Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God." Or the wonderful words of Saint Augustine of Hippo that Father John reference last week: “because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.” And pulling from today’s second reading: God willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls - Jesus Christ. And one last quote that I heard beautifully last Sunday at the workshop on evangelization - It is impossible to persevere in a fervent evangelization unless we are convinced from personal experience that is it not the same thing to have known Jesus as not to have known him, not the same thing to walk with him as to walk blindly, not the same thing to hear his word as not to know it, and not the same thing to contemplate him, to worship, him to find our peace in him, as not to. This encounter is more than simply following set of rules. Rules are good and important - and today’s first reading reminds us that God gives us rules out of love to help us. And Christ instituted the Church to further help us. But as Jesus reminds us in today’s gospel, the rules are not the end, but a means to the end - that end being this incredible love relationship with God.   And that is why Jesus‘ words spoken two thousand years ago, echoing words spoken many, many years before that, get to the heart of the crisis facing our Church, our families, and our personal lives. “Well did Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites, as it is written: this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me...“ As one of the Alpha testimonials shared last weekend: we must move Christ from our head to our heart – only then will we know what is right and true. See, when we experience and live in this loving and intimate encounter with Jesus Christ, we want nothing more and nothing less! So it is good that we are here to experience our living God in this faith community, and the Sacred Scripture that was just read, and in the Eucharist we are soon to share. And then, echoing the words of today’s second reading, we can leave our gathering today strengthened to be doers of the word and not hearers only, because as the author continues: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. If you are full of emotions and uncertainty about the crisis facing our Church, you are not alone. I believe that it is nothing less than Satan in the Church working to destroy its greatest threat: the Body of Christ, and things may get worse before they get better. I do pray that there will be justice for our shepherds of the church you have failed us, as well as reconciliation and peace for the victims and their families. And, in the meantime, I believe we can find hope, even peace, now in Jesus Christ. With that last point in mind, this week I invite you to do one additional thing to encounter Christ new or differently. Having celebrated Mass today, this coming week: Go to daily mass. Pray Lectio Divina - you can find it on our parish website. Go to adoration this Thursday - even for just a couple minutes. Go to confession and experience the grace and peace of the sacrament of reconciliation. Practice the corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, cloth the naked, comfort the homeless, visit the imprisoned and the sick, and pray for the dead. Remember what we just sung together: The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord. My friends, take great comfort and strength and your personal encounter with our living God Jesus Christ today at this Mass and every day this week. May God bless you.