ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF YEAR "A"

ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Cycle “A”: Mt 9, 36-10,8

Introduction:              Life can get so tangled and confusing that we lose the vision of purpose and the grand design. We need God to tell us why we are here, not because we do not believe, but because we need to be reassured and called to remembrance by a voice that sounds like love. Let us ask God to speak to us in such ways as please him, and that in his words to us we may obtain courage for hard times, and strength for difficult places, and determination for challenging tasks. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.

THE HOMILY:

Jesus knew the importance of calling a person by name for a particular task or mission. We know from experience the difference this makes. How much more energy is generated when we are asked to do a task, not because we happen to be at the right place at the right moment, but because we have been specially selected! We are energized when people know us as tried-and-trusted and recognise our expertise, at least our potential for the task ahead. Of course, responding to an emergency also gives you a good feeling. If someone collapses in the church (possibly during the sermon), the person who puts her in the recovery position and the one who runs to call the emergency service are of equal value. Both have helped to save a life and are glad to have been on the spot. Much harder it is to be the eternal stopgap, the person on whom others fall back only if all else fails. (The same willing horses get the whipping).

In today’s Gospel, the evangelist Mathew sets the scene by commenting that Jesus, on seeing the crowds, takes pity on them. His heart goes out to his people wandering in a spiritual wilderness. What can be done, he wonders? Then he remembers his faithful Twelve, already specially called by name, with all their faults and failings as well as their talents. So he gives them the authority to teach, to exorcise and to heal. A tall order but one to which all of them proves equal, including Judas Iscariot, his future traitor. Nowhere are we told that the tasks assigned these men are badly executed. Considering their lack of specific training, they hold up very well. When Jesus called them and they responded, he took everything away from them but filled the gap with two things: his power and his peace of mind. And they’re worth having.

The apostles’ mission, like that of the Master, will be a compassionate response to the crying needs of the people and a continuation of Jesus’ re-creative and saving activity. A non-compassionate church is not worth belonging to. A church that cannot feel with and for the people is a travesty. In modern times the church has become more compassionate and less authoritarian. Let me give you one example. Till about 60 years ago, if you were running a Catholic hospital which had some Protestant patients, you were strictly forbidden under pain of mortal sin to call a Protestant pastor to minister to their needs. Now the rule is just the opposite: now you are gravely obliged to inform the ministers of the other faiths. How did this change take place? Very simple. Sin or no sin, the Catholic staff and priests kept on breaking the old rule they considered harsh and inhumane. So they kept on inviting non-Catholic ministers to pray over their non-Catholic patients and give them Holy Communion. One day the official Church woke up to realise that it could not reverse the trend, and so changed the rule. My dear friends, all religions converge on a common humanity that needs healing and enhancing.

But what about the chosen people of the Old Testament?  Yahweh chooses his people freely from all the nations as his treasured property. This does not mean that the other nations are neglected or overlooked. Israel, in fact, is chosen in view of the other nations: it is not an exclusive choice. Israel’s election was an election for service, not for privilege. The Catholic Church is the promised fulfilment of the Israel of old, and has no meaning unless turned towards the world in compassion and service.

My dear friends, you can read the Acts of the Apostles to recognise the powerful role of the lay people in the early church. The laity’s role is being emphasised very much in church teaching today. There is an urgent need today for a reawakening of the laity in this regard. Happily, this task has begun, but much more needs to be done  - a task to which priests have to give serious attention. Priests also need awakening, sometimes a rude one!

Let me emphasise Jesus’ first command to would-be disciples, and that is, “Pray!” 

Prayer lets us begin to see as Jesus saw, to love as Jesus loved; to serve, after a fashion, as Jesus served. Prayer opens our eyes to see fields white unto harvest with God’s children oppressed and harassed and shepherdless souls, not flint for our self-righteousness. It is prayer that opens our ears to hear whether God calls us into service of those souls or whether we might be listening to another voice. It is prayer that opens our hearts as well as our hands and gives us both the humility and the authority to continue the incarnation of Jesus Christ in a world so in need of a Saviour. It is prayer that gives us a memory of the Word, a hope for the kingdom, and the real presence of Christ in our work.

PRAYER: (Graham Kendrick)

Jesus, stand among us at the meeting our lives,

be our sweet agreement at the meeting our eyes;

O Jesus, we love you, so we gather here,

join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.

Lord, the light of your love is shining,

in the midst of the darkness shining:

Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us;

set us free by the truth you now bring us –

shine on me, shine on me.

Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land

with the Father’s glory,

flood the nations with grace and mercy;

send forth your Word, Lord,

and let there be light.