Ordinary 14

The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 66:10–14c; Psalm 66; Galatians 6:14–18; Luke 10:1–12, 17–19

I wonder how disappointed Jesus was when the seventy–two returned all excited that they could command demons and spirits.

Though given power by Jesus over the forces of evil, that is not what they were instructed to do, was it. They had been instructed to travel lightly, offer peace to whomever they encountered, accept hospitality, eat what was placed before them, cure the sick and most importantly, announce the Kingdom of God.

Our primary instruction from Jesus is not to rejoice over the defeat of evil. [So I have to wonder how many people who label themselves as pro-life become very smug last Friday. I wonder how many people who label themselves as pro-life are making concrete plans to assist a mother through her pregnancy and fears and often living in poverty.] Rather we are to spend time with people, bringing healing and wholeness to people’s lives and announce the good news of God’s presence and peace already in the world. Travel lightly, offer peace, accept hospitality and announce good news. No fireworks; just a quiet insinuation of God’s presence. No wonder Jesus said we were to be like sheep not wolves.

Recall the Isaian passage: “Here is my servant…he will not shout nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench…until he establishers peace on the earth” [Isaiah 42:1–4].

Not exactly a picture of the world or Church we live in, is it; a society of talking heads shouting each other down often with verbal threats, if not violence; of the inability, or is it the unwillingness, to first listen to each other as we scream out our positions on abortion, guns and vaccinations thinking volume will convince people of the self-righteousness of our position; of fast food; of busy-ness; of our self-importance.

Our society is like the white rabbit in Disney’s animated ‘Alice in Wonderland’: “I’m late, I’m late for a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye I’m late, I’m late…”

“It’s got to be exciting, it’s got to be strong,” Bernstein proclaims in his theatre piece MASS; otherwise we are not interested. Excitement, thrill seeking, is an addictive drug and like all drugs you eventually can’t get enough of it and crash or die, physically or spiritually or both.

We wonder why there is no peace in the world but how can there be when there is little peace within ourselves? Travel lightly, offer peace, accept hospitality and announce good news.

We encounter a similar situation within the Church of Galatia. Paul addresses gentile converts of his who are being encouraged by Jewish Christian missionaries with another interpretation of the gospel. They want to add Jewish observances to the cross of Jesus, particularly circumcision. Why? Are these missionaries looking to boast about converts? Are they purposefully trying to undermine Paul? Do they think that the cross of Jesus is incomplete? Is our spilt blood necessary to mingle with the blood of Christ?

To follow Jesus [And here Paul writes this part of his letter in big letters for emphasis] is to embrace the cross. In the light of the self–sacrifice and obedience of the cross, all religious traditions, regardless of how ancient and hallowed or even God-given, are useless to salvation. Paul boasts only in the cross of Jesus – a sign of rejection, divine absence and weakness. There is no trace of manipulation and power!

So what is there about us that we seem to often miss the core point of Jesus’ preaching and life? Are we any different than the seventy–two or the Galatians? Yet do not the Gospels record Jesus doing what he has instructed us to do?

Jesus spends a lot of time eating with people. Recall a wedding feast and those suppers with people who were opposed to him to people rejected by society as sinners and traitors to his friends. He accepts the hospitality of Martha, Mary and Lazarus; Simon the Pharisee; Zacchaeus and others. Jesus heals people in the broadest sense from physical diseases, to the judgment of others like the woman caught in adultery and from self-loathing like Peter or the woman he encounters at the well. And Jesus announces the Kingdom of God. How many teachings begin: “the kingdom of God is like…”? And all this leads to and culminates in the cross.

The ministry of Jesus was like the Isaian passage – rather quiet. God humbly planting the divine presence in people’s lives, casting seeds, quietly whispering within people’s hearts, eating a meal, offering an insight, posing a question.

For all the noise in the Church about the sexual scandal, the Liturgy, biblical translations, the issue of authority, pro and anti-Francis camps, and reform; many members of the Catholic Church, religious women and men and laity, are quietly doing what Jesus instructed: feeding and teaching people, walking with people, building clean water systems, driving a person to a doctor’s appointment, calming fears, playing with children, job-training, bringing a meal to a parishioner after surgery, advocating for the voiceless and encouraging and helping women to take their rightful place in traditional societies. Bind these activities with the Eucharist and prayer and… Not very exciting work. Not noticed or reported by the media. Probably not even known by fellow Catholic Christians. But what you have is: a bruised reed that is not broken, and a smoldering wick that is not quenched…until peace is established on the earth.

So travel lightly, eat heartily with all kinds of people, listen and converse, laugh and cry with people, accept and offer hospitality, and live out the self-sacrifice of the cross.