Below are thoughts for another homily that I was working on for this weekend --- it helped form the one that I'm giving for this weekend (see the previous entry), but didn't seem "right" for what I wanted to ultimately convey to the people of God.
Again, these are thoughts, and while written to be incorporated into a homily, and while sort of taking the form of a homily, are not really "a homily" in the traditional understanding.
I hope that there's a nugget somewhere in this mess that you can take away.
Enjoy . . .
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My brothers and sisters, I don't think that there is a priest or deacon who preaches a homily who is not nervous on some level. We're human, after all. We want to be loved, accepted. We want to be able to say, "That was a good message," when we're done preaching.
But sometimes we have to preach that difficult message, the one no one wants to hear. And no matter what the message, it takes a supernatural courage for us to preach to you the message of the Scriptures. We do so, for it is that message, that lesson which will help you leave this place and live the Gospel out in the world.
Yes, we mat become frustrated when see people reading the bulletin or Pittsburgh Catholic, or playing with their phones. Not just because we have worked and prayed hard and long on what we are to say, but, also, because it shows a lack on the listeners' part to allow the Word of God to sink into their own hearts.
For the last number of weeks, we have listened to what Jesus has to say about being one of His disciples: We must abandon everything, deny ourselves, take up our crosses daily, and follow Him. Why? To send us out into the like He did with the seventy-two in today's Gospel, so we, like the seventy-two, may experience the ultimate joy of following Christ.
The prophecy of Isaiah in our First Reading is the desire we should all have in our hearts: to be nourished by the graces of God so that we may all know the joy of His calling. But we can only do that if we daily choose to follow Christ in our thoughts, words, and actions. We can only attain the Beatific Vision if we do what Saint Paul did, and boast in nothing but the Cross of Christ.
Christian discipleship is hard. It takes a good amount of trust in God to follow Him. Yet it is important that we pray for the grace and the courage to live out the Gospel message, whether others accept it or not. This is why Jesus tells us to pray for more laborers for the harvest. And this just doesn't mean priests, deacons, and religious, but, rather, faithful and faith-filled men and women courageous to live and preach the Gospel.
The Lord certainly has thrown us out as lambs among the wolves. For anyone to live and preach the Gospel in our society today is to open one's self to taunt, rejection, scorn, and hatred. To stand up for the truths given to us by Christ and handed on by the Church is to enter a crowd of spite and ridicule. However, the Lord is not setting us up for failure; rather, He is setting us up to trust in Him in spite of the fact that people will hate us.
As I said at the beginning, it takes courage for any priest or deacon to preach the Word of God. It also takes courage for any and every baptized member of the Body of Christ to proclaim the Gospel by their lives. We must constantly rely upon the graces we received at Baptism and Confirmation, the graces we receive through the vocational sacraments of Marriage and Holy Orders, and the continued graces we receive through Confession and the Eucharist to be effective ministers of the Gospel message. Jesus knew that this would be a difficult task. (Look at how many people rejected Him in His ministry!) That's why He gave us the Church: So that through the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we may be able to support each other for the mission and ministry God has called us to.
The journey of faith always leads to Jerusalem. This is our ultimate destination, for a life lived for Christ always leads to the Cross. But through the Cross alone do we attain the joys presented to us in our Scriptures today.
My brothers and sisters, being disciples of Christ is never easy. In fact, it calls for a radical change in the way we live our lives. Yet when we place our trust in God, praying for the courage to preach the Gospel by the way that we live our lives, and boast of nothing but the Cross of Christ, then we will be ready to be sent out, like the seventy-two, as lambs among the wolves. We will be strengthened by the graces of God, given to us for the mission and ministry at hand.
For it is in making the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus that we come to ultimately attain the promises of eternal life.
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Enjoy the journey . . .
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