(Fourteenth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given
on July 7, 2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read Isaiah 66:10-14c; Psalm
66:1-20; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourteenth Sunday 2019]
What do you do to serve the Lord?
I think many lay Catholics would answer that question by
telling you what they do in and around the church—“I’m a lector”; “I’m an
extraordinary minister of Holy Communion”; “I’m an altar server”; “I’m a
cantor”; “I sing in the choir”; “I’m on the parish finance council”.
Now please don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say—all
these acts of service are good! Lay
people have essential roles to play in the liturgical and financial life of
this and of every other parish. But
these roles are only secondary! Even though they’re very important, they are
not at the core of a lay person’s vocation in the Church.
In paragraph 898 of the Catechism, it says this (quoting
one of the documents of Vatican II): “By reason of their special vocation it
belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs
and directing them according to God’s will.”
Very simply, this means that if you’re a lay Catholic (and
most of you are), then you are to live in the world, but you are not to be “of”
the world; and you are to take your Catholic faith with you wherever you
go. THAT’S YOUR PRIMARY CALLING! Your faith, in other words, is to guide your
personal life, your marital life (even in its private dimensions), your family
life, your recreational life—and yes, even your life at work and/or at school.
When I was a deacon at St. Philip’s Church in Greenville
back in 1985, there was a lector at the parish who was involved in local
politics. Eventually he became a big
political figure at the state level; if I mentioned his name, many of you I’m
sure would recognize it immediately. But
this man was also pro-choice when it came to the issue of abortion. Thankfully, he eventually was told he could
no longer serve as a lector. I mention
him today because he’s a great example of a lay person who was “doing something
for God” at Sunday Mass, but who was not
doing for God what he really SHOULD have been doing for God out there in the
world! He was fulfilling a lay person’s
“secondary role” very well—he was an excellent reader!—but he was failing
miserably in fulfilling the primary role of a Catholic lay person in modern
society.
His problem, of course, was that he had “compartmentalized”
his faith—as many Catholics today do! In
the words of St. John Paul II—words that he wrote in his famous document on the
laity, Christifideles Laici—this man
had engaged in the “unwarranted separation of [his] faith from [his]
life.” (CL, 2)
I was reminded of the vocation of lay people as I reflected
on today’s Gospel reading from Luke, chapter 10. In this story, Jesus sent out 72 disciples on
a special mission—a mission that was a little bit different from the one he had
given to his 12 apostles. Jesus told
these 72 to go ahead of him to every town he intended to visit, to prepare the
way for his arrival. They weren’t supposed
to lead services in synagogues; they were supposed to share their faith with
people in a less formal manner, to prepare them to receive Jesus and his
message. That, of course, is exactly
what you are supposed to do as Catholic lay people: by your words, actions and
example—in the midst of your everyday activities—you are called to prepare others to receive Jesus and his
message.
I remember speaking to a woman on the phone one day who
wanted to register for the parish and have her daughter baptized. That was wonderful. But during the course of our conversation she
indicated that she hadn’t practiced her faith in many years, and she had no
intention of practicing her faith in the future. Her idea was to have her daughter baptized,
and then let her daughter decide what she wanted to be when she was old
enough. This woman obviously did not
understand her role as a Catholic lay person!
As a mother, she was called to teach the faith to her child; she was
called to be an example of faith and charity to her child—to prepare the way
for Jesus to become the Lord of her child’s life!
Jesus wants to visit your children and become the Lord of
their lives—so he sends you ahead
of him to prepare the way (like he sent the 72!). Jesus wants to visit your workplace and
change the lives of your co-workers, and so he sends you ahead of him to prepare the way. Jesus wants to visit your school and change
the lives of your fellow students, and so he sends you ahead of him to prepare the way.
Will everyone accept the message of faith and love that you
offer? Of course not! Some—even perhaps in your family—will reject
the truth of the Gospel, regardless of how lovingly and respectfully you
present it to them! Jesus made that fact
clear to the 72.
But the difficulty of the task doesn’t make it any less of
an obligation!
Many of you know that, over the years, I’ve had a few
things to say publicly about the big social and moral issues of our day (like
abortion and gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research). I haven’t been too shy about putting my “two
cents” into the discussion (usually in our local newspaper), But for the most part I’ve left the job of
defending the truth in the hands of some very competent and faith-filled lay
people from our community—because first and foremost that’s their role, not
mine! It’s the kind of thing they’re
supposed to be doing as Catholic lay persons!
My role as a priest is to form them in the faith, so that they can transform our culture with the spiritual
and moral message of the Gospel! Jesus,
believe it or not, wants to visit and transform this hedonistic, materialistic
culture of ours; he wants to change it from a culture of death into a culture
of life! But he needs committed lay
people to prepare the way for him to do that, like the 72 prepared the way for
his visits 2,000 years ago!
St. Luke tells us that when these 72 came back from the
mission Jesus had given them, they had good
news to report. Yes, they had faced
difficulty and opposition, but because of their efforts many people were healed
and many lives were changed for the better.
Your mission as a lay person in 2019 is like the mission of
the 72 in many respects, but it’s different in this one sense: their mission
lasted only for a brief period of time; yours—like mine—lasts a lifetime. When our missions are finally finished—on
Judgment Day—we also will be asked to give a report to Jesus of what we’ve done
in his service. Let’s pray that when
that moment comes we, like the 72, will be able to tell Jesus lots of good
news!