14 Sunday “C”
Luke 10, 1-12, 17-20
July 7th, 2019
Happy 4th of July weekend! I was
at my brother’s cabin to celebrate Independence Day and I was saying to him
that it is great that the 4th falls on Thursday so most folks could
have a four-day weekend. My brother said he doesn’t care, since he is retired,
every day is Saturday.
It is good to celebrate Independence Day,
to go to the lake, have picnics, shoot off fireworks and eat watermelon but it
also good to remember what it is that we are celebrating. We are not
celebrating the 4th of July we are celebrating our Independence. It
was on the 4th of July 1776 in Philadelphia that our forefathers
declared our independence; it is the birth of our nation. Before we were just a
colony of Mother England but on the 4th of July we declared our
Independence. The parades, fireworks, speeches and tanks were all about our
Independence. It is good to be Independent, isn’t it?
I suppose as a nation it is good to be
independent. It is good to assert our self identity and to begin to build our
own separate identity, but as Catholic Christians we are not independent, in
fact we want to be dependent, we are dependent upon “Mother Church,” we are
dependent upon God.
As a nation we began to develop an identity
separate from mother England. Of course England strongly influences who we are,
but like a rebellious child we slowly began to form ourselves with a strong
independent identity. We no longer had to ask England who we were, we knew who
we were. As Catholic Christians we never want to develop an identity that is
separate from Jesus. The opposite is true, our desire is to be more and more
like the God who created us, we wish to emulate God’s own son who came to earth
to teach us our true humanity.
The first reading speaks of Jerusalem and
Isaiah compares her to a mother, a mother who nurses her children at her
abundant breasts. Jerusalem is not just another city, it is not a Washington DC
or New York City. Jerusalem was home to the temple, the dwelling place of God.
Our Jewish ancestors did not want to be separated from Jerusalem. No there
desire was to be closely united to her. It was the temple in Jerusalem that
made the people who they were; it gave them their identity. Our Jewish
ancestors had lost Jerusalem, but they didn’t rejoice in their independence, no
they desired to have Jerusalem back. It is what made them who they were.
Our Gospel begins with the mission of the
72 others. All four gospels speak of the 12 apostles but Luke has 72 others.
Who are the 72? What is the importance of 72? There were 72 because the
represented the know nations in the world at that time. Jesus choose 72 as a
symbolic number to symbolize that his mission is to everyone, all peoples and
all nations. No one is excluded from the Kingdom of God. The message of the 72
was to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was at hand. Not the celestial
Jerusalem, not the United States. No, the Kingdom of God is Jesus. Jesus very
self is a proclamation of the kingdom.
The 72 were sent out with nothing. There weren’t
sent out as independent agents, with their suitcases filled with everything
they might need. They weren’t given credit cards to take care of the expenses
and they didn’t have cell phones to make sure that they didn’t get lost or so
they could keep in touch. There were sent with nothing, why? So they would be
dependent upon the people they were missioned to, so they would have a
relationship with the folks that they would work with. The Gospel is always
preached within a context, within the context of the people who are being
evangelized.
I think of the 61 years that Redemptorist
Missionaries have been proclaiming the Gospel here at St. Alphonsus. I remember
the many Redemptorists who have gone before me. I think of how well I have been
received and how well they were received. And not just with Rhubarb pies but
with a deep faith and a love of the Gospel.
Who are the 72 today? We are! By baptism we
are Missionary Disciples. We are sent out to all peoples, to tell them the good
news, the good news of their dependence upon God.
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