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Urgency of the Gospel: Homily for 31 August, 22nd Sunday, Cycle A
By Fr. Dennis | August 31, 2008
In the sacristy at the convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s sisters downtown in North Memphis, there is a sign that reads, “Priest of God, celebrate mass today as if this were your FIRST MASS. Celebrate mass today as if it were your LAST MASS. Celebrate mass today as if it were your ONLY MASS.”
If today were your first time to come to mass, how would things be different? Would you pay more attention? Would you be able to avoid the temptation to look at your watch about 3 minutes from now when I’m halfway through the homily? Would you hear things new that you had never noticed before?
If this were your last mass, would you sing like you’ve never sung before? Would you fall to your knees during the consecration, not out of habit, but out of knowing that this was your last time in this life to worship Jesus in his Eucharistic form: body, blood, soul and divinity?
If this were your only mass, would you listen to the Scriptures with all your attention, hungry to get every drop of meaning out of the words of Jeremiah, or St. Paul, or Jesus Christ? Would you make sure you remembered who was sitting next to you, and who you met on your way in and your way out?
Thanks be to God, most of us will get to go to many more masses in our lives, and I myself look forward to celebrating mass here every day for several years. But I never want to fool myself into thinking that I have all the time in the world, that I can put off until tomorrow what is most important, not just for today but for all time, that I can do the work of my life on cruise control and coast through what God has given me to take care of.
When Jesus tells his disciples about what he has to do next, that he will have to go to Jerusalem and suffer and be crucified, they react just as you would expect them to react. Peter says, No, Lord, that won’t happen. It’s as if he wants to tell Jesus that he will have many, many years to preach and heal and lead his people as their Messiah.
But Jesus knows the truth. And he knows what he has to do. And he knows that even if his heavenly Father would be willing to push things back a few more years, Jesus wouldn’t want him to, because it would steal from him the urgency of his message. And he’s got to get his message across. He’s got a shot and he has to take it.
He won’t back down.
He won’t turn around.
He’s got one shot, one opportunity,
to do all things that he has to do to be
what God sent him for
and now he can’t ignore
what God has put in his heart anymore.
He’s got to take up the cross
and not count the cost
and suffer through the loss
that comes at Calvary
that brings the victory
that leads to salvation for you and me.
And he challenges us further. We all have to take up our own crosses and follow Jesus. Follow him as he leads us to Calvary, and beyond.
Like many of us, faced with the difficulty of taking up the cross, faced with the challenge of the urgency of it all, Jeremiah the prophet experienced his own moments of hesitation and frustration. He half-complains to God, saying that he was duped by God, fooled into doing God’s will, saying:
“I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in,
I cannot endure it” (Jer 20:9).
He knows in his heart that he can’t turn away from what God has put in front of him.
But he won’t back down.
He won’t turn around.
He’s got one shot, one opportunity,
to do all things that he has to do to be
what God made him for
and now he can’t ignore
what God has put in his heart anymore.
He’s got to take up his cross
and not count the cost
and suffer through the loss
by speaking God’s prophecy
no matter what comes to be
cuz it brings salvation to you and me.
And this is not a normal way to live. Not for Jeremiah, God’s prophet, and not for us in Memphis in 2008. Normal people go about life thinking they have all the time in the world to get around to doing what’s most important. But we’re Christians, and so we called to live our lives a little bit differently than all the normal people. In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul tells us:
“Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rom 12:2).
We’re Christians. We have the cross. Everyone’s cross is different, but it’s all the same cross, and it leads to the same reward. But Christ goes ahead of us, his love surrounds us, his grace fills us up, and his life sustains us. Christ gives the cross meaning. He gives your cross meaning. He gives my cross meaning. He gives this mass meaning, and if being here today brings us one step closer to joining him, not only in his journey to Calvary, but joining him in the joy of his victory over sin and death, then thanks be to God.
But we don’t have all the time in the world. The cross of Christ is not something in the distant past, and our own crosses are not something that will come to us in the future. It’s right here. It’s right now. At this very Eucharist. This celebration of the holy sacrifice of the mass, a mass which might be someone’s first mass. A mass which might be someone’s last mass. A mass which might be someone’s only mass.
Here at St. Louis parish, as you all know, we are inviting Catholics who, for whatever reason, are no longer practicing. For whatever reason, they’re not here at church with us today. They’re not at this mass. Sisters and brothers, there are Catholics out there who are starving for the love of Jesus, starving to be fed by his Body and Blood, which is the Eucharist we celebrate today. They’re starving and they don’t even know it.
And we’ve got to invite them to come home. We’ve got to bring them the love of Jesus that they are so thirsty for. The responsorial psalm today expresses so clearly what every human heart experiences:
“O God, you are my God, for you I long.
For you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
Like a dry weary land without water” (Ps 63:2).
So we’ll use the cards and envelopes in your pews to get in touch with as many as we can so we can invite them back. We’ll be having a series of talks, a series of discussions here through October and November, reaching out to those who want to find a way to come home, and you’ll be helping us get in touch with them.
And when they come, what will it be like? What if all the Catholics who aren’t here today came to mass next week? What would the parking lot look like? And if you came and saw all the parking spaces filled up, would you complain about it? Or would you say, “Thank you Jesus, we need a bigger parking lot!” Would you say, “Thank you Jesus, we need to ask the bishop to build us a bigger church!”
And would the Catholics who come home find a warm, welcoming, human connection that makes them want to keep coming? Will they be able to see in you and me, in our actions, in our prayer, in our silence and in our singing, that we take up our crosses gratefully, and that we want to help them take up theirs? That we want to help them meet Jesus on his cross at Calvary, so we can all be with him forever in his heavenly kingdom. That we celebrate every mass as if it were our first mass. As if it were our last mass. As if it were our only mass.
That we won’t back down.
That we won’t turn around.
We’ve got one shot, one opportunity,
to do all things that we have to do to be
what God made us for
and now we can’t ignore
what God put in our hearts anymore.
We’ve got to take up our cross
and not count the cost
and suffer through the loss
that comes at Calvary
that brings the victory
that leads to salvation for you and me.
Topics: Evangelization, Homilies |