11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Holy Family, Davidsonville
June 17, 2023
Introduction
First, let me say how happy I am to return to Holy Family Parish. Since my last visit, Father Michael Jendrick has become your pastor. On this Father’s Day weekend, I would like to thank you, Fr. Mike, for your spiritual fatherhood and for your leadership of this community of faith! Let’s all join in expressing our warmest thanks!
The pastoral care that Father Mike and his co-workers provide serves to remind us of something very fundamental that today’s Scripture readings proclaim, and it’s this: We are God’s people, the sheep of his flock. For all the challenges and problems that beset the Church, we must never forget who we are as the people of God and how deeply the Lord loves us as individuals and as a community of faith. With that in mind, let’s take a second look at the readings just proclaimed.
Exodus 19:2-6a
If we want to discover the origins of our Christian identity, we have to back to the days when God chose the Israelites as his own people. In today’s reading from Exodus, the Israelites have left the slavery of Egypt and now find themselves encamped in the desert of Sinai. There, in the desert, the Lord spoke to Moses whom he had called and appointed to lead his people. God reminded Moses how he had rescued his people and brought them into the desert, not to abandon them, but to deepen and make permanent his relationship with them, in a word, to enter into a covenant with them.
In his love for his people, God wanted to give them more than a beautiful place to live, the Promised Land. More than that, he wanted to raise up a people who would listen to his voice, a people who would respond to his love and reflect his love. So God tells Moses that if the people keep the covenant, they will be dearer to him than all the peoples on the earth – and that they will be “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” God’s will for his people was not merely a destination, but a destiny.
Matthew 9:36-10:8
Eventually, the people of Israel did reach their destination, the land of their ancestors that God had promised he would again give them. But reaching their destiny as a holy nation proved more of a struggle, just as it is for us. For in today’s Gospel, we see the flock of God through the eyes of Jesus. His heart is deeply moved by what had become of them. They were oppressed by a foreign power. Their religious faith had been reduced to oppressive rules and regulations. They were suffering from every imaginable malady – physical, emotional, spiritual.
Jesus was deeply moved but not stymied. He saw in this suffering people a rich harvest of goodness and holiness. He saw in them the very destiny that his heavenly Father had in mind for them – a people of God’s own, a holy people of God – priests, prophets, and kings. So, he summons his twelve disciples and sends them out to teach, to proclaim the coming of God’s Kingdom, and to heal. However, those whom Jesus sent had no particular qualifications for this task, except that they had been chosen and invested with a power that was not their own. “Without cost,” Jesus said to them, “you have received. Without cost, you are to give.”
Romans 5:6-11
The power with which Jesus invested his Apostles was not magical. Rather, it was the tremendously powerful love that St. Paul proclaims in Romans, viz., that God sent his Son to suffer and die for us “while we were yet sinners” … God sent his Son to become one of us, to teach us, to reveal in our flesh the reign of God, and to heal us – This Jesus did as he went from village to village teaching, proclaiming, and healing, but all of this brought him to the Cross where he laid down his life for us, unleashing into the world a love stronger than sin and more powerful than death.
This is the love with which Jesus invested his disciples. That is why they could teach as he taught, proclaim what he proclaimed, and share in his work of healing the sick, driving out demons, and raising the dead. It was not the disciples’ own qualifications that enabled them to do this, but rather the unimaginably generously love of God – made manifest in the humanity of God’s only Son – that made it possible for these ordinary individuals to help Jesus gather his harvest.
We Are His People
This is the same love that we encounter and share in when we celebrate the Eucharist. It is the reconciling love of God revealed and unleased in Christ’s death and resurrection. It is the redeeming Presence of the One who laid down his life to save us, the same One whose heart was moved with pity at the sight of the crowds. Amid the challenges facing us as individuals and as Church in these days, may we remember the depth of God’s love for us and the power of his love to heal us. May we remember that the Lord loves us, that we belong to him, and belonging to the Lord, we belong to one another.
Basking in the Lord’s love, let us also hear his invitation to be his co-workers. Jesus sent his Apostles to extend his saving truth and healing touch. Today he still calls and sends those in Holy Orders to do the same – to reenact his saving death, to heal those afflicted in their sins, to anoint the sick, and to bring the Good News of God’s love into hearts and homes, to bring the Good News of God’s love to those who are poor and marginalized. Indeed, a week from now I shall ordain eight new priests for the Archdiocese! At the same time, the Lord calls every disciple, every member of his Body, the Church to share in his mission, to be co-workers, to be co-responsible for gathering the harvest, including those who have disaffiliated, including those who for whatever reason no longer practice their faith.
Being a part of God’s People means that we belong to God. We are indeed his people, members of his flock. But it also means that as we share in the Lord’s tremendous love for us, we are to open ourselves in love and friendship towards others, including those who have yet to discover the depth and beauty of God’s love. In God’s grace, may we be fellow-laborers with Christ in reaping the bountiful harvest that is all around us. And may God bless us and keep us always in his love.