14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

Independence Day

In the first reading, Isaiah envisions a restored Jerusalem, as safe from her enemies as a baby in the arms of its mother. To Israelites experienced with generations of exile or slavery I wonder if that would have sounded like anything besides wishful thinking. But in the second reading today, St. Paul shows what the fulfillment of that prophecy entails for us. "... far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." To Paul and to us, the new creation, the new Jerusalem, comes by way of the cross.

Now, most, indeed maybe all of us here have grown up in a Christian environment, or at least one that is not openly hostile to the Church. Another thing to celebrate this Independence Day. The good thing about that is that we have never been persecuted for the faith; the bad thing about that is that we have never been persecuted for the faith. By that I mean that we can look at a cross, or crucifix, and it barely registers. For many of us it takes somebody like Mel Gibson shoving it in our faces to remind us of how horrific the crucifixion of Jesus was and how important it is. One reason I love being a missioner is that it exposes me to people for whom the Faith is something to acknowledge and to experience without a hint of complacency. It is fresh and new to them and its importance must be learned from scratch. And that is not easy. As far as the appearance goes, they have to get used to and accept a God who is routinely portrayed by an image of shame and pain. That is hard for us to grasp. And once they embrace this God, this Jesus Christ, they have to own their decision very often in an environment hostile to such a choice, and at war with such a faith. I've spent much of my time as a priest in South China, and the Christians there know from experience the truth of Jesus' words to his disciples in the Gospel today: "Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves."

Note that when Jesus sends out his disciples, he sends them out with practically nothing: no money, no walking-stick; nothing but the clothes on their backs. The point was not for the disciples to spread the Gospel as cheaply as possible, but to remind them, and to remind us, that their chief support is God. Even now, if any of the shepherds of the church get lost, or any of the sheep stray, it is first of all because they forget this, and try to rely on their own powers. Like the disciples in the Gospel today, we must always remember that it is Christ who calls us, Christ who assigns us, Christ who sends us and Christ who empowers us.

In the Gospel today Jesus laments that “the harvest is great but the laborers are few.” That is as true today as it was then. So as you celebrate this weekend the freedoms hard won for you by your ancestors on the first Independence Day, ask yourselves as well some serious questions, about the purpose of your life and the best way to use the freedom you enjoy. For you, too, have a vocation, a destiny in Christ. Maybe you don't have a vocation to be a priest or a deacon or a religious brother or sister, but you do have a vocation. We all do. So listen for it. All of us are being called to follow Christ. Perhaps you are also being called to lead some of his sheep. Perhaps that’s what your freedom is for.