11th Sunday of Ordinary Time
I am sure many people out there reading this are aware of what happened in Belfast at the beginning of this week. I live just a few minutes’ walk from where this attack took place and as I was leaving home on Tuesday morning there was a heavy feeling of hopelessness in the air. But there is also a sense of we must do something to stop this happening again and we must ask ourselves how many times this will happen before we do something to rectify the situation. This is a problem that the politicians and the governments need to solve and they really should stop and listen to what the people are telling them as many feel that they are being left behind. It is the people on the ground politicians and local people who need to come together to sort out the problems of our time which include immigration and all the associated issues that arise from it. We pray for Stephen Ogilvie, who sustained devastating injuries in the brutal and horrific attack on Monday evening as well as praying for his family and for peace in our country.
The Scripture readings for this Sunday are all about the great compassion Jesus has for the crowd who were his followers. In the first reading the Israelites arrive at Mount Sinai, where God speaks to Moses and tells him to convey a message to the people. God reminds the Israelites of how He delivered them from slavery in Egypt and declares that if they obey His commands and keep His covenant, they will be a treasured possession and a kingdom of priests. In the second reading, Paul tells us God showed His love for humanity by sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins while we were still sinners. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we can be reconciled with God and receive the gift of eternal life. In the gospel, we hear how Jesus cared for the people and sent his disciples to do the same. Jesus wanted to bring the Kingdom of his Father to them, so he set out to heal them, and sent the apostles out to do the same in his name. His aim was to bring them the peace of God, to help them by healing their worries, their sickness, their embarrassment at being lost sheep without a shepherd as God was always the shepherd in Israel. When he called the twelve apostles he was making a New Israel, a new set of twelve tribes, as a permanent healing body, to make sure that the Kingdom of the Father and its peace and generosity would always be available to everyone everywhere. He was not setting up a group of leaders, instead he was appointing his own helpers in spreading God’s Kingdom. Do we make it our business to spread the Kingdom of God? Are we labourers in the vineyard, trying to bring God’s peace and healing to all the people of God? All of us are made in the image of God, and he gave us the task of following on his creative work. And then we are all called to follow Jesus, we are all called to make his message known to all people, those around us as well as the people at large.
Like the chosen people of Israel, we are counted a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation. We are called to minister to the people in our own time, taking responsibility for our own mission. No one can tell us exactly where and when we are to respond to Jesus’ call. We will just have to look out and see and hear the way Jesus did. And through our baptism, that is what we are being prompted and empowered to do. As Blessed John Henry Newman wrote: He called us first in baptism; but afterwards also; whether we obey his voice or not, he graciously calls us still… Abraham was called from his home, Peter from his nets, Matthew from his office, Elisha from his farm, Nathanael from his retreat. The call that Christ makes to us takes us onwards, It is a call to be the church of the future just as the Apostles were called to be the Church of the future at its beginning. Jesus’ mission is to the lost sheep. It is his desire and endeavour to bring together, those he pities, those he looks on with love.
Today we pray for each of us: “Help us see what you want of us, help us not settle on being just occasional Christians, but “full time Christians.” Give us sensitive sight, your eyes, for the world. Through the words of the Gospel may we hear again our own call to be emissaries of God’s love and bearers of Good News. May we allow the kindness and compassion of God to touch our own lives and the lives of those around us wherever we are.
Fullerton T 