Homily for Mission Sunday

Homily for Mission Sunday
29th Sunday of Ordinary Time          

October 21, 2018

Mark 10: 35-45
Collect
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

As noted 3 posts below, my blog was down for 4 weeks.  So I'm gradually posting material, and this Sunday homily is a week behind the current date.  Sorry 'bout that.  It's Google's fault.

“The Son of Man [came] to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10: 45).

World Mission Sunday is an annual observance of the entire Catholic Church.  Perhaps in fact we don’t always observe it in our parishes; but this evening we’re doing so.

The intent of the observance is to remind us that the entire Church is missionary.  Our Lord Jesus commissioned us—all of us—to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), words that we heard in the Collect.  You can try that on such creatures as your dogs and cats and the weeds in your flower beds if you like, but of course Jesus really means “to every person,” however a biblical literalist might interpret him.

After that reminder, the day encourages us to pray for the spread of the Gospel, as we’re doing in our Mass this evening:  to pray that missionaries will go courageously and humbly into places where Jesus isn’t known; that each of us will be a witness to Jesus Christ in the way we live our own lives and will be ready to talk about our faith when it’s opportune to do so; that people will be receptive to God’s Word; that cultures like our own Western culture may be converted once again.  Don’t we very much desire that our country will be “one nation under God” and not a nation worshiping the stock market, a political party, self-indulgence, or even the Redskins?

What is this Gospel message of Jesus that we pray will be proclaimed and heard everywhere and among everyone?  There are numerous ways of summarizing it, and the last line of today’s gospel reading from Mark is an apt summary:  “The Son of Man”—Jesus’ self-description—“came to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The Last Supper by Dagnan-Bouveret

"This is the cup of my blood … shed for you and for many."

That 2-word prepositional phrase “for many” echoes the words of consecration at Mass, doesn’t it?  “This is the chalice of my blood ... which will be poured out for you [the apostles in front of him] and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

What does “for many” mean?  It refers to our salvation and to the scope of Christ’s redemption.  In a passage recorded by St. Luke, someone asks Jesus, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” (13:23).  In the Lord’s time, and in the 1st years of the apostles’ preaching of the Gospel, there certainly were people who thought that God’s saving power was restricted to a few, that God loved only a few, meaning mainly devout, virtuous Jews; and today there are Christian sects who teach that God’s grace touches and saves only a chosen few, excluding from the very possibility of salvation anyone who hasn’t explicitly accepted Jesus as Savior.

Is God’s will that “everyone be saved,” as St. Paul writes to Timothy (1 Tim 2:4), so ineffectual that only a few will actually get into Heaven?  No!  In both today’s gospel and in the words by which Jesus instituted the Eucharist, Christ proclaims the purpose of his mission:  “to give his life for the ransom of many,” for the forgiveness of the sins of many.  Christ’s saving will is wide, not narrow.  The Good News of grace is for all of humanity.

It’s the mission of the Church and of every faithful disciple of Jesus to preach that Gospel of God’s love and forgiveness given us thru Jesus Christ.

What does that mean for us, sisters and brothers?  How do we carry out what the Collect prayed for us, “feel a more urgent call to work for the salvation of every creature”?

1st, hear the Gospel yourself and come confidently to Jesus, “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy,” as the Letter to the Hebrews urges us today (4:16).

2d, pray for missionaries who are preaching the Gospel in foreign lands that have never been evangelized, in de-Christianized Europe, on agnostic college campuses.  When I mention foreign lands, you might think of your dear Salesians, for instance, 1,700 of whom are bringing Christ’s love to 42 nations in Africa, from Tunis in the north to Cape Town in the south, from Dakar on the Atlantic to Dar-es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean.  As you know, Fr. John Cosgrove was once one of those missionaries in Sierra Leone; presently there are 2 Americans and 1 Canadian Salesian on the continent, and 2 Americans and 1 Canadian Salesian sister.

American SDB Fr. Larry Gilmore with kids 

at the Salesian mission in Monrovia, Liberia, in 2003

3d, pray for the people of these missionary lands, those who’ve yet to receive Christ as their Redeemer  and those who’ve accepted the Gospel and are trying to follow Christ faithfully—some of them in the face of vicious persecution, e.g., in Iraq, Pakistan, India, China, Nigeria, and elsewhere.

4th, when opportunity presents, give your financial support to appeals here at Nativity for overseas missionaries or appeals you receive in the mail, as many of you do from Salesian Missions in New Rochelle.

5th, be a missionary.  Live the Gospel the best you can in your families, your workplaces or schools, and among your friends; if given an opportunity, speak of your faith modestly but confidently.

6th, if you’re relatively young, healthy, and independent, consider becoming a Salesian Lay Missioner, making a one-year commitment to service with the Salesians or Salesian Sisters in Africa, South America, or even a U.S. site like Tampa.

May God bless you, his beloved children, my sisters and brothers.  May our Lord Jesus keep us all in his grace.