15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is a question, I believe each of us asks in many different ways in our lifetime.  You might expect a lengthy answer to such an important question. But the answer Jesus gives is quite short.  He simply tells us to love God with all the strength we have, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  That’s it!! That’s all you need!  Love like that and we will inherit eternal Life.  End of message!  If it were only that easy especially these last few days! Unfortunately, it is not—so much more is asked of us.

Our Scripture readings each week remind us that the stories about prophets, apostles and disciples being chosen and sent out to do God’s work have been told down through the centuries in order to bring home to us one essential message- the reason why we are called and gathered into a church, the one and only reason why we have been chosen to be Christians, is to be sent out to do God’s work. Our entire purpose and endeavor is directed outward for the good of others, for the good of the world, and for the common good. It is absolutely necessary that these Scripture stories are told to the church over and over again, because the church all too easily and all too often falls into the temptation to turn in on itself, to think of itself as its own reason for existence, that the church exists only for the good of its own members, for churchgoers– that its only purpose is to foster one’s own individual, private, interior spiritual relationship with God.

As opposed to that, the Scripture stories tell us that it is our task to witness—in part, simply by going out and living a good, loving, just life—to witness to the religious reality of the salvation of Christ in the secular, social, political and economic reality of every-day life in the world.  Remember, the core of the Christian message is twofold–1) FAITH, that is total trust in God and his message that comes through Christ in the New Testament and 2) LOVE as the driving power of all our actions and relationships.  We cannot have one without the other.  As the Apostle James says, “faith without good works is dead.” The Scripture stories tell us what the essential character and innermost meaning of the church really is and what Christians really are to be—it is to move from being a “churchgoer” to being an evangelizer, a disciple in action.  As Pope Francis reminds us in his first Apostolic Exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,”  in baptism we are all missionary disciples and Jesus wants evangelizers to proclaim the good news not only in words, but above all by a life transfigured by God’s presence.

A disciple is one who hears, who accepts and who carries out the teachings of Jesus in his/her life.  A disciple is also an evangelizer.  The word comes from a verb that means to be sent on a mission with a message from a superior—an ambassador, or an envoy.  Every person who has been baptized has this mission and this calling—to actively share their faith with others. Each of us is sent, from this mass
and from every mass with that mission—to actively share our faith with others.  We are sharing not just words, or ideas, or doctrines, but an experience of God and of Jesus Christ. The evangelizer invites people, of all faiths or of no faith to share this wonderful experience. Our world is in desperate need of disciples—not as followers, but as disciples reaching out, seeking out, those who have left the Church, those who are lost in their faith, those who have no faith.

Every one of us is here today because someone, or perhaps many people, introduced us to the Good News of Jesus.  That person, those people were evangelizers.  Each of us is expected to do the same for others—to share the Good News of Jesus.

In this Year of Mercy, today’s gospel reading may be the most significant message of the year for it reminds us that being a disciple is challenging—just as Jesus is challenged by the lawyer to define “who is my neighbor.” It is important to remember Jesus did not answer the question—who is my neighbor?  BUT RATHER Jesus addresses the lawyer about who he is—is he a carrying, neighborly person? Using the parable, Jesus is saying that our actions are much more important than some abstract definition of who is or is not a neighbor.

How often have each of us defined for ourselves who is our neighbor? Be honest! Would you go out of your way to assist someone who is blind drunk? Someone with AIDS? Someone who is on drugs or just someone who is a homeless mess? What we want to say to ourselves is this is NOT a child of God, NOT my brother or sister lying on the road.  We forget that God can be worshiped right here and now with this person in need. For, “As often as you do this for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do it to ME says Jesus, our Brother.

This parable touches our lives deeply.  In honestly answering the question, “Who is my neighbor?” I learn a great deal about the kind of person I am, the kind of neighbor I am. I have ministered to people with HIV/AIDS, in hospital chaplaincy, people in prison, people who have lost faith. And, I have learned what I struggle terribly with—for whatever reason I have a very difficult time ministering with people who are homeless (on drugs/alcoholics/with mental illness).

But, Pope Francis reminds me and each of us to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, and with their joy that infects us. Pope Frances says, “True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others.  The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to a revolution of tenderness.”

In this Year of Mercy, at this time in our country, it is especially important for each of us to embrace what Pope Francis calls a “revolution of tenderness.” In the social media, in our political rhetoric we see very little, if any, compassion or tenderness.  We may hear of or experience the works of “good samaritans”  (and, God  bless them for their courageous actions). But, in the public square– where is the compassion, the mercy for others, for our brothers and sisters, for our neighbors?   

It seems that it is far too easy for us to be like the priest and Levite and walk past the injured person along the side of the road.  It seems as if it is far too easy for us to conjure up automatic negative assumptions about a class of people, be it African American, Muslim, immigrant, gay/lesbian or transgender. It seems to be far too easy to say “not in my backyard.”

The Scripture stories are so clear. GO, GO from here and make disciples of the lost, the unchurched, those who have left the church. Yes, GO evangelize—bringing a message of Christ’s love, mercy and forgiveness to all we marginalize by our bigotry. Yes, Go, from here with the hope and desire to live as Jesus’ disciples strengthened by St Paul’s wisdom– “do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good?  Amen.