30th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C)
WORLD MISSION SUNDAY:
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today, this 30′ Sunday in Ordinary Time is also
World Mission Sunday. It is an important day for the universal church! It began
with a young French woman 180 years ago; Pauline Jaricot who founded the
Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which began as a confraternity dedicated
to praying for and supporting the missions of the Church. It has inspired millions
in the past 200 years to help with their prayer and deeds, for the propagation of the
faith. It is more necessary than ever today in this “Post Christian World!”
Pope Francis urges world pastors and preachers to reflect on the theme:” You
shall be my witnesses”. All of us, as co-members of the Body of Christ should do
the same! How can this be, we might say? Our Lady herself once asked the same
question. The Lord can dispose the members to do the work of the Body To be an
effective witness to Christ, we must be rooted in prayer, in God’s merciful love
In today’s first reading (Sir.) we are reminded that “the one who serves God
willingly is heard”. With that, the starting point is that we must strive to know,
to understand, what God desires for us and from us in our Christian lives.
In today’s Gospel, what differentiates the Pharisee from the tax collector? The
Pharisee lives a virtuous life. Nevertheless he speaks to himself, failing to recog-
nize his own need for the power and action of God in his life. Pride leads to self-
deception and spiritual blindness. We see that in this Pharisee. The tax collector
is a traitor to his own people and a collaborator in the oppression by the Romans
However, the tax collector, on the other hand, despite despicable deeds, is justi
fied, simply and purely because he calls upon the name of the Lord, asking
for mercy! God abides with those who admit their sinfulness and who desire
mercy and saving help. We see that in this tax collector; “God be merciful to me a
sinner!’
There is a right way and a wrong way to be justified before God. The right way:
is to approach God as an unworthy sinner, asking for mercy. The wrong way is to
depend on our good works, to trust in ourselves.
We shall be the faithful witnesses those who are “sent”, as Pope Francis urges
us’ by acknowledging our sinfulness and need of God’s mercy. Witnesses such as
these can bring the Good News teethers, even to those in the world who do not
know the name of Jesus – and those countless Catholics and other Christians- and
perhaps members of our own families who have lapsed in their faith.
Actually, the Church, the Body of Christ – whose members we are- is the
ultimate “society’ – for the propagation on the Faith!
May this World Mission Sunday serve to remind us not to trust in ourselves, but
like the tax collector – to trust in our merciful God – that we may be ‘sent’ in
various ways, to build up the Body of Christ, the Church throughout the world.
In a prayer found after her death, the woman who began what has become
the Society for the Propagation of the Faith prayed in the same spirit of the tax
collector -“I have put my hopes in your mercy.”
Amen.