Eleventh Sunday of the Year – A
Today we celebrate Fathers’ Day. And so I wish to begin by extending congratulations and best wishes to all fathers who are present. Especially in these days, you carry out a mission which is as difficult as that given to the apostles om today’s gospel. We will remember each of you in this Mass.
The first reading from Exodus shows us the attitude which should be that os all fathers, as well of all of us. “I have borne you up on eagle’s wings and brought you here to myself. You shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people.”
In these words, we hear the Good Shepherd and the Sacred Heart telling us of His disposition towards us. It is one of unlimited love and compassion. It is one which is exemplified in the second reading from the epistle to the Romans: “God shows His love for us: Christ died for us, the ungodly, while we were yet sinners.”
And the gospel shows us even more clearly the mind of Christ: “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved for pity for them, because they were troubled and abandoned, without a shepherd” – without a father, a shepherd.
But Christ then does a strange thing: he tells the apostles to “Go to the lost sheep of Israel. Cure the sick, raise the dead. Cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Jesus seems to give the Apostles an impossible charge. Who of us would feel that we could fulfill even one of those commands? Yet Jesus knows that what seems impossible to humans, is possible if we have the right dispositions of mind and heart. And what are these? It is, as St. Paul tells us, we must “have the mind of Christ”. We must approach even the impossible with the same disposition as Christ. And what is that? We see from the gospel that it is first an attitude of love and compassion. Just as Christ looked on the crowd with a heart of pity and love, so we, whether fathers or not, are to look on pne another with hearts of love and compassion; with hearts ready even to give our life for the good of the other.
But beyond this, we are to have a spirit of faith. Jesus said elsewhere that if one has faith, he can say to a mountain: “be moved into the sea”, and it will happen. Not even the apostles had that kind of faith at this point of time. But after they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, they were able to do these very things.
So what is necessary for the true believer in Jesus is a spirit of faith and a spirit of love and compassion. Thos is the lesson that we are to receive from today’s readings.
One might be tempted to say: “That may be fine for the apostles, but what about us simple people?” We are here called to recognize our need for these very same dispositions of faith and love. Certainly none of us might feel competent to cure leprosy or to cast out demons. Those are for the apostles, and perhaps for a few rare saints who are given such powers. Yet all of us have received the Holy Spirit through the sacrament of Confirmation/ Hence what is lacking is the very attitudes of love and compassion and faith in the word of God as addressed to each of us today.
It is certainly true that each of the eleven apostles were saints. Yet such is ultimately the vocation of each one of us. In the life of Fr Louis, – Thomas Merton – after his conversion to the Church, he pondered what he was going to do. His friend, Robert Lax, quickly answered: “The only true goal in life is to become a saint”. That is good advice for each one of us. Baptism is a call to become a saint – a true Child of God. And each one of us – in whatever our vocation in life, is called to be a saint.
For us monks, we are called not just to be a “regular” monk, regular at Offices, and at work and meals. We are called to be saints. Yet that is as great a challenge for each of us as Christ’s command to cure the sick, to drive out demons and to raise the dead. Yet even here, Jesus comes to our rescue: “For you, it is impossible; yet withy God, all things are possible”. So a true spirit of faith in God and true love and compassion for our brothers and sisters will enable us to do even what seems impossible. Jesus tells us in the first reading today: “I have borne you on my wings. You are my special possession/”
Jesus Himself enables us to do even the impossible, even to give our life out of love for the other. He gives us that power in giving us Himself in this very Eicharist. In receiving Him, we receive the fullness of love and compassion and faith. And having this, what have we to fear – for God Himself is always with us.
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