Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(July 1, 2007)
One would be very foolish
to think that no one can ever take your place. When it came time for the
great prophet Elijah to go up in his fiery chariot, he handed his mantle
over to Elisha, who asked for a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. Everything
and everyone has a life span, and then someone else comes along.
Jesus knew that he would
die when he went up to
Jerusalem
for that last fateful encounter, and so he began to prepare his
disciples to carry on his ministry. Of course in the case of Jesus,
no one can ever take his
place, since he is the only Savior of the world. And we don’t need
anyone to take Jesus’ place, since he is still here with us.
But Jesus made it very
clear that he would not be walking with them much longer and prepared
them to carry on the work in his name. For 2000 years the ministry of
Jesus has been handed down from minister to minister. As I come to the time
for me to hand on the ministry at St. Aloysius to Father Mark Davis, I
rejoice to have had the privilege of being your pastor at this stage
in my life. As I hand the mantle on to Father Mark, I know God will use
him to carry on much of what Father Hartman, Father Nietfeld, Father
Gorman and Father Leyland have handed on to me. But we all know that
each priest brings a different set of gifts and so Father Mark will
touch your lives in new ways, opening up the mystery of Jesus Christ to
you.
While I hope St. Aloysius
Parish will grow and be secure for decades to come, Jesus made clear to
his Apostles that following the Christ means being rejected and
accepting death as the way to new life.
- Only if I accept my
death will I be truly free.
-
Usually it is when the church is being persecuted that the
members of the Church come closest to Jesus Christ.
Just as Jesus entered first
into death so as to Rise on high, so the church is lifted highest when
we humble ourselves. We know that we are closest to Jesus not through
having large numbers of Catholics or putting up impressive buildings,
but when there are members who are willing to be persecuted for doing
what is right. For speaking out about abuses by government officials or
big business bosses.
Julie
was afraid that she would be fired if she blew the whistle on her
company’s cheating the government. But she did
it anyway and she was fired for doing the honest thing. She now
earns less, but she has been set free.
The fastest 100-meter
runner in
England
was Eric Liddell. He was their best candidate to get a gold medal in
the 1924 Olympics. But he decided he must drop out when they scheduled
the 100 meter on a Sunday. As a strong follower of Christ, he would not
go against his conscience, even when the newspapers began to call him a
traitor. But as the movie
Chariots of Fire reminded us, not only did he go on to win the 400 meter
event, but his team mate won the 100 meter race. For me, Eric’s
true success was not measured by his winning, but by his willingness
to put God ahead of winning the race and being considered a traitor.
If we follow Jesus to
Jerusalem
, we will have own cross and
Calvary
experience. But our faith leads us to realize there is more to come.
It is not all about what successes I can achieve in the eyes of the
world, but that I stay with the journey following Christ. The Lord
wont measure successful I have been. The Lord will measure how faithful
I have been.
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