14th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
OLR, NOLA
The
CDC estimates that in the U.S. a person dies every twelve seconds. In
the time it takes us to celebrate this Mass approx. 275 people will
have died. We can't know how many of those people went to their
graves w/o hearing the Gospel; how many went to their graves
well-prepared for a final judgment. We can't know who received God's
freely offered mercy for their sins, or who chose to live outside
God's mercy forever. The Church does the hard work of preparing the
ground, planting the seed, tending the shoots, and weeding the field.
The final harvest is God's work. And that final harvest comes for
someone in the U.S. every twelve seconds. The question we need to ask
ourselves – as laborers in the field of the Lord – is have I done
everything I can do to make sure that everyone I know and love,
everyone I visit and work with everyday looks at me and sees Christ
among them? If I were to ask your family, friends, co-workers,
neighbors: who among you does the work of Christ for you – would
your name be mentioned? If not, what do you need to do make sure
they do?
I
said earlier that the Church does the hard work of preparing the
ground, planting the seed, tending the shoots, and weeding the field.
And that God will take care of the final harvest. Christians – over
the centuries – have been known to (on occasion) take on God's work
in picking and choosing which crops get harvested, which plants go to
fruit, and which ones go into the fire. While it is true that the
followers of Christ participate in the divine life – imperfectly,
we are not in fact divine ourselves. The final harvest is God's work.
Leave that to Him. Our labors go into preparing the ground, planting
the seed, tending the shoots, and weeding the field. It's not
glamorous work. But it is necessary work. And it cannot be done by
word alone. It takes deeds, actual labor. The labor of daily prayer.
Faithful attention to the sacraments. Taking every opportunity to
bear witness to the truth. Showing mercy by forgiving sins. Seeking
forgiveness when we have sinned. It's the labor of knowing right from
wrong, good from evil. Loving the sinner but despising the sin.
Teaching the Way, the Truth, and the Life even when doing so may be
embarrassing or difficult or offensive. It's the labor of growing in
holiness by constantly embedding ourselves deeper in the world w/o
becoming subject to the world. Jesus tells us that this is a
dangerous task. Fortunately, you are not alone.
When
Jesus appoints the Seventy-two, he says to them, “The harvest is
abundant but the laborers are few. . .Go on your way. . .I am sending
you like lambs among wolves.” Three points to note here: 1). there
is an abundant harvest, souls who need Christ but do not know him;
2). there aren't enough laborers to help with this harvest, pray for
more help; and 3). the harvest exists in a world of wolves, and we
are merely lambs among them. These truths should be discouraging. We
should be distressed that there aren't enough laborers, and that we
are laboring among wolves. Why didn't our Lord arm the Seventy-two?
Why not give them enough money to travel safely? Why not create a
militia corps to escort his preachers through a dangerous world?
There are a number of practical/logistical answers to these
questions, but Paul's answer is sufficient: “May I never boast
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world
has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Our peace, our
protection, our power resides in the fact that we are new creatures,
born again in water and spirit. We labor crucified to the world –
dead and buried already in the world of wolves. Nothing done to us
here and now will survive in the presence of God the Father.
This
truth should bring you peace. I don't mean that you can shirk your
worldly duties, or that we can all run off to the hills and commune
with the squirrels. The peace of Christ isn't a narcotic state of
mind, or an absent-mindedness, or a momentary relaxation. The peace
of Christ is knowing and believing that your life in the world is
given its final meaning in the victory of Christ on the cross; that
is, your purpose is living out the always, already accomplished
victory over sin and death. The labor you have chosen to take on is
nothing more than living day-to-day, hour-to-hour in full and
faithful knowledge that – from eternity – the harvest is done.
Christ wins. The Church wins. And now we go out and about making sure
that everyone we know and love knows that Christ's victory is their
victory – if they
choose it to be. Do
you live daily, hourly as a son or daughter of the Most High whose
victory over sin and death is already accomplished? Your labor
accomplishes nothing that Christ has not already done for you. Your
labor is a sign and invitation to others to choose his victory for
themselves!
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