Fr. John Ryan
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
8th JULY 2007
In today's reading from the Gospel of Luke we see Jesus send out the
disciples in pairs to preach the good news of the Kingdom. It is a passage
we hear regularly enough. As well as recurring on this Sunday every
three years we listen to it proclaimed every year on the Feast of Saint
Patrick. Looking at the passage as a whole we tend to focus on the response
of the disciples when they return. They marvel at the wonders they have
done. They surprise themselves in a way. And then Jesus response to
them puts their experiences into a deeper reality again. Rejoice rather
that your names are written in heaven. It is a reminder that all we
do in this world should be directed towards the next. We should live
as if we were already in the kingdom.
Notwithstanding the above, when we enter into a more detailed look at
the passage there are a number of points which are quite striking. One
in particular grabs my attention every time I look at the passage and
I ask myself what does Jesus mean by it, especially for us today. The
line I speak of is: "But whenever you enter a town and they do
not make you welcome, go out into its streets and say, 'We wipe off
the very dust of your town that clings to our feet, and leave it with
you. Yet, be sure of this, the kingdom of God is very near.'"
How are we called to live THIS line? How do we distinguish who listens
to the word and who does not? How would we react if we were told that
someone was wiping the dust of our town off their feet due to our inability
to hear the message of God's kingdom? Do we see ourselves, our community,
our parish as worthy of the message or do we see ourselves as a community,
a parish in need of the word and indeed, in need of a deeper understanding
of the word?
Two weeks ago I finished the reflection by asking have we in Ireland
failed to become a spiritually mature Church. I think that question
ties in with my thoughts above. For a long time we tend to look at practice
of the faith through numbers - how many baptisms take place, how many
go to Mass on Sunday, how many couples marry in the Church, what percentage
of people living in relationship do so as married or as cohabiting,
non-married couples and so on. As long as the pews were filled we were
content - not thinking about the maturity of faith of those who were
filling the pews or indeed, of those leading the sacramental celebrations.
Once people said their prayers and paid their dues then we were good
Catholic Ireland.
A mature faith or a mature spirituality would not worry about the numbers
but do its utmost to develop the relationship with Jesus Christ that
is meant to be the central facet of our Catholic spirituality. Without
that sense of relationship our own spiritual development remains stunted.
When we lose sight of Christ then we lose sight of the real meaning
of Church - it is the people of God, in dynamic relationship with Jesus
who has redeemed and saved us and revealed the Father to us. If we do
not have a deep, strong sense and experience of that relationship all
the numbers don't really matter. And I think that when we fall into
the 'numbers game' we are in danger of creating the conditions for the
dust to be wiped off the feet of those prophetic figures who try to
lead us closer to the kingdom