Fr. Rick’s Homily: 16thSunday in Ordinary Time 7/21/24
Jer 23:1-6; Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6; Eph 2:13-18; Mk 6:30-34
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Jesus said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
Many of you are on vacation and you have come to what must look like a fairly deserted place. You are likely coming from a larger town than Kanab and probably the towns are closer together where you are from. And the views around here are fantastic. So enjoy it! If your schedule is not too rushed and if you can find some alone time, it’s a very profound sensation to experience what a big wide-open piece of untrammeled nature can have on you. It can be very refreshing, but also a bit disturbing. We will probably notice the sharp contrast between the world we live in most of the time and a more natural rhythm full of natural sounds…. if you get far enough out. Find some alone time if you can and let it sink in as deeply as possible. And start planning your trip back for a silent retreat.
Unfortunately, a deeper dive into today’s readings call us to another whole part of our journey. Notice that this invitation to ‘rest a while’ is sandwiched between the action of teaching:
“The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught.”
Jesus said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
……When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”
Jesus and the apostles are teaching / ministering before and after. The rest that Jesus is calling them to is but a respite from teaching. It’s an essential rest, a deep rest. Jesus does this regularly in His ministry. The demands of His life are great. He is being obedient to the Father who sent Him to earth to save the people from their sins … and all the resulting suffering that inevitably flows from a people who are confused, frightened and desperate.
These people know they need help and are seeking it. They chase Him down to get what they want and need. Their needs are great and there are many of them. It will take a special type of energy to minister to these people. They are living under severe oppression and their religious leaders are not offering them much relief or remedy. Maybe they don’t know it, but the people are ultimately seeking Truth about their very identity and the meaning of life. They have come to the right place because Jesus IS the Way, the Truth and the Life. There is a huge gap between the awareness of the people and what Jesus has to offer. It requires lots of mind, body, and spirit energy to be with this crowd. Plus, Jesus is still instructing the apostles. It must be a little like being a teaching physician in a teaching hospital with a troop of interns and resident students tagging along. Jesus will need more than a couple hours at the golf course. He needs solitude and the deep rest that comes directly from the Father.
An important observation is necessary here. Jesus and the apostles are prepared to teach, they WANT to teach (because they have been called by the Father to do so). AND THE PEOPLE WANT TO LEARN. Sort of the ideal situation.
This is kind of a happy little picture. And of course, the supreme teacher is setting the example. If we flash forward a couple years for Jesus and a couple decades for the apostles, we see all these wonderful teachers get killed, except for John. For teaching!! Because little by little the people realized that once they have been taught or healed, they then have the responsibility to follow Jesus and continue the mission. Most people think that is completely unreasonable. Most people would like to find the peace that Jesus and solitude can offer and then just ‘check out’. Just stay in a deserted place and ‘be spiritual’.
This is an important background for understanding the first reading today from the prophet Jerimiah. This is an area I’m perfectly willing to avoid if you would like me to just end the homily here. Yes? No?
The line that jumps out at me right off when reading these scriptures is what jumps out at most priests and ministers is:
“Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD. Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people:
‘You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.’”
Woe to me? I’m immediately looking for wiggle room. ‘Woe to you’ just has a really bad ring to it.
I know there are many shepherds in the Church who teach what is wrong and many who just avoid some subjects altogether. From my perspective, two of the areas which are most avoided by priests are Catholic Social Teaching and almost everything related to human sexuality. The tragedy in this is that most people are not celibate, nor do they work at the Church. Most people get married and have jobs and lives out in the secular world. The secular world is not neutral. There are very deliberate forces which are professionally feeding us lifestyles and values. As disciples of Christ we are not called to just absorb the world as it is or just cope with it, but rather to transform it. To teach it. This takes training and spiritual strength. After 25 years of parish ministry, I don’t think we are coming close to providing the vision or the training that the laity need to be true to their baptismal and marital vows.
Obviously, a huge part of the teacher / student equation is the type of person who is attracted to the priesthood and how they are trained, but that is a different 5-day discussion. Suffice it to say that priests have a rather esoteric life compared to most people.
But back to the subject of teachings avoided. As it happen this week is Natural Family Planning Awareness Week which has very wide implications. In our political culture, one side considers itself as Pro-Life and the other will see itself as fighting for women’s health. Who are they fighting when fighting for women’s health. Are they fighting men? That’s scary. Not just left versus right, but men against women!! That’s not from God. The very fact that modern politicians (on both sides) can get by with publicly proclaiming that they are fighting for the soul of America is a sure sign of really bad religious teaching. It’s a fairly obvious sign that most American Christians are biblically illiterate………. Over the centuries of Biblical history, we know that Israel has gotten into lots of trouble when they rely on secular ‘kings’ for their divine inspiration and authority. Most absurdly, we have a self-proclaimed devout Catholic president who is proudly pro-choice. Fighting for women’s health. Making sure that young women and girls have access to all the chemicals they need to put in their young bodies in order to make themselves more available to the untempered passions of men. And of course it gets worse from there. Gulp.
This absurdity can continue because the people are poorly prepared in teaching on the meaning and experience of human sexuality or in Catholic Social Teaching. We’re not ready to go into the public square with God’s Wisdom, God’s Knowledge, God’s Understanding, God’s Counsel and God’s Strength.
Recently, we did a short study of Catholic teaching on the Theology of the Body which helps us understand the beauty, but radically counter-cultural teachings of the Church about the meaning of human sexuality. Even though we are in a very, very, very pro-life part of the country and the state, I don’t think most Catholics can put two coherent sentences together about the Church’s teaching of sexuality, especially if it extends to artificial contraception. This ultimately goes back to the priest. I myself have to admit I can’t point to many obvious successes I’ve had in fueling a sustained interest in the meaning and spirituality of sexuality.
Such teachings require a deeper exploration of one’s Inner life.
Many people are seeking some kind of inner peace through meditation, centering prayer or any variety of prayer methods and rituals, but if our efforts lead us back to Jesus and His mission, we tend to stall out. We want peace without the mission.
If we go too deep, we get too close to the pain we carry around inside of us. We bail out and just keep busy and get back to doing good things…..
After 500 years of celibate practice among Latin Rite priests and 1500 years of celibacy in mens’ and womens’ religious orders, chastity should be our strong suit.
Woe to us!!
I will add however, in our defense, especially speaking from my own experience of ministry, it seems that the last things people want to talk about is social justice and the real meaning of chastity. Another 5-day discussion……
This homily is available on our website so you can read and reread it all week long. Yeah.
Anyway, here are some reflection questions to consider during the week if you can find make some of that cherished quiet reflection time in your day. They are in the bulletin for your convenience.
Homily Reflection Questions:
1/ In your life as a Catholic, which areas of Catholic teaching do you think have been most deficient in the teaching efforts of the Church? What opportunities have you taken to help educate yourself in these areas and how have you recommended help to others?
2/ Why do you suppose certain aspects of Catholic teaching seem to be avoided by clergy and the laity?
3/ Where have you experienced difficult religious topics being taught particularly well? How did that change your perspective on the Church and how might you have shared the Good News?
4/ How might our American culture exploit the weaker taught areas of Catholic doctrine and spirituality? Think politics, economics, morality, marketing methods, ecology.