Mission Sunday - Take Action

Homily 10 20 2013
29th Sunday OT - C

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The Widow in today's Gospel reveals her virtue of being persistent. The parable is a reminder to us that we are called today to be missionary minded without losing heart on this World Mission Sunday, to renew our faith, and to be willing to give and support the missions of the church.

As the judge finally gave in, we are invited to hear the plea to help the Missions, to give justice swiftly, to renew our call by the Church to accept our role as the Church.

No one has to give to Mission Sunday today, and I assure you that God will love you whether you give or not, but since God has given to us, we have an opportunity to reach out.

The question in today's gospel is...

"But when the Son of Man comes will he find any faith on earth?"

This is a big question asked of us. When we look at the Gospel, the Widow's insistence shows that she remains profoundly convinced that the judge, though he respects neither God nor men, will render her justice.

We ponder on the Living Word, and with our Brothers and Sisters are called to spread the faith, to share the Word.

The Parable today is about a Woman who went to a judge to demand justice, and eventually the judge supported her. And as the people of Exodus were dependent upon the manna, the Church worldwide this weekend is invited to support our Missions.

Like Moses, we also are called to pray in intercession for the Mission of the Church. Both Moses and the Widow provide us as a gathered assembly with vivid illustrations of the equality of prayer to which we are called to. Each of us like Moses has probably experienced similar fatigue and loneliness in prayer, and like Aaron and Hur we can support each other as we pray.

Will growing faith be found on earth when Jesus comes?

I think it will because I believe you will respond to the persistent call of the Church and especially for the Missions.

Reflection upon the readings suggests that the shocking comparison of the Parable of Jesus penetrates the core of who we are in relationship to the world.

Another strong theme today is the call of Jesus to pray always. Prayer is a conversation with God where we share the truth of ourselves with God.

Jesus speaks about the necessary consistency in prayer, and explains how prayer works and how it is heard by God. Like the widow in the parable, we are to persist in faith and pray constantly. If a corrupt and uncaring judge is moved by persistence, surely a loving and generous God will show even greater love to us.

All the injustices and unfairness we witness in life can lead us to doubt God, at least a God who cares and we then believe God is too distant to hear us, but like the Widow we are invited to hope and to bring hope to the world.

We can always depend upon God to hear us. So we are invited to not to give up.

As we gather today for Eucharist there are millions of people who do not know that God loves them. They have not heard the words of Christ and have not experienced the love of Christ through the service of missionaries.

Pope John Paul II challenges us with these words: "To a certain degree, in fact, each of us is personally responsible before God, for those millions of people who are "without faith."

Because we have received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Mission, we are called and challenged to be part of the Church's mission to all peoples. Today we are invited to respond to this call with our prayers and our financial help. Your generous contributions on World Mission Sunday this weekend will help our missionaries to reach out to the human family.

As we offer our personal sacrifices and generous financial help, we respond in the power of the Holy Spirit to the call to take part in the worldwide Mission of Jesus. For those of you who do not know, the collection for World Missions is for the Propagation of the Faith. The offerings are distributed, in the Pope's name among the missions and missionaries of the entire world.

I invite each parishioner to respond because the Propagation of the faith is all of us committed to continuing the worldwide mission of Jesus. For those unable to give please make a commitment to pray for the missions and for all missionaries.

It has been said that at the top of every music manuscript of Bach appear two Latin words, JESU IUVAL! JESUS HELP! The world's mightiest master of music did not dare place his fingers on the organ or compose a melody without calling for Jesus' help. We are called upon to do the same today.

Perseverance in prayer, despite its difficulties will not go unattended or unanswered by God.

There is an old story about a tailor who visits his rabbi and says, "I have a problem with my prayers. If someone comes to me and says, 'Mendel, you're a wonderful tailor,' that makes me feel good. I feel appreciated. I can go on feeling good for a whole week, even longer on the strength of one compliment like that.

But if people came to me every day, one after another, hour after hour, and kept saying to me 'Mendel, you're a wonderful tailor,' over and over again it would drive me crazy. It would soon get to the point where I wouldn't want to listen to them anymore. I would tell them to go away and let me do my work in peace.

This is what bothers me about prayer. It seems to me that if we told God how wonderful He is once a week, even once every few weeks, and just one or two of us at a time, that's all He would need.

Is God so insecure that He needs us praising him every day? Three times a day, morning, noon, and night? It seems to me it would drive Him crazy." The rabbi smiled and said, "Mendel, you're absolutely right. You have no idea how hard it is for God to listen to all of our praises, hour after hour, day after day.

But God knows how important it is for us to utter that praise, so in His great love for us, He tolerates all of our prayers." [Harold Kushner, Who Needs God? (New York: Summit Books, 1989), p.153.]

In telling the parable of the persistent widow, Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray with persistence.

jjl

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