11th Sunday Year A - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2023

Today’s passage from St Matthew’s Gospel began: “When Jesus saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them, because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd." Matthew’s comment gives us a brief look into the heart of Jesus. Essentially, Jesus engaged with people, viscerally. He felt for them in his stomach, in his gut, as it were. Something seemed to draw him into a significant relationship with them. In this case his reaction was triggered by his seeing people discounted by society, regarded as of no account, and neglected accordingly. But his engagement with people could be triggered by no end of causes. People had remarked earlier how struck they were by his integrity, his inner authority.

There was no way that Jesus, alone, could engage with everyone as he would have liked. So, not surprisingly, he said to his disciples:"The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” Within this context, Jesus’ immediate response to the world’s need became clear: more labourers for the harvest. Jesus “summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out, and to cure all kinds of diseases and sicknesses.”

The Gospel passage continued:These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: “Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Given the urgency of people’s needs and the fewness at this stage of labourers, it is not surprising that Jesus made a priority of restricting the apostles’ mission to those he referred to as the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”. With a few exceptions, Jesus respected that same priority himself. However, after his resurrection, Jesus would command the same disciples to expand their vision and to “make disciples of all the nations”.

 Today’s passage concluded:"And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. Their message to Israel was simple. They were to “proclaim” that “the kingdom of heaven was close at hand”. They were to tell people the exciting news that change was in the air, and challenge them, by their own lives and enthusiasm, to be ready for it. Life would be radically different. People would need to sit lightly with the so-far familiar. At this stage, they would have to leave it still to Jesus to fill them in on the content and shape of change. To reinforce the message, the disciples were to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, [even] cast out devils.” While this would no doubt be great news for the lepers, the sick and the demon-possessed, it would simply be a foretaste of the radical newness of the approaching kingdom.

What might all this say to us? Where might we start? The Church’s present temptation, at least in our Western World, is to allow ourselves to feel paralysed by what is happening — with numbers of priests and religious diminishing, and particularly with congregations disappearing at an unexpected rate? Like so many of our fellow-citizens we may feel lost, oppressed, etc. Just listen to and reflect on an average evening TV News bulletin. We are so bombarded with bad news. Are we too “harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd?” 

I think that our starting point has to be with Jesus. Do we ever ask ourselves what is the “good news of the kingdom”? Do we need to let it flood our hearts? Have we ever allowed Jesus to touch us -- sufficiently to make any real difference to us?