12th Sunday Year A - Homily 4

Homily 4 - 2020

When sending the disciples out on mission, Jesus was not backward in letting them know that living a life of committed, practical love might prove to be quite dangerous. Even in the short passage we had as our Gospel this morning, he repeated twice the message: “Do not be afraid”. We Christians in Australia have never had reason to be afraid of being mortally harmed for our faithfulness to Jesus — unpopular, perhaps, and criticised [though most of that, tragically, for our having failed to live the message of Jesus].

In other areas of our present world, the story has been quite different — and many Christians, along with other ethnic and religious groups, face real persecution.

Yesterday was World Day for Refugees. In recent years, our nation’s response to the world’s refugees has been spectacularly self-centred and short-sighted. And we in the Church have hardly been noticeable for our clear and strong dissent. It is almost as if Jesus had never said a word about loving our neighbour, or clearly indicated that neighbours can precisely be those from beyond our borders, desperately seeking care and protection and the possibility of a decent life.

Why are we surprised that helping others in a truly just way would cost us something, perhaps even a lot? or that taking Jesus’ message seriously would deeply annoy a lot of others? Jesus even talked about loving our enemies. But we Catholics have rarely stood out as different — except for the wrong things. Did Jesus mean what he so clearly said? Do we ever wonder why he prioritised the things he did? He must have believed that we could do it. He must have wanted us to do it — even at a cost.

I hope we as a nation learn something from the serious disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. We do seem to be accepting that we are in this together, that we can surprisingly work together; and that it is acceptable to run up enormous national debt to help those most in need.

Who wants to get back to normal?