For the Sake of the Gospel

February 8, 2009

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again. Job 7:6-7

To those outside the law I became like one outside the law--though I am not outside God's law but within the law of Christ--to win over those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it. 1 Corinthians 9:21-23

Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you." He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." Mark 1:35-38

Piety

Father, give hope to our hopelessness so that we may share in your glory. Jesus, count us among the people who are looking for you. Lead us to you so that we may live for the sake of the gospel. Amen.

Study

How discouraging life would be without Jesus to give meaning to our suffering by our union with his suffering on the cross. What we go through will always be almost insignificant compared to his suffering. The black nights of our hopelessness will always be illumined by the blinding sun of the rising Jesus. He is our light and our salvation. Our life on earth will never be the drudgery of Job because we know Christ. We preach a gospel by our lives in Christ that will never give us a reason to boast. We will always know that if another had been given the same chance to know Christ, all the labors of life would seem insignificant to them because with our graces and our knowing of Christ so much more would be possible to them. If we had their graces, we would be faint reflections of them.

Our piety calls us to be one with Christ and to be as close to him as our love allows. Our love for Christ calls us to imitate him. If I could give as much glory to God by a short life rather than a long life I would choose the short life to be more like him. Fear of dying has no room in the heart for one who really loves Christ. Likewise, if I could give as much glory to God by riches or poverty, I would choose poverty to be poor with Christ poor. How could I be rich when the Lord I love is emptied of all his ‘godlikeness’ to be one of us and thus to show how much God loves us. What is there that I would not do for the sake of this Lord of mine? The disjunctions of Ignatius go on. If I could give as much glory to God by honor as dishonor, I would choose dishonor if only I did not deserve it to be more like the Christ who claims my heart by his love for me. He took on the dishonor of the cross for our sakes.

Action

Piety is how we try to live our lives in love with Christ. Seeing how he lived his life for my sake, how could I boast? The love of Christ has placed an obligation on my heart and if I do not preach Christ by all my life, what could be my recompense? Like Paul I need to make myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible to the love of Christ. Piety puts on our heart the challenge to become all things to all, to save at least some. Piety gives us the challenge to do all for the sake of the gospel, so that we may have a share in it. So we study the gospel to learn better how to work at life like Christ did. His treatment of the mother-in-law of Peter gives us a model for the apostolic practices of our lives. We bring our families into closeness to Christ by lifting the burdens of each other. We help others to help us. We do not separate our work from our families. We study the needs of those around us so that we may all be part of the healing ministry of Christ. The effectiveness of his words was aided by the ways he healed the ills of those around family. We study how we can bring all of our lives into play in the ministry we do in the name of Jesus. Our ministry is a means to the purpose of our lives. We live our lives to bring the good news of Christ to all we know. Eduardo Bonin, the founder of the Cursillo movement, claimed about twenty group reunions every day because he tried to bring Christ into every conversation he had during the day. For him it as very real the promise of Christ to be with us when we gathered in his name with even one other. Christ went off by himself at the end of the day to pray. Prayer keeps alive every action of our day with the presence of Christ. Whatever we think of during out prayer becomes a prayer during the day as every person and occupation of our day is blessed by being in our prayer.