Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her; Exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her! Isaiah 66:10
But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation. Galatians 6:14-15
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way.” Luke 10:2-3a
Piety
Isaiah says; “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her.” The Lord promises prosperity and good things. Jerusalem stands for the Holy City. Heaven awaits all who love the Lord. All the earth cries out to God with joy. Creation sings a hymn of praise to God. Creation speaks the great love God has for us. Paul tells us he never boasts except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to him and he to the world. Paul tells us he bears the marks of Jesus on his body. Whether he had the stigmata or not on his body, I do not know. I do know that he went through terrible tortures in his efforts to share Christ with his people. We cannot read his letters without being amazed at what pains he went through in order to share Christ. It is not hard to imagine the marks of the ship wrecks and scourging he went through in order to proclaim Christ. We know he was left for dead after stoning. Bruises never completely heal. He had a right to boast how much he was like Christ in the crosses of his life. I have to ask myself what I have suffered for Christ.
Study
The invitation of Christ is to take up our crosses and to follow him. Our claim to fame in heaven will be found in the share we have of the tree of glory. The wood of my crosses seems to be more splinters than anything else. I always think of the young person brought to me by the mother because her daughter was upset by the way her friends were taunting her for being Catholic. When I congratulated her for having been able to suffer for Christ, the mother looked at me for a moment like I had lost my mind. Then she realized what I had said. We all have a right to glory in our being like Christ. All the ways that I see I have suffered for him need to be boated about and we need to be glad we are becoming more like Christ. Anyone can follow Christ in the good times. It is in the bad times that the real friends of Christ stand out in the crosses they carried.
Action
We need to make a commitment to redemptive suffering in our lives. We too need to be able to rejoice that we have been worth to suffer for the name. What is the something that is going to cost me time and effort that I can do to make a better world? What is the challenge of God’s love in our lives that he is asking us to put up with by suffering in the name of Christ for our friends? It is too easy to walk around the suffering of others in our world. It is almost as if we need disasters before we are willing to open up our pocketbooks to help others. Actions follow decisions of our hearts. The trip from the head to the heart allows us to do what common sense tells us not to be involved in. We need to follow the God sense our heart teaches us in Christ. Because Christ died for us, we can offer ourselves in his name for a better world for our family and friends. Redemptive suffering is the action we need in our lives to be able to rejoice with Paul that we are Christ’s disciples. The seventy-two disciples who went out in the name of Christ rejoiced in what they could do in the name of Christ. We need us to go out with them to spread the good news that Christ still is in our world.
