Father Chris -Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time- Homily

" Mission Possible"

 
At the seminary, students were assigned to groups and each group to a particular parish in town. Every year each group was required to take-on a project of some kind, something members of the group came up with for themselves which would take place on a given day that year. Often, it was preparing liturgy and music for a special mass at the parish they belonged to. Others planned a day of hospital visits or helping out at a local soup kitchen. 
 
One year, our group decided ‘to boldly go where no man had gone before’ … at least not gone for a very long time. We decided to follow Christ’s instructions as per today’s gospel: go forth in pairs, take nothing with us – except a bottle of water and our humility – and knock-on doors within the footprint of the parish we belonged to, dusting our feet off on the porches and steps of those who rejected us.
 
Meantime, the pastor provided lists of parishioners for us, and later announced at mass one Sunday that people may encounter some seminary lads – plus an elderly gentleman – wandering the streets and daring to knock on their doors. We would simply invite them to our local church to enjoy the good, Christian fellowship and worship there. Our preaching was by our presence alone. Although it would be only a three-hour afternoon exercise, we expected it would feel like forever.
 
The surprise came when in most cases we found ourselves welcomed and engaged. Many stood at their doors and chatted about the church in general, sometimes their involvement or non-involvement, being too busy to attend. Others were astonished that anyone from the Catholic church would bother to visit them! Most seemed delighted, while others were wary, because they thought it was for donations.
 
There were a few who invited us in, usually for tea and cookies. They would have set a place for us at dinner if we had accepted. One chap pulled us into a lengthy, philosophical discussion about where religion was going, where society was going and where the world was going, and it was not a happy place. An elderly lady loved talking about the church she once knew, but her husband had passed, her children were far away, and church attendance had become part of her past as well.   
 
Probably the most impressed were those who were of a different faith, since we had decided to knock on everyone’s doors. They had never experienced the Catholic church doing this kind of evangelization. We encouraged them ‘to come and see’.
 
Some did not answer their doors, while a few said they were not interested, but no one hastily closed or slammed their doors in our faces, nor confronted us in anger. We never did need to ‘dust our feet off’ after the inspiring visits we all shared later.                             
 
People are looking for answers. They ask themselves what life is all about. The pandemic has shone a spotlight on their need for something more than material things, more than money and security, more than power and control over our environment. The spotlight is on our soul and how to spiritually nourish it. Many people behind their doors are asking themselves each day how to address it, and we must ask ourselves, how do we knock on their doors, especially during a pandemic.   
 
Too many are not aware that God and spiritual nourishment is as close to them, is as available to them, and as rooted within them as is the Holy Spirit which moves and causes to move and recreate every living being on this planet and beyond.
 
But we can tell them this. It is part of our baptismal calling to share this with them. Ever since we found Jesus Christ, we have been privileged to know and learn of his peace, hope and salvation. We ‘received’ his good word, but now we must ‘give’ it.
 
In the 1940s film, ‘Now Voyager’, itself a story about rebirth and nourishment of one’s soul, the main character, Charlotte, is chastised for always doing for others, but nothing for herself. But she explains that ‘giving is a kind of receiving’.  
 
Jesus turned his 12 disciples into 12 apostles, from followers to teachers, from receivers to givers. Thanks to the relatively recent involvement of the laity in the Church, anyone who gives, volunteers or contributes to the church knows this gratifying feeling of also receiving, and experiencing growth in their faith, while seeing the expansion of love in their lives and the lives of others they reach out to.              
 
As Christ’s missionaries, let us assess our skills, talents and individual situations, and give what we can. God ensures we will receive his protection, grace and love.
 
– Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish, Saugeen Shores, Ontario