James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
were two of the apostles called by Jesus.
Jesus gave them the nickname “the Sons of Thunder”, probably for their
great zeal and fiery personalities. James and John make a very bold request of
Jesus: they want him to give them a place of honor at his side. Yet, Jesus tells them that they must be
willing to drink the same cup that Jesus drinks, they must be willing to
recognize that our faith is not all about honor and glory, but rather about
being a servant and about carrying our crosses in life. Little did James know that he would be the
very first apostle martyred for the faith, as recorded in the Acts of the
Apostles. This happened after James
returned back to Jerusalem from his missionary travels in Spain, in which he
came back after having converted very few inhabitants to our faith.
Today, the next-to-last Sunday in
October, is always celebrated in our Church as World Mission Sunday. This day reflects the deep identity of our
Church to always be missionary and to bring Christ’s Gospel to all the
world. On this day, October 21, Pope
Benedict XVI will canonize 7 new saints in our Church. Kateri Tekakwitha, who has been recognized as
blessed in our Church since 1980, will be the first native American recognized
as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Kateri, known in our Church as “the Lilly of the Mohawks”, was born in
the mid-17th century and was baptized by the French Jesuit
missionaries when she was 20 years old.
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, himself a native American,
states that “Kateri's life is a witness not only to the cost of discipleship –
she bore a great deal of suffering for her faith among her own people – but also
to its fruitfulness….She reminds us that Jesus came for all people in every
age, but especially for the lowly, whom God loves in a special way."
Also being canonized today is Sister
Marianne Cope, a Sister of Saint Francis from Syracuse, New York, who was
invited with her fellow sisters by Father Damien and King Kalākaua of Hawaii in
1883 to journey to the island of Molokai in Hawaii to work with the poor and
the lepers there. Bishop Silva of
Honolulu notes: “In this Year of Faith, we thank God for (Mother Marianne and)
these beautiful models of women who embraced the sufferings of life and who
nevertheless exuded great joy because they were so in love with Jesus." In addition to serving the lepers, Mother
Marianne and her fellow sisters established schools and hospitals that served
the poor in Hawaii.
Our theme on World Mission Sunday is
“Called to Radiate the Word of Truth”.
Just as Mother Marianne and Kateri Tekakwitha were models for living out
joy in their faith, we are all called to share the Good News of Jesus in joyful
proclamation, to bring hope to our world through the joy that is at the heart
of our Christian experience. We don’t
have to travel to a faraway place like Hawaii to be missionaries to the
world. As a part of our baptismal calling,
we are called to radiate this missionary joy wherever we are in our lives, to be bearers of the hope-filled witness of the Gospel in our prayers and in our
proclamations.
We have had such wonderful examples of
missionaries in our Church through the ages – Father Damien and Mother Marianne
Cope and their example of working with the lepers in Hawaii is just one example
among many. However, we must remember
the example of one of the patron saints of our Church’s missionary spirit –
Saint Therese of the Little Flower.
Therese died at the very young age of 24, and lived her life as a
Carmelite nun in a cloistered convent in France. Yet, Pope John Paul II named Therese as one
of the patron saints of the missions, even though she never went off to a
faraway land herself. I saw a posting on
the internet when someone questioned why the pope would name a cloistered nun as
a patron saint of the missions, when we have so many great missionaries from
which to choose. Perhaps she was chosen
for this role to show how all of us are called to have a heart for the
missions. Therese always dreamed of
going to the missions, but her poor health prevented her from doing so. She recognized God’s calling to be
missionary, as she supported the missions in prayers and in sacrifices. She spiritually adopted missionaries and
seminarians, praying for them and corresponding with them, giving them
spiritual advice and counsel. Therese
brought a joyful spirit in her love for the missions, which echoes the joy that
Pope Benedict calls us all to have in our Christian witness, a joy that is so important
in midst of the anxiety, sorrow, and violence that is so present in our
world. As members of the Church, we are
called to bring a joy that is authentic and enduring, the same joy that the
shepherds and angels proclaimed on the night that Jesus was born.
There a lot of things that bring us
happiness and pleasure in this world.
And it is certainly good to have earthly pleasures and happiness as a
part of our lives. Yet, they are mere
shadows of the joy that we find in our faith.
I always remember the advice Paul gave to the Philippians, telling them
to always to joyful in Lord. Paul tells
them to let this joy be obvious to everyone, to realize that the Lord is always
near to us. Paul is able to say in this
letter that he is full of joy for the Lord, even though he is writing this
letter to the Philippians while he is in prison. Thus, this joy had to be deeper and more
profound than any of the pleasures and happiness that he could experience in a
worldly sense. I try to convey this
sense of joy in my priesthood. In fact, we are all called to convey this sense of joy in our lives as this
joyful aspect of our faith calls out to all of us each and every day.
As we celebrate the Year of Faith this
year, we are called to deepen our love and understanding of all different
aspects of our faith. We celebrate today
our call to be missionary no matter where we are in our lives. We celebrate the great missionaries who have
brought our faith to people near and far.
May we search out ways to be missionaries in our own little corner of
the world, and to support the missionary endeavors of our Church.
No comments:
Post a Comment