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FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(Amos 7: 12-15;
Ephesians 1: 3-14; Mark 6: 7-13)
A writer tells how a
married couple preached to him. He says that woman was always the life of the
party. But when she was diagnosed with throat cancer, she had to change her way
of living. Instead of going out to parties, she had to deal with the disease.
But, he says, she never lost her peace. The author continues that cancer was
her cross, and peace came because she knew that by bearing it, she would end up
in heaven. The writer says that her husband never left her bedside. When her
friends invited him to go to a baseball game or take a bicycle ride, he always
declined. He said, "I am exactly where I want to be." According to
the author, the two grew closer to God in love.
Pope Francis, like his
predecessors, has asked all of us Christians to preach. He says that we are
"missionary disciples" called to pass the good news to others. We
should not say to ourselves as Amaziah says to Amos in the first reading: “’Off
with you, visionary…’” As Jesus sends his twelve disciples in the gospel, he
sends us.
Let us not worry. It
is not for everyone to preach from the pulpit. We do not even need to talk when
we preach. We can announce God's love with our lives dedicated to virtue.
Parents showing affection to one another preach to their children. In a society
where sex is increasingly separated from marriage, the virtue of love is
proclaimed to them in the context of marriage. A preacher tells of his parents
dancing arm in arm in the living room of his house. Their three children were
impressed about how the sacrament of marriage encompasses romantic love.
In the reading Jesus
imparts some rules that still apply to our attempts to proclaim the gospel.
Jesus tells the apostles to take "nothing for the journey." He wants them
their dependence on Divine Providence to be another testimony to God's
goodness. Today the married couple that accepts a large family as a gift from
God preaches the same Divine Providence.
We will want to spread
the message of God's love to everyone, including people in difficulty. Families
blessed with a child with Down Syndrome display this love. Unfortunately, our
society often shows disdain for the disabled. However, these “special children”
often become the source of great love in their families. In the gospel, Jesus
admonishes the twelve not to go from one house to another in search of comfort.
We also should not look for the ideal in
other families with characteristics more in line with the norms for our
society. No, we want to thank God for our families as different as they may be.
Jesus commands his
disciples to cast out demons. They exist in larger numbers than we imagine.
They are the lies and mistakes that are prevalent today. One such idea is that
the child has a right to choose his own gender. We believe, as science says,
that gender is determined by the composition of the chromosomes: in the vast
majority of cases either as a male or as a female. Gender dysphoria, when a
person with male chromosomes thinks that he is female or vice versa, is a
serious psychological malady. We preach the truth when we show compassion and
understanding to those who suffer it. However, it would be unethical to treat
them as if they were correct about their gender.
The second reading
invites us to thank God the Father for all his blessings. We can easily name
three ways we are blessed. God has sent Jesus Christ to us as our companion and
savior. He has also placed us in a community of holy, though not perfect,
people. Finally, He has called us to preach his goodness and love to others.
