July 12, 2020: 15th Sunday A

July 12, 2020: 15th Sunday A

Audio Homily: https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=15176078

These days when the temperature outside is hovering around 100 degrees, we appreciate the fact that we can get from point A to B in an air conditioned car. We have to remind ourselves that it wasn’t that long ago that most people walked to go shopping, to visit family and friends, and to go to church; most buildings did not have air conditioning. These days, you don’t even have to drive or walk to church to attend services. It’s right there on the TV or computer screen and the whole service comes to you. You can now read and watch thousands of homilies and sermons on the internet. 

With all these conveniences afforded by technology, are we more open to receive the Word of God and to bear fruit by our action? Or have the Word of God and the Holy Mass become another channel among the hundreds of channels on our cable or digital TV?  How open are our hearts right now to receive the gift of Jesus in the Word and in the Eucharist? Are our hearts like the fertile soil, ready to germinate the seeds of the Gospel and bear fruit by our action? Or are our hearts like the hardened pathway, the rocky soil, or ground choked with weeds where no seeds can land and grow? 

Imagine if we had to wait several months before being able to attend Holy Mass and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Would we be more eager and open to hear and to live out the Gospel? That was the case in Korea in the 1800’s. The first native Korean to be ordained was Fr. Andrew Kim. It took him nine years of study in foreign countries to become a priest. Only one year after his ordination, however, he was arrested, tortured, and killed during persecution. The Korean faithful had to wait four more years after St. Andrew Kim’s martyrdom before the second native Korean priest, Fr. Thomas Choe, was ordained. Father Thomas spent twelve years walking throughout Korea to sow the seeds of the gospel and to minister to the fledgling Catholic communities. These Catholic communities were often hidden in mountainous areas because of the fear of persecution. While St. Andrew Kim was martyred by blood, Venerable Thomas Choe was martyred by sweat of his brow. Fr. Thomas walked 1,800 miles on foot each year and often traveled by night to avoid capture by king’s soldiers who were persecuting Catholics. It is said that he only slept 2 and ½ hours each day. After 12 years of walking tirelessly with barely any sleep, Fr. Thomas succumbed to exhaustion and Typhoid fever. 

What a blessing and privilege that we are given today to be able to hear the Word of God, receive the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation every day! With this privilege comes responsibility. St. James said, “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” (James 1:21-22) To be doers of the Word of God means to carry out the new commandment that Christ gave us, “Love one another as I have loved you.” When we depart from this earth, Our Lord, the Merciful Judge, will not ask us if we were conservative or liberal in our politics or religion; if we belonged to an ecclesial movement, if we followed a particular liturgical style, or if we followed a particular bishop’s or priest’s’ position. 

The early Church had factions, divisions, and popularity contests from the very beginning. St. Paul had to address such divisions, namely the faithful who followed Apollos and the faithful who followed Paul, so he wrote to the Corinthian community, “Whenever someone says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ and another, ‘I belong to Apollos,’ are you not merely human? What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” 

When we meet Jesus in Heaven he is going to reveal to us what we did with our talents. Did we bear fruit by living His Word? It is helpful to reflect on what Pope Francis said recently, “The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial; they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in indifference to others; indeed, it even leads to the globalization of indifference. In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none of my business.” (Vatican City, July 8, 2020)

We may be appalled by people who are caught on smartphone video making insensitive racial ranting and raving. It may seem satisfying to point fingers at others by re-sharing or commenting on such infractions. Yet, our own judgement day, Jesus will not ask us about what others did but what we did. He will ask us how much we loved others, how much we gave of ourselves, how much we were able to overcome our own self-centeredness to touch the lives of others. “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” (Matt 25:35) As St. John of the Cross simply said, “In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.” Let us strive to recognize the face of Our Lord in the face of our own families, the poor, the sick, the abandoned, and people of different races and ethnicities whom God places on our way.