{"id":2905,"date":"2019-07-07T12:12:36","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T16:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2905"},"modified":"2019-07-07T13:49:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T17:49:28","slug":"14th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/14th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

14<\/a>th<\/a><\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
Isaiah 66:10-14c
Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20 (1)
Galatians 6:14-18
Luke 10:1-2, 17-30
July 7, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus sent \u201cseventy-two others<\/strong>\u201d out on a mission.  In identifying them as \u201cothers\u201d a distinction\nis made from the Twelve Apostles who had already been sent out on a similar\nmission (the Apostles actually had more to do on their mission).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number \u201ctwelve\u201d for the Apostles\nis rooted in the Twelve tribes of Israel, the whole of Israel, but why 72?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of Jesus, seventy-two was\nthe number of all the known nations, so it symbolizes the mission to proclaim\nthat \u201cthe Kingdom of God is at hand<\/em>\u201d\nis to the whole world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seventy-two is also the number of\nelders appointed by Moses to help in advising the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are the Twelve and the\nseventy-two represented in our church today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, bishops are the successors to\nthe Twelve Apostles.  Who succeeds the\nseventy-two is less certain.  Some\nscholars say it is the priests.  Others\nsay everyone.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, priests have a particular\nrole to play in offering the Sacraments but the work of the Church is not\nlimited to just the clergy.  At Baptism\nwe all receive the Holy Spirit and are anointed as priest, prophet, and king.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are all called to be willing to make\nsacrifices for the good of others and for our faith.  In sacrificing, we fulfill our priestly\ncalling.  We are all called, in different\nways, to share God\u2019s Word, fulfilling our prophetic call.  We are all called to be a king like Jesus in\nserving others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it easy?  No, especially in a culture of relativism\nthat says we aren\u2019t supposed to talk about our faith with others.   The same culture of relativism says we\nshouldn\u2019t talk about our values and morals to others.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we try to share the gospel, we\nmight face rejection, we might feel \u201clike\nlambs among wolves<\/em>.\u201d  It becomes\neasier to keep silent outside our church walls. \nUnfortunately, this means people outside the church don\u2019t hear about\nJesus and even inside the church, people really don\u2019t understand why our faith\nteaches what it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Struggles to live out our faith can\ntake different forms in different places and time periods but the struggle is\nnothing new.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israelites had grown weak in\ntheir faith and turned from God.  For\nthis, God allowed them to be defeated by their enemy, the Babylonians.  Many were taken away in exile.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first reading today from Isaiah\nwas written at the end of the Exile.  It\nspeaks of mourning because, as they return home, they find the Temple and\nJerusalem has been destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the Lord tells them to \u201cRejoice with Jerusalem and be glad.<\/em>\u201d  In their mourning, the Lord promises He \u201cwill spread prosperity,<\/em>\u201d that He will \u201ccomfort\u201d<\/em> them, and that they will \u201cflourish<\/em>.\u201d  They rejoice at God\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you hear \u201cprosperity,\u201d you might\nthink of having a big home, fancy cars, and a lot of money.  These things are neither good nor bad on\ntheir own, but it isn\u2019t true \u201cprosperity.\u201d \nThe treasure that the Lord offers us is eternal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We truly \u201cflourish\u201d not when we are\nmaterially rich.  No, to truly flourish\nis receive the blessings of God.  Earthly\ntreasures bring a short happiness.  Real\nfaith brings eternal joy that lasts forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, going back to what I said earlier\nabout how we are all called to share the faith, what are we to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not all called to do the same\nthing.  I am called to preside at the\nSacraments and preach.  You are not but\nyou are called to \u201cshout joyfully<\/em>\u201d\nand \u201csing praise.<\/em>\u201d  We are all called to speak of the tremendous<\/em> things the Lord has done for\nus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we do this in a \u201cculture of\nrelativism\u201d that says we aren\u2019t supposed to talk about our faith publicly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do so by being the best we can be\nat whatever we do.  It can start with\nlooking at our motives from what we do.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to be an engineer,\nspecifically I worked in civil engineering on roads and bridges.  One might suggest that engineering has\nnothing to do with how one lives out their faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One might choose a profession by how\nmuch money they can make.  As an\nengineer, if I had gotten my professional license, I could have made a lot more\nmoney.  I didn\u2019t because the work the\nlicensed engineers wasn\u2019t what I wanted to do. \nI saw my job as an engineer as to provide safe roads and bridges for people\nto get where they needed to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At work, it is also an important\nwitness to hold fast to our values, treating those around us with love and\ncompassion.  When people see us living\nthis way, it can be a powerful prophetic witness to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our parish is called St. Luke the\nEvangelist.  Luke was an evangelist in\nwriting the gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.  What do you to evangelize, to share the\nfaith?  What do we need to do as a\nparish?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year CIsaiah 66:10-14cPsalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20 (1)Galatians 6:14-18Luke 10:1-2, 17-30July 7, 2019 Jesus sent \u201cseventy-two others\u201d out on a mission.  In identifying them as \u201cothers\u201d a distinction is made from the Twelve Apostles who had already been sent out on a similar mission (the Apostles actually had more …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9,82],"tags":[609,610,611],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-KR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2906,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions\/2906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}