Read Reflect Respond

Feast Days |  Sundays |  Videos | Latest

(6th July 2025) Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

READ: (Isa 66:10-14; Gal 6: 14-18; Lk 10: 1-9)

REFLECT: Revive missionary nature of the Church for the spread of God’s kingdom…

Dear friends, we are in the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The liturgy of the word invites us to focus on the revival of mission and accelerating of the missionary zeal and spirit for the spread of the Kingdom of God. Indeed, the revival of God’s missions and the missionary zeal for the spread and growth of God’s kingdom has been a common and powerful theme in the bible. It calls us for reviving and reigniting of Church’s evangelizing spirit and nature in our lives as handed on to us by Christ our Founder. It reminds us to be deeply rooted in Christ’s command of spreading good news to the entire world. I am sure, the deep bond with Christ will trigger us to orient ourselves with the mission of God and become a missionary after missionary nature of the Church. So based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflection;

1. Realize God’s healing comfort:

The nature of God is to heal and cure our wounds and sicknesses, sorrows and struggles of us, his people. He created us because he loved us. Thus, God always heals us to experience comfort and consolation in our lives. It is not sufficient to know that God loves us by theory that gives only knowledge rather it should lead us beyond knowledge to realization that God always loves us like a father and mother in the family. In fact, God loves us more than our parents and those who are close to us on earth, giving us love and taking care of us all the time. That’s the peak of God’s love. Such an act of wonderful love is what we see in the first reading of the day, manifesting to us the healing comfort of God.

The first reading is from Prophet Isaiah, Which speaks of the comfort that God would give to the people of Israel, who were in exile. The Lord in and through prophet Isaiah makes known the returning of the people from exile, assures them of the nourishment, rebuilding of the nation, renewal, restoration and prosperity to Jerusalem. Above all, God assures that he would punish those who took granted the people of Israel, God’s chosen ones. Further, the reading gives us the following phrases that reflects God’s abundant love and renewal of life; ‘extending peace to her like a river,’ ‘glory of the nations like an overflowing stream, ‘as one whom the mother comforts,’ ‘your bones shall flourish like bones.’ All these imageries point out God’s love and comfort, although the people of Israel were at fault and in failure.  The imageries of nourishment for a baby from mother, comfort of a mother to the child and the flourishing of bones depict us how God would deal with or treat us. Indeed, these imageries are all signs of renewal, restoration, rebuilding and regaining of what the people of Israel lost, from what was in store for them from God’s abundant mercy and blessings.

Today, we need to realize that God comforts us always in our sorrows and sickness. It may not be directly from God. God works through others and God helps us to overcome the discomforts and inconveniences of life through others too. Just as Prophet Isaiah proclaimed God’s comforting love and healing grace, so also we need to spread the message of God’s comforting love and healing grace to one another in our world. Very beautifully Pope Leo XIV shares how much God loves us: “God, who created and knows each person, is closer to me than I am to myself and He made us to be together.” Yes, God has created us and knows us individually well, of who we are, what we can do and how we can channelize our resources and talents. He knows our struggles and suffering, cries and crisis. We need only a listening heart and unwavering mind to understand what God communicates to us in various events of life.

Perhaps, what we lack today is an act of going to God. We have forgotten to get back to God, our creator in times of distress and danger. We only run to God after trying out various human-made arrangements. But if we could look intensely our lives, God waits our coming and God wants us to come to him. Just as God waited for the people of Israel for their coming home, prepared them to enter the promised land and provided them an opening to rebuild the nation, to come back as stronger ever, so also God waits our coming to lift us up from various tensions, turmoil, temptations and deviation, so that, we can revive and renew our lives in God and be comforted by him always.  Let us then come to God with a deep longing and trust to be lifted up in life to be happy and joyful.

2. Recognize true boastfulness:

We all know that boastfulness is associated with pride, one of the seven deadly sins. It reminds us that we are not to boasts about or boss over, because God is ultimate author and owner of life. However, true boasting or pride consists not in self-glory but in God’s glory. The true boasting accepts that we are nothing and God is everything; true boasting does not obtain self-achievements based on vain-glory rather gives one’s due to God and to the other. Something similar thought we find in the second reading from St. Paul’s to Galatians.

We all know the background and life-story of St. Paul. How he was and how he change his ways of life and thinking patter. He came to such a deep experience after the Damascus event that changed his entire life, thought pattern and missionary zeal. The second reading from St. Paul’s letter to Galatians very powerfully attests the connection of St. Paul with Christ. That’s why St. Paul would emphatically say, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision but a new creation.”Because of the intimate connection and association, the boastfulness or pride of Paul is changed.  He is no more law-oriented person rather Christ-oriented person.

We also feel the pulses of St. Paul that he was boastful of Jewish laws and the practices of the same before he could encounter Jesus on the way to Damascus but now there is a transition in the life of Paul, he boasts is in the name of Christ and in the cross of Christ; Paul renounced the worldly boasting and the external religious practices that burdened people like circumcision. He now acknowledges that his genuine boast is in the Lord, who bore the cross and was crucified on the cross for our sake, victoriously rose from the dead. Paul realized that the cross and crucifixion were not signs of defeat and failure; it is the sign of victory in love, mercy and compassion, that was won over by Christ for us. Thus, whoever is in Christ becomes a new creation, ready for newness of life in the Lord Jesus.

Additionally, the term ‘Israel of God’ in the second reading refers to the new people of God. The new people are we, the Church. So, what is important is that we become new creation in Christ, leaving the past behind, living the present with hope and looking towards the future with perseverance and passion. The reason perhaps, why we don’t become new creation is that our lives are not oriented towards Christ rather oriented towards worldly things. The best example of a new creation is St. Paul himself, who began to live Christ and became a living witness of Christ in life. At the end of the second reading, as a sign of his love for Christ, Paul imparts blessings to people that peace and mercy shall be the reward for those who walk in the law of the Lord.

Yes, those who walk in God’s ways and those who manifest or witness Christ becomes a new creation. Once we become a new creation, we would never boast of the world or worldly things rather we recognize or boast everything in God. God becomes the centre of life and God takes complete precedence over our life activates or events. So let us pray for true boastfulness in Jesus and manifest as a mark of true discipleship, to glory in the cross of Christ and even go to the extent of suffering for Christ Sake and for the spread of his mission.

3. Revive the missionary feel and zeal:

We become children of God, Disciples of Christ and become part of very nature of the Church as missionary by virtue of baptism that we receive. Every baptized Christian is duty bound and are privileged to manifest Christ and be a missionary for Christ. Very appropriately, one of the Church documents, Decree Ad Gentes, on the mission activity of the Church makes us feel the vibe of the Church saying, “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father.” Yes, the missionary nature of the Church is what we see and are called to reflect in and through the Gospel reading of the day from Luke, the Evangelist.

The Lucan Gospel very beautifully points out that the disciples in general without an exclusive mention of the chosen apostles are sent on a mission to sow the seed and reap the harvest of joy. However, they are warned about the wolves that would deceive or dissuade the disciples from the mission of God. Jesus even instructs the disciples not to carry with them anything on their missionary journey; they are to abide by the instruction given by Christ, so that they might develop a trust and confidence in God. The deep trust and confidence in God would bring forth in the disciples how to deal with the people amicably to proclaim the nearness of God. Yes, this gospel passage enables us to understand that Church’s missionary fervor and zeal is not limited only to the twelve apostles rather it spreads out to all Christians to be part of the mission that Jesus established with the twelve apostles. However, the gospel passage of the day does not downplay the role of apostles rather strengthens missionary nature of the Church to spread God’s kingdom to every nook and corner of the world, wherein everyone becomes responsible and privileged to be part of the church and become of the Church.

Today, we as Disciples of Christ too are faced with such mission barriers or obstacle that hinders the spread of Christ’s mission in our world. But the saddest part is that we hear quite often or witness, many incidents of how the missionaries are treated or faced with humiliation and shame, torture and martyrdom. It is because, our faith is not accepted or downplayed or at times extremist or fundamentalist understanding of the nature of Church. This creates doubt, confusion, irritability and duplicity. Thus, we need to be true to the faith both in professing and practicing. So that we manifest Christ in our lives and share the mission of God, proclaimed by Christ.

Today we need to remember the missionary identity and dynamism of the Church handed on to us by Christ and we need to pray for a missionary heart that is filled with mercy and compassion, courage and authenticity, love and generosity. That’s why Pope Leo XIV would beautifully say, “The Church herself is increasingly called to be a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the Word and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity.” Yes, we as a church need to open our arms to the world with love and mercy. That’s what Jesus indicates to us to live in love and to spread love as mark of Christian discipleship and missionary dynamism. So we all need a revival and renewal of the missionary spirit and dynamism. Let us keep aside all our differences and be united as followers of Christ, spreading the mission of God’s love to all humanity.

RESPOND:

·       Do we realize that God as our Father and Mother heals and comforts us in our sorrows and struggles to lift us up on high?

·       Do we recognize that our true boastfulness is in God and not in the world or worldly things?

·       Do we make efforts to revive the missionary feel and zeal of the Church in us by our proclamation of word and practice of the same?

Let us revive the missionary zeal of the Church by God’s healing comfort, boasting in God and proclaiming the kingdom of God by words and deeds. Amen.

God bless us all! Live Jesus!