HOMILY FOR TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (A)

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. On a recent visit to Rome from the United States, I met up with my friend Mike Aquilina. Mike is a scholar of the Church Fathers and has written many books including one he co-authored a few years back entitled: ‘Seven Revolutions: How Christianity Changed the World and Can Change it Again’. It is a bold and ambitious book that convinces the reader that, far from being a spent force in today’s post-Christian world, or an un-threatening personal belief system, Christianity has a message to proclaim and a contribution to make that is needed more than ever.  He makes this argument based on how early Christianity changed society in the past and can do so again today. For this Mission Sunday, I would like to briefly summarise how this can happen again, through us.

First, the insistence on human dignity. In the early Roman world, life was cheap. The lives of babies, old people and those with disabilities were considered to have lesser value and to be expendable. Being a missionary Christian today means to defend and protect the dignity of the human person including the unborn and the elderly.

Second, in the realm of the home, the Church revolutionised the way the world saw the family and the basic unit of society in which parents were equal, faithful and were the first educators of their children.

Third, Christianity emphasised the dignity of human labour in a way that would eventually lead to the abolition of slavery.

Fourth, the Church fought for freedom of religion and worship. She recognised that to be human is to be religious by nature and to search for truth and the meaning of life. Christianity also showed itself to be a socially unifying religion that brought people together in community and whose basic creed is that we have one common Father which means that we are all brothers and sisters and are therefore responsible for each other.

Fifth, in the realm of charity and mercy, Christians challenged the self-centred perspectives of Roman culture that disregarded the poor and the sick.

Sixth, in the areas of ultimate concern such as life and death, Christians promoted a culture of life which gave them hope.

Lastly, when it came to relations with the State, the Church revolutionised government. Beginning with the conversion of Constantine in 313, emperors were forced to admit that they were not gods, not above the law and were accountable to God. God and his moral law was and remains the highest power to which all are accountable and will be our final judge.

In the light of our cultural landscape today, do these seven areas look familiar? It is indeed remarkable how the early Church, that barely survived persecution of the Roman empire, would become the leaven that transformed that empire and the world beyond.

On this Mission Sunday, it is a timely reminder that we Christians can influence the world for the better again. But it will mean a commitment to standby a worldview that current society often rejects. In this way, the Church of the twenty-first century can overcome new paganisms in the same way that the early Church overcame the old paganism - by refusing to deny the faith and being willing to risk our lives and comfort to offer something more beautiful.

I conclude with the words of Archbishop Alexander Sample, Bishop of Porland Oregon the America who writes the following:

‘Here is my dream. I would love to see us get to the day when every Catholic wakes up every morning wondering how they can witness to Jesus Christ today and help bring others to him. The Gospel is meant for everyone, and we must all see ourselves as ambassadors for Christ and the eternal salvation he has won for us. It begins with each of us being won over by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It will also require us to be formed and transformed for this noble mission that is ours’.

On Mission Sunday, let this be our dream too.