Father Matthew C. Dallman, Obl.S.B. preaching on Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 10) at Saint Paul's Church in Pekin, Illinois in the Parish of Tazewell County. His prepared text:
As I have said many times before, the Christian life is a life on mission. Our life as Christians is a mission of love. Now from the practical perspective, what is meant by "mission of love" is seen through five dimensions of total mission: firstly through the daily Liturgy of the Church, then through catechesis (faith formation), and then pastoral care of our parishioners, as well as pastoral care through our outreach, and finally with the evangelizing harmony of presence we find with and within the wider locality (for us, Tazewell County).
And these five dimensions of mission are but a continuance and extension of the sacred life and sacred humanity of Jesus of Nazareth. He came to save the world by teaching the right way to love—that was His mission. And through the Cross, He emptied Himself of His Sacred Humanity, giving it all us to—that we would receive the gift of His Sacred Humanity, that through receiving, embracing, and embodying His Sacred Humanity, we learn to love the creatures of the world as He loved them: so much so that our loving of the creatures of the world is Jesus loving through us. This is one significance of Jesus first appearing to Saint Mary Magdalene as a gardener—that as we grow in the life of the spirit, our disposition toward the world is that of a gardener: to be loving, watchful stewards of God’s holy Spirit growing in the world, growing in the hearts of people.
The message of Moses to the people of Israel is that despite the appearances that loving God is impossible, and something we cannot do, in fact we can do this. We can obey the voice of the Lord our God; we can keep His commandments at statutes. We now know how: through Jesus, Who has made the Kingdom of God known to the world, and for those called, He has opened up His Sacred Humanity for us to enter in and embody, our lives transformed into His. As Christians, we need not concern ourselves with being successful, but rather, as Saint Teresa of Calcutta reminds us, with being faithful. We need not worry about accomplishing some outrageous feat, such as climbing up into heaven ourselves or going beyond the sea and coming back. These are the stuff of heroism as might be depicted in science fiction films or comic books. Our heroism is first and foremost a domestic heroism, an everyday heroism of turning to God every day with all our heart and our soul, to obey the voice of the Lord our God.
The lawyer asked the pertinent question: “And who is my neighbor?” This is the question for us to ask, as well. And the reason to ask it is because we have been seeking to understand how God is present in our lives. And it is true that He is present through all that is good and true and beautiful in the world; furthermore it is true that He is present in our peak, mountaintop moments as well as our low, valley moments. He is present through the generosity people show to one another. Yet the question, “Who is my neighbor?” invites perhaps the most adventurous way to discover God’s presence in the world: adventurous, and difficult.
Before it means anything else, “Loving our neighbor” means that God is as present in our neighbor as it is present in a Saint (and is likewise as present in our great enemies as He is in a Saint). This is the deepest interpretation of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Yes, we are to not ignore people suffering; we are not to ignore those who need help; we are not to ignore those who are lonely and feel abandoned. But why? It is because in the suffering, in those that need help, in those lonely: it is Jesus suffering, Jesus needing help, Jesus lonely. Our relationship with our neighbors is our surest test of our Faith in Christ. As Saint Catherine of Siena wrote, “You test the virtue of patience in yourself when your neighbors insult you. Your humility is tested by the proud, your faith by the unfaithful, your hope by the person who has no hope. Your justice is tried by the unjust, your compassion by the cruel, and your gentleness and kindness by the wrathful. Your neighbors are the channel through which all your virtues are tested and come to birth, just as the evil give birth to all their vices through their neighbors."
Brothers and sisters, let us admit with the children of Israel that we all sometimes feel that truly loving our God Who is beyond time and space does seem impossible, and yet, as Catherine of Siena taught, this is why God has put us among our neighbors: so that we can do for them what we cannot do for Him—that is, love them without any concern for thanks and without looking for any profit for yourself. And the teaching of Jesus is that whatever we do for them He will consider done for Him. Our mission is always a mission of love.
"Our Mission of Love"