Word to the Wise
Sunday, August 21, 2022 - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Isa 66:18-21; Heb 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30]"I know their works and their thoughts, and I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them; from them I will send fugitives to the nations." [Isaiah] "And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last." [Luke]
The Gospel According to Luke was composed for a community that was of mixed origin - some originally Jews and some originally Gentiles, probably in Antioch and not in Jerusalem. By the time this gospel was composed, the issue of requiring Jewish practices of Gentile converts had been settled, as reported by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles (15:1-12). The community of Luke was a "missionary community" from which apostles like Paul and Barnabas traveled to preach all around the Mediterranean area of the Roman Empire. We are the beneficiaries of this missionary effort!!
The visions of Isaiah and Jesus (as reported by Luke) are a reminder to us that we are, as Pope Francis calls us, "missionary disciples." The Second Vatican Council referred to the church as a pilgrim People of God. Pilgrims are not stationary and stagnant! The gospel challenges us to think beyond our comfort zones.
When I was growing up in the 1940's and 50's, young men and women from the USA and Europe were joining missionary religious orders like Maryknoll and Missionhurst to go and do "missionary work" in "foreign lands." We in the USA forgot that it was only in the first part of the 20th century that our country was officially taken off the jurisdiction of the office in Rome that deals with "missionary work." Now, in our day, we are discovering that WE are "missionary territory" once more when we see clergy from Africa, India, Mexico, South America, the Philippines, etc. pastoring parishes! In the diocese of Lubbock, TX, where I live, the majority of the priests are "international."
Pope Francis has challenged all the baptized to become "missionary disciples." Instead of grumbling, as some do, about "international priests" we might examine our own situations and ask how "missionary" WE are!!! AMEN