Word to the Wise
Sunday, August 24, 2025 - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Isa 66:18-21; Heb 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30]Thus says the Lord: 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...to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations. [Isaiah] "Lord, will only a few people be saved?... 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 who are first will be last." [Luke]
The Church - the Body of Christ - is, by its very nature, missionary! The whole New Testament is composed of writings to missionaries and communities founded by them - St. Paul is the premiere example. Pope Francis, in his first address to the Church - "The Joy of the Gospel [Evangelii gaudium]" - reminded all of us who have been baptized that we are "missionary disciples." The Church is not a club for an elite but a "field hospital for the sick and wounded," and we are all stretcher bearers. Currents of thought that support a strict predestined number of those who would be saved are not in accord with Catholic faith. The Good News is intended for everyone to hear.
The gospels show that this has been a concern from the very beginnings of Christian faith. Jesus rebuked the disciples on a number of occasions for excluding or preventing certain people from approaching him - the beggar Bartimaeus, the tax collector Zaccheus, the Canaanite woman. Who are their equivalents in our own time? The gospel account of the friends who bring a paralyzed friend on a stretcher to Jesus and go to the extraordinary measure of climbing up on the roof of the house to lower their friend down to Jesus is a good one to consider. [Luke 5:17-26].
Missionary work is more than devotional behavior, although that can help. It means meeting people where they are - physically and spiritually - and entering into a relationship that reflects love of God and neighbor. It is the neighbor to whom we bring the love of God. Pope Leo XIV was a missionary in Peru for 20 years. His example can be an inspiration.
Worries about who can be saved are not helpful. Salvation is available to everyone who seeks it. Missionaries have the task of making it known and helping others to come to faith. AMEN