HOMILY - 16^TH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME  - JULY 23, 2006

PREACHING FOR THE MISSIONS IN NIAGRA FALLS, NY

ST. MARY OF THE CATARACT & OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

May our Lord give us His peace.

No shepherd, union shepherd, good shepherd, and a word about the missions.

No shepherd.  There are days when we feel so divided, so confused, like sheep running hazardly.  We find ourselves caring for the soldiers AND the dead children they just shot.  We find ourselves one in patriotism with our President AND longing for leadership.  We find ourselves intimately connected with our Church AND crying out “why so few vocations, so many church and school closings?”  We are torn, lost in cares and many times poorly informed by biased sources.  Jesus was moved by that when He saw it in His people and showed them the way.

Union shepherd.  When Jesus offered His life, not deeming equality with God something to be grasped at, He instead took the form of a slave to us all.  He said I will speak the truth, eat with the sinner, reveal the Spirit behind the law, and then offer myself for them all – no one excluded, so they may know once and for all their value to Me and my heavenly Father.  Now all who look to Him for the way, KNOW THE WAY.  We are to value each other as Jesus valued us.  Does that include Lebanese?  Iraqi?  Afghan?  Pakistani?  Jew?  Palestinian?  African?  Sick? Thief?  Murderer? Maple Leafs fan?  Does a purple eagle have to value the life of a Bonnie?  A Griffin.  That is asking a lot – well maybe not for a Bonnie.  Fact is, all have been made one in Jesus’ offering.  All are one.  This truth reigns or some other.

Good shepherd.  The good shepherd was also a smart shepherd.  “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  Only good can come from that. Will you do what your Lord tells you?  Will I?  The good shepherd is calling us to Himself, to refresh us in His love, His way, only to send us out loving from what we receive.  It is a flow – from God, through us, to them.  Who?  THEM!  You know who is in need in this world, this country, this state, this city, this parish, this neighborhood, your home, mine.  Receive, and then spill.  The good shepherd comes to woo us.  Once wooed, we go woo.  Tell the people you know who ask what the preacher said this Sunday, “he said we go woo.”  Heh heh.

So in short, we follow the one who breaks Himself for us, believing us all to be one because He included us all, and wooed by Him, we go woo.

A word about the Missions.  The Franciscans have foreign and domestic missions.  We are in Bolivia, Peru, Japan, China, Brazil, and Korea as well as in North and South Carolina where Catholics overall are 3% of the population.  97% are another religion in those states.  I am a domestic missionary in South Carolina.  I am the first Catholic, priest, Franciscan they ever met.  (share obi-wan story and UPS story). 

My classmates are serving in Peru and on the Korean/Chinese border.  I would not be surprised to get an email any day saying that Fr. Francis Kim is dead because he created 3 farms for Chinese refugees in North Korea (a communist country) so they cold survive without government aid.  It made me laugh when he sent back pictures of himself on a tractor they lease, then it made me cry as he stood out so much like an unusual target for government snipers.  He will not be stopped. People are people and need the basics to survive.  He is the good shepherd from the good shepherd. 

Fr. Jud brings needed fresh water with him to say Mass on the dump in Lima Peru.  The people don’t just forage through the garbage of the rich, they live on it in shacks made from discarded materials.  They understand Jesus who had no home of His own.

I serve in a place where the grandparents bring me to the tree where their parents were lynched and hung to death.  I serve with black folks.  They hit a glass ceiling whenever they try to get ahead.  Our city graduates 57% of our people from high school, we graduate 98%.  Through education, self-esteem and a competitive skill our students are changing the image of black folk.  I brought pictures of our school, they are not pretty.

I am here on behalf of all our missionaries.  All the prayers and money you decided to give us goes into one pot that we live and minister from.  We take very little for ourselves.

Please consider serving the poor through us, and in Jesus’ Holy Name.  And I assure you that all over the world His love and their value as His people will be known and celebrated.  And by all means go woo - yourself.