Homily, 8-26-24; Monday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time:
Today we hear about two different struggling congregations. We have the Jewish community suffering under the teachings of the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. And we have the Thessalonians suffering persecution for following the teachings of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. Both are suffering, but they have different outcomes predicted for each.
The Jews are threatened to be locked out of the Kingdom of Heaven, along with the scribes and Pharisees, for following superficial laws instead of the true meaning of the law to love God and one’s neighbor. The Thessalonians, on the other hand, are considered worthy of the Kingdom of God because of their endurance and faith in all their persecutions and the afflictions they endure. For them the Kingdom is unlocked with the keys of Heaven entrusted to St. Peter for the Church.
Locking or unlocking the Kingdom; the difference in the outcomes is based on the teachers and not the congregations. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have a missionary spirit, but so do the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus says that the scribes and Pharisees traverse sea and land to make one convert. But apparently they are motivated by pride and not by the love that motivates Paul and company.
The love and carrying of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy result in disciples that endure severe persecution. They follow the example of their teachers. The new Jews, however, are ignored by the scribes and Pharisees and their ultimate fate is worse than it would have been if they had never converted to Judaism.
And so it is important to pray for good, loving, and caring leaders in our Church that model themselves after St. Paul and not the Pharisees. But we too must be good, loving, and caring to build up and encourage our fellow Catholics when they struggle with their faith.
I have cited the statistic in the past that only 50% of those who join the Church at Eater Vigil are still attending Sunday Mass regularly one year later. Are the results of current Church leadership much better than the scribes and Pharisees? Are we traversing sea and land to make a convert and then abandoning them?
Being a Catholic, becoming a Catholic, is a struggle in our world today. We need reverent liturgies. We need the availability of sacraments. We need solid teaching from the pulpit. But we cannot put all the responsibility on our leaders. We each need to do our part to build up and support each other. We need to be especially welcoming and supportive of our new converts who often do not have a strong family support system to fall back upon.
Let us pray for one another as St. Paul did for the Thessalonians in the words we heard this morning: “We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.” Amen.