Today’s question is another “private” one, one you don’t need to answer out loud. My question is this: Are you tired of being “charitable?” Are you tired of being asked, once more, to support a good cause, to help out, once again, with financial support? Do you remember Christmas week last year? It seemed like the right thing, the only thing, to do – to give assistance to the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. We saw its devastation on the nightly news and were moved to contribute as much as we could. Some even gave of their own, direct efforts and went off to Indonesia to provide aid to those who survived the massive wave covering their coast.
And then there was Katrina. New Orleans was so much closer to us. The immediate need for direct assistance through voluntary help and for indirect assistance through financial contributions was even more evident than it had been for those stricken thousands of miles away. And then there was Rita. Even closer to us, here in storm-ravaged East Texas. Now we were the evacuees, for a very long weekend. But once we had returned, we again made ourselves available to help others. Then there was the earthquake in Pakistan and the call for more help from volunteers and those who support them. And the floods in Guatemala in the wake of hurricane Stan. Now, there is Wilma in Mexico and heading toward Florida.
Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and flooding, with or without names, in Asia, in Europe or in New England. The threat of firestorms in California and the Pacific coast. And don’t forget the ongoing assistance agencies we’re encouraged to support: Diocesan Services Fund, Catholic Charities and next month’s Campaign for Human Development.1
Is it any wonder I raise the question: Are you tired of being “charitable?” Especially when this 30th Sunday of the liturgical year has, once again, been designated as “Worldwide Mission Sunday,” a day when the so-called “second collection” is being taken up for the support of evangelization around the world. Our only comfort lies in the fact that this is not a new question. It was raised several thousand years ago, back in the days when the Book of Exodus was written.
In today’s first reading from that book we heard how the Israelites were reminded they must, once more, give support to the aliens in their own land as well as to widows and orphans. And don’t forget the poor and oppressed. The instructions given by the Lord God to Moses which he, in turn, imparted to the Israelites, said how they must help the strangers among them. And those who had no one else to protect them. Widows without husbands. Orphans without parents. And when they helped those in need, they must not require inordinate payback. They must not demand from the poor the clothes they wore to keep them warm at night.
And why should they be so charitable to those less fortunate? Was it out of fear that they might end up the same way? That the Lord God would send them the same afflictions, if they did not come to the assistance of those who were now afflicted. Perhaps. After all, isn’t this why some of us do what we are supposed to do, out of fear our own luck will run out if we don’t. We fear God will punish us for not being charitable to others. Or are we to be charitable out of trust, rather than because of fear of retribution?
Today’s gospel records what Jesus had to say on the matter. A scholar of the law, a scholar who knew what the teachings given by the Lord God to Moses, the Torah, had to say, this scholar asked Jesus what was the greatest of all the laws of God. And Jesus responded: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Love God completely with all of your very being, with all that is you, yourself, with your heart, your very body, with your soul, the internal life bestowed upon you, and with your mind, the thoughts which lead you to God. All of these are to be given to the Lord God in love. And then – love your neighbor in the same way.
Jesus also gave his disciples, and us, a New Law, one not directly found in Torah, but rather, a new covenant, a new law. A law which says: “Love one another as I have loved you.” And how did Jesus love his disciples? How does he love us? Completely. Unconditionally. Without any reservation. With complete forgiveness. Without tying any of our current actions with past actions. He loves us in the present moment, just as we are now.
Yes, he desires that we change, for his first instruction in his public ministry, after all, was: “Repent, change your lives, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Reform your actions, for the Reign of God begins now.” Saint Paul understood these words when he wrote to the Thessalonians, those who made up one of the first Christian communities he established, what we heard in today’s letter. He told them, as he tells us: “… you became imitators of … the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers … For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only [here] but in every place your faith in God has gone forth …”
This is what we are still called to do, and to be. To receive the word. To be a model for others. To send forth the word to others through our ministry to them. This is what Worldwide Mission Sunday is about. To hear the word. To speak the word not only with our lips but also with our hands. To send forth the word through our actions. To be a model for others.
In many of his writings, Pope John Paul spoke of the “new evangelization,” the new spreading of the good news, for this, of course, is what evangelization means. Spreading the good news, the gospel message: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Loving, being “charitable” without ceasing, not because it is something I do because I expect something in return for my help. But rather, because I have received the complete Love of Christ and must share that love with others: every way I can, any time I can, any place I can. I’m to share it with those in India and in Pakistan. Those in Guatemala and Latin America. Those in Louisiana, Mississippi and East Texas. Those in Houston. Those in my neighborhood. Those in my family. On this Worldwide Mission Sunday, we are once again challenged to go forth with Love, with continued Charity, with the words: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary; October 23, 2005 (Worldwide Mission Sunday)
Ex 22:20-26; 1 Thess 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40
- Originally, October 23, 2005, was to have had a homily on Campaign for Human Development. However Worldwide Mission Sunday was added and the CHD shifted to the end of November: Feast of Christ the King. This sentence replaced the one originally written: “Add to that: the cost of gasoline and the projection of increased bills for electricity and natural gas … along with building supplies.” I think the original line is “stronger” but since the weekly bulletin had a pre-scheduled insert for the CHD, the substitution sentence made more immediate sense. I did not want the congregation to wonder if I had gotten my “second collections” confused.