Today’s question is a personal one. It’s this: What kind of a motivational talk1 turns you on? Maybe this question seems even stranger than some of the other ones I’ve asked you over the years. I mean, isn’t this the whole purpose of a motivational talk, a pep talk: to “turn you on,” to make you excited, more willing to do something than is your normal inclination?
There’s a whole TV industry devoted to motivational talks. We usually call them “infomercials.” But for me, personally, there are a lot of infomercials that turn me off. They make me want to stay away from even looking at the product, let alone buy it. It would seem, what turns one person on, what motivates one person toward an action, can also turn off someone else. Jesus may have experienced this problem some two thousand years ago when he gave his own form of an “infomercial,” a pep talk.
How many of you recognize the Gospel passage we heard today is the conclusion of an “infomercial” Jesus gave to his disciples? How many realize it’s part of a motivational talk, a pep talk, he gave to the Twelve just before he sent them out on their mission to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel?” Well, it is.
Today’s passage brings to a conclusion the chapter of Matthew’s Gospel usually referred to as the “great commissioning of the Disciples.” Remember two weeks ago when Fr. Sunny spoke about how Jesus sent them out to “… cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons” … and how we are called to do the same in the modern world. And in last week’s Gospel we heard the words: “do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”
There are many passages in this Chapter from Matthew’s Gospel that are omitted from the Sunday Readings. Passages describing what actions the Disciples should take and what they should expect on their missionary work. After he tells them not to take any provisions with them, but to go off without any money, food or a change of clothes, Jesus has this to say: “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you … and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.” He goes on to say: “You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another.”
And then he speaks the words we heard in today’s Reading: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” These are, indeed, harsh words from a Master who is trying to motivate, to encourage, his followers, to do what he has done, to follow in his footstep.
Basically, he’s telling them: you must be ready to give up all relationships that bind you to this world, that bind you to past generations, that bind you to future offspring. He goes on to tell them: you must be ready to suffer like a common criminal hung upon a cross. He does, however, go on to inform them: some will hear you as prophets and they will be rewarded, some will hear you as holy people and they, too, will be rewarded. And some may merely give you a cold drink of water and they, too, will be rewarded. So, here we have Jesus’ commissioning speech, when he said, in effect: go out there and preach what I’ve taught you and here are the hardships you can expect. And your only tangible reward might be a drink of water.
However, I still say this is a kind of “pep talk.” After all, isn’t this what a lot of coaches tell their players. Go out there and do battle. We’re going to get badly beaten up. But get out there and show them what we’re made of, what we stand for. OK, so maybe that’s what he told his twelve disciples in order to motivate them. But that was then. And this is now. Does Jesus really mean the same thing for us? Does this “pep talk” apply to us?
Well, if we believe the rest of his words should guide us today, in 2005, then I think we’re forced to accept these words spoken to his followers some two-thousand years ago are equally relevant to us, right now. As with the disciples, we have been given the message to preach, to preach through our words and our actions.
We know what is right and what is wrong. But are we afraid to speak or to act, because we fear, not scourging and being hung on a cross, but rather, we fear rejection? Rejection not necessarily by those who love us, not by our parents and children, so much as rejection by those around us, by our acquaintances, by society. Rejection not necessarily because of our belief and behavior about major events, but about the everyday events of our lives.
When we hear a joke about a minority member or hear an ethnic slur, do we laugh in order to be part of the group or do we have the courage to say, “That’s really not funny” and risk the possible rejection of the one who said it and those around us? When we learn a friend is having an extramarital affair, do we look the other way or do we ask how can we help to get the marriage back on track, and risk being told to mind our own business? When a young person is out on a date and wonders just how far does my partner expect me to go, do we have the courage to stop before we go too far, even if we think our partner may reject us for being too cautious?
In today’s world, a lot is said in derision about being “politically correct,” how the “liberal establishment” tries to force us into “political correctness.” Yet do we have the courage to point out that much of political correctness includes a respect for diversity and individual rights, and an awareness of the needs of the underprivileged and the marginalized? Do we dare to say the goals of “political” correctness may be the same as those for “Christian” correctness?
And if this last example, or any of them, for that matter, make you angry, then perhaps you understand what I mean by Jesus’ pep talk. What motivates one person to act may turn off another person. Some of us are motivated by righteous anger when we see what we perceive as a moral decline in our society, when we believe we must take up the sword in order to preserve freedom. Others are equally motivated by love and passive resistance on issues of armament, capital punishment, environmental concerns, civil rights, pro-life, the underprivileged and the disadvantaged.
Some of us are motivated by passion, others by compassion. But each one of us must be motivated, moved to act, as a Christian, a follower of Jesus the Christ. Here in this year dedicated to the Eucharist, we must become Eucharist for others. We are to become what we consume at this celebration, at this table. We are sent out on our individual missions, but united as members of the Body of Christ, as members of his Church, as his Disciples.
We may suffer the rejection of all those around us, even, in the long run, rejection by those we love. Yet, we need to ask: How can we be motivated today to preach by our words and by our own actions what we have been taught, knowing we risk being rejected? And our only reward in this life on earth may be a cold drink of water.
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time; June 26, 2005
2 Kg 4:8-11,14-16a; Rom 6L3-4l8-11; Mt 10:37-42
1…The original homily given June 27, 1993, was entitled “Pep Talk.” The opening and closing lines were modified whereas most of the rest the homily remains the same for “Infomercial.”
My question for you today is one you may need to think about for a while before you can answer it. But that’s OK, since this question is the focus for this morning’s homily. My question is this: What kind of a pep talk do you need to motivate you to be an active disciple of Jesus the Christ? Pep talks? Motivational talks? What do pep talks and motivation have to do with the Gospel message? Aren’t they part of either winning football teams or of late-night TV pitches for pyramid sales? It’s either “win one for the Gipper!” or “if you get out there and hustle, and get all of your friends to join us, then you, too, can be a million-dollar seller.” Well, pep talks, motivational talks, existed long before Knute Rochne or Lou Holtz*. In fact, they go all the way back to the days of the original “Notre Dame,” some two-thousand years ago. In today’s Gospel reading, we hear the conclusion of her son’s pep talk to his followers. In fact, because it is the conclusion, the wind-up of an impassioned pep talk, we could have become very disturbed, rather than challenged to be one of his followers, his disciples, when we heard the words he spoke to them:
……..
How then, can we be motivated today to preach by our words and our actions what we have been taught, knowing we risk being rejected? For this is what it was about then … and now. Do we still hear the words of Christ when we speak out for justice and equality, knowing we may be rejected? Or when you come to the aid of the underprivileged, are you ready to be attacked? Are you ready to be rewarded by only a cold drink of water? At the same time, do you recognize that those who do listen to what you say will share in greater rewards, the gifts of prophets and holy ones? So once more I ask you my question: What kind of pep talk do you need to motivate you to be an active disciple of Jesus the Christ?
* I have the good fortune to be a fraternity brother of Lou Holtz (Kent State chapter of Delta Upsilon) back in the mid-50's. He was “motivational” back then, too!