OT XVI [C] Gn 18:1-10a; Col 1:24-28; Lk 10:38-42

There is a story about a man who was preparing his favorite breakfast of hot oatmeal when his daughter came rushing in with his little four-year-old grandson. “The babysitter has been delayed,” she explained, “and I’ve got to go to work. Will you keep Bobby for a few hours?” Granddad said, “Sure,” and his daughter left. Then Granddad scooped up two bowls of oatmeal. “Do you like sugar?” he asked. When Bobby nodded he asked, “How about some butter, too?” When his grandson nodded again he asked, “How about milk?” “Sure,” the boy said. But when the grandfather placed the steaming bowl of oatmeal in front of Bobby, the boy made a face and pushed it away. “But when I asked you, you said you liked sugar, butter and milk,” grandfather protested. “Yeah,” Bobby answered, “but you didn’t ask me if I like oatmeal.” Granddad forgot to ask the most elemental question. Sometimes we forget to do that, too. We never set priorities. We never list in our own minds what those things are that matter most. We allow life to buffet us here and there and we never center in on those things that really matter. 

The key to the Christian life is SETTING PRIORITIES: Jesus Christ first, then everything else. The only way really to learn that lesson is to spend some time every day, “sitting at the feet of Jesus.” Today’s first reading describes how Abraham and Sarah’s hospitality to strangers was rewarded by God. The Gospel passage describes how Martha wanted to extend the traditional generous hospitality of her people to Jesus, the true Messiah, by preparing an elaborate meal for him, while her sister Mary spent her time in talking to him and listening to him. Presenting Martha as a dynamo of action and Mary as a true listener to the word of God, today’s Gospel invites us to serve others with Martha’s diligence, after recharging our spiritual batteries every day by prayer – listening to God and talking to God – as Mary did.

Prayer and actions must be continuous, complementary and mutually dependent. Prayer without action is sterile, and action without prayer is empty. We are expected to be “contemplatives in action” because only those who listen carefully to the Word of God know how to behave in the way that God wants, when they show deep concern for the well-being of other people. That is why Jesus reminds Martha that proper service for him is attention to his instruction, not just an elaborate provision for his physical needs.

Martha loves Christ, but she still depends on her own strength to earn his love in return. She hasn't learned that what matters is not so much what we can do for Christ as what he has done and wants to do for us.

Feeding 15 people is no small task, and she could have used her sister's help.  So she tries to get Jesus to tell Mary to lend a hand. But Jesus doesn't. He actually commends Mary and reproves Martha.

Why? Christ was glad to be served, but he was even gladder to be loved.

It is a well-known fact that those who are in the caring professions, like doctors, nurses, pastors, social workers and even parents, often suffer from burnout and terminal exhaustion as Martha did. People suffering from burnout often end up angry, anxious, and worried. Hence, occasionally we need to put aside the work we do in serving others and just spend some time being with the Lord, loving Him, talking to Him and listening to Him, fully aware of His holy presence in our souls. We may do the recharging of our spiritual energy also by our personal and family prayers, by the meditative reading of the Bible and by participating in the celebration of the Holy Mass. Christian husbands and wives should develop “couple spirituality” and seek more opportunities to pray together.

Martha has become a symbol of action-oriented, responsible people who get the job done. Our world needs such men, women, boys and girls, and so does the Church. How would the Church survive if not for the Marthas who sing in the choir, clean the church, set up for the Mass doing the Sacristan job, altar servers, ushers, people taking communion to the sick, yard mowers, and all the Marthas working at the Picnic this coming week? The Church could not exist without them. There is nothing wrong with being a responsible, action-oriented, get-it-done kind of person. But we must find time to listen to God speaking to us through His word, and time to talk to God. Jesus clearly said: be hearers and doers of the word. Jesus never reversed that order. God ordered 6 days of work and the 7^th day for rest, not just physical rest, but to enter into God’s rest, which is for prayer and spiritual refreshment, the Sabbath prayer.

We don’t do God a favor by showing up for Church on Sunday and throwing something into the basket. This does nothing for God. It does not enhance His dignity or add anything to His power or glory. God does us a favor by hosting a meal for us every Sunday in which He offers Himself to us as food, in the most intimate act of communion with Himself imaginable. Mass is not about what we do for God, but about what God does for us. Often our attitude reflects like we are going to give something to God and God is gaining something by our action, and that is why at least some of us do not consider Sunday Mass a priority. Someone related to me a few weeks ago that when she needed a ride to Church on Sunday her granddaughter asked her, Do you still go to Church every Sunday Grandma? And she responded, well am I not supposed to? The new generation thinks that going to Sunday mass once a month is more than enough. Well, that is not the law. If we don’t, we break the law and breaking the law is a sin. In the OT. When people stayed away from going to the weekly meeting in the tent in the wilderness they were punished. It was meant to enrich them not God.

Jesus wants us to choose the better part, to depend more on him than ourselves, so that he can give us his best. Today, let's promise that we will.

OT XV [C] Dt 30:10-14; Col 1:15-20; Lk 10:25-37

When the Communists came to power in China, not a few Christians were arrested and tried for their faith. One was given the opportunity to reveal why he chose Christianity instead of the religion of his ancestors. I was in a deep pit, he said, sinking in the mire, and helpless to deliver myself. Looking up I saw a shadow at the top, and soon a venerable face looked over the brink and said, “My son, I am Confucius, the father of your country. If you had obeyed my teachings, you would never have been here.” And then he passed on with a significant movement of his finger and a cheerless farewell, adding, “If you ever get out of this, remember to obey my teachings.” But alas! That did not save me. Then Buddha came along, and, looking over the edge of the pit he cried, “My son, just count it all as nothing. Enter into rest. Fold your arms and retire within yourself, and you will find NIRWANA, the peace to which we all are tending.” I cried, “Father Buddha, if you will only help me to get out, I will be glad to do so. I could follow your instructions easily if I were where you are, but how can I rest in this awful place?” But Buddha passed on and left me to my despair.

Then another face appeared. It was the face of a man beaming with kindness and bearing marks of sorrow. He did not linger a moment, but leaped down to my side, threw his arms around me, lifted me out of the mire, brought me to the solid ground above, then he did not even bid me farewell, but took off my filthy garments, put new robes upon me, and bade me follow him, saying, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” That is why I became a Christian.

As followers of Christ, we can very easily see ourselves in that injured man because we were once dead, badly beaten up by our sins. But, we have been spotted by – ‘The Good Samaritan par excellence and our ultimate neighbor, beyond all comparison,’ who healed and delivered us from our sins out of his loving mercy and compassion for us. After he healed us, he entrusted us to his inn, which is his Church, for further spiritual caring and nourishment. And, our Samaritan who saved us is none other than Jesus himself, who said that he will be back someday in the future to take us with him to his Kingdom. This is what St. Paul tells the Colossians in today’s Second Reading, which is actually a Christological hymn: “God wanted all things to be reconciled through him and for him, everything in heaven and on earth, when he made peace by his death on the cross.”

The Jews and the Samaritans during the time of Jesus hated each other (as I explained two Sundays before). When Jesus told the story of a Samaritan helping a Jew, everyone was probably shocked. A Samaritan outcast helping a Jew? Impossible! “Good Samaritan” would have sounded like a bad joke—a contradiction in terms. The parable was an invitation for Jews to love Samaritans and Samaritans to love Jews. It is an invitation for people of all times to love their enemies — to love those they have previously hated.

The parable makes us realize that every human person is our neighbor. The Jericho Road is any place where people are being robbed of their dignity, their material goods or their value as human beings. It is any place where there is suffering and oppression. As a matter of fact, the Jericho Road may be our own home, the place where we are taking care of a mother or father, husband or wife, or even our own children. We may find our spouse, children or parents lying “wounded” by bitter words, scathing criticism or other, more blatant forms of verbal, emotional or physical abuse. Hence, Jesus invites us to have hearts of love. What God wants more than anything is for us to show our love to others, in our own home and school, in the workplace, and in the neighborhood, as the Good Samaritan did. Jesus is inviting us to have hearts of mercy for those who are being left hurt or mistreated on any of the “Jericho Roads” of life.

We are invited to be people of generosity, kindness, and mercy toward all who are suffering. A sincere smile, a cheery greeting, an encouraging word of appreciation, a heartfelt “thank you” can work wonders for a suffering soul.  One’s neighbor is the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit. One’s neighbor must therefore be loved, even if he or she is an enemy, with the same love with which the Lord loves him or her.” Let’s resolve to prove ourselves to be good neighbors not only just today, but as long as we receive graces from the Lord.

OT XIV [C]: Is 66:10-14c; Gal 6:14-18; Lk 10: 1-12, 17-20

St. Philip Neri, who earned the title “Apostle of Rome” came down to Rome in the early 1500s as an immigrant from Florence and a layman. When he arrived, he was horrified by the physical and moral devastation of the city. Rome had been sacked in 1527 by the Germans who had left much of the city in ruins. The Gospel wasn’t being preached, and many priests and cardinals were living in open defiance of Christ’s moral teachings. Philip prayed to God to learn what he might do. He read the letters that St. Francis Xavier had sent back to Europe from India, where he had been converting tens of thousands. Philip thought that God was calling him to be a missionary to India, to give his life in proclaiming the Gospel. When he went to his spiritual director and told him what he thought God was asking of him, the wise old priest affirmed his desire to serve and bear witness to Christ. However, he told Philip to focus his attention on re-evangelizing those around him, declaring, “Rome is to be your India!” This was quite a task for one man. But Philip, relying on God’s help, started — first as a layman, then as a priest — to convert Rome, one person at a time. He would cheerfully go to street corners and say, “Friends, when are we going to start to do good?” He developed various entertaining social and religious activities to give the people, especially the young people, better alternatives for their hearts and time than those offered by the debauched culture around them. His impact was enormous, and when he died in 1595, much of Rome had been reconverted. The same God who spoke to Philip almost five hundred years ago challenges each one of us this morning through the Scriptures, to make “Your home and your family, your workplace and your parish are your mission field!”

While all the synoptic Gospels mention a mission of the Twelve, only Luke adds a second mission of the 72.  Moses selected the seventy-two elders to guide and govern his people. Here, Luke shows Jesus doing something similar, sending out in pairs, seventy-two other disciples to towns and villages to announce his visit. In this way, Jesus connects his Messianic mission with the whole of Israel’s history in which 72 had become a symbolic number. The Jews also believed that there were seventy-two nations in the whole world, and they had seventy-two members in the Sanhedrin, the supreme council of the Jews.

The disciples received instructions as to how they were to carry out their mission. For example, they were to “carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals, no food, no walking sticks.” His command was that the disciples should give up even these necessities so as to be both a living act of Faith in God and “walking signs” to those who saw them.  The disciples were only armed with their Faith and the name of Jesus. They needed nothing more. Their detachment from material goods would enable them to uphold the absolute priority of preaching the Good News. The spirit of detachment would also help them to trust more deeply in Divine Providence and would oblige them to rely humbly on the hospitality of those who were receptive to the Gospel. Their life-style should help proclaim their message: “The reign of God is at hand.”

Their guidelines were simple: go where they were received (v 5-6); remain in one place (v 7) and eat what was set before them (verse 8). After settling down in a house, if they were invited by a richer family they were not to move to another house for better convenience. This would help them avoid the appearance of being mercenary.  The basic idea behind Jesus’ instruction is that his disciples were sent as walking witnesses, and, hence, they were not to depend on anything or anybody except on the Holy Spirit of God and on Divine providence.

“Greet no one along the way.” This instruction implies that the mission was so urgent that nothing should divert the disciples from it.  In the Asian culture if you greet somebody they would be invited into the house for refreshments and chit chat. This would waste away the important time. Therefore, they were not to greet anyone on the way.

 “Let your peace come back to you.”  This means, “Don’t take rejections personally.  You have done your part, so don’t worry about the outcome.” It is not up to us to force anyone to accept Jesus. Our mission is to prepare the way. If a person’s heart is open, the Lord will enter in.

Just as Jesus in today’s Gospel gives instructions to the seventy-two missionaries, he also gives each one of us a mission to carry out. There are over one billion Roman Catholics and about as many other Christians who accept Jesus as “Lord” and “Savior.” So there are over 2 billion missionaries in a world of 7.7 billion people.  A recent survey asked the question, “Why do adults join the Catholic Church in spite of the scandals publicized in the media?”  Seventy-five percent of the new adult converts to the Catholic Church reported that they were attracted by a personal invitation from a Catholic who had a lively relationship with Christ and his Church.  As faithful Catholics, we will attract others to the Catholic Church—just as a rose attracts people by its beauty and fragrance.

Let us become heralds of the Kingdom in our own homes by treating each other with profound respect. When spouses respect each other and, thus, teach their children to do the same, our neighbors will experience the Kingdom in our families, because the Kingdom of God is God’s rule in our hearts enabling us to do His will. Let’s start evangelizing today, and let’s start it right from our home.