Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 97

Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

The Book of Judges describes Israel's difficult early years after settling in Canaan and before David became powerful enough to unite all the tribes and create a kingdom. Judges tells us, 

When the rest of that (first) generation were… gathered to their ancestors, and a later generation arose that did not know the LORD or the work he had done for Israel, the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, and abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the one who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, and bowed down to them, and provoked the LORD. (Judges 2: 10-12)

In the desert, as Deuteronomy tells us, Moses had repeatedly urged the Israelites to tell their children the story and to teach them the laws, prayers, and customs of their ancestors. They must never forget the mercy God had shown them. But Judges describes their betrayal, the catastrophes that followed, and the LORD's fidelity as he rescued them time after time. 

When the LORD raised up judges for them, he would be with the judge and save them from the power of their enemies as long as the judge lived. The LORD would change his mind when they groaned in their affliction under their oppressors. But when the judge died, they would again do worse than their ancestors, following other gods, serving and bowing down to them, relinquishing none of their evil practices or stubborn ways. (vss. 18-19)

The story sounds shockingly familiar as Christians and Catholics adopt the mores and religious beliefs of the American culture of death. They follow other gods and bow down to them. Many of my boomer generation failed to teach their children the faith we’d learned in the postwar 1950’s. And so our children suffer with alcoholism, drug abuse, and homelessness. Many have been forced to adopt their orphaned grandchildren.     

Today's gospel is taken from Matthew 10, which tells us of Jesus appointing and instructing his twelve apostles. His instructions began in chapter 9, when…

…his heart was moved with pity at the sight of the crowds, because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

The Lord sent his disciples – you and me – to the United States which is troubled and abandoned. We are like sheep without a shepherd. And Whoever receives us receives the Son of God, and whoever receives him receives the Father who sent him.

We should graft our children, friends, and neighbors into the rich root of Abraham's faith and the saving, healing, reconciling tree, that is the cross of Jesus Christ. To be delivered from the culture of death, we must be baptized and welcomed to the Eucharistic table and the culture of life. 

But few Catholics see themselves as missionaries in a pagan country. America is our native land – even as it becomes ever more alien to us. Strangers in a strange land, we speak to our neighbors of the common good, of the rights of the unborn, the elderly and dying, of patients and prisoners -- and they wonder, "Where do you come from? What you're saying is not how we do things in this country! We want entertainment, fun, power. We want to dominate and control birth, death, and everything in between!"  

Catholics celebrate the beauty of marriage, pregnancy, and children, the honor of being a father and mother, and the joy of large, inter-generational families. We treasure our history of saints and martyrs, the tradition of education, learning, and wisdom, and the privilege of prayer. Guided by God’s Word and Spirit, we have no appetite for ideologies, conservative or liberal. 

Many Hebrew settlers in the Promised Land failed to indoctrinate their children in the faith. They forgot the God who saved them and finally disappeared into a population of pagans; and their children suffered the inevitable consequences. If we remember them three thousand years later it’s not because they kept the faith but because God kept faith with them, the children of Abraham.

We Catholics keep the faith as we worship each Sunday; we are here in this country to be salt and light. We make a difference because we are different. We pray that our neighbors will notice our joy; ask the reason for our hope; and return to the worship of the one True God.