Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 496

Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and sisters,
especially for strangers;
they have testified to your love before the Church.
Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey.

 T his passage from the Third Letter of Saint John testifies to the practice of the earliest Christian churches; they supported itinerant missionaries as they received them and sent them from place to place. 

The custom began long before Christ as Jews, eager to hear news of Jerusalem and keep up with loved ones in the diaspora welcomed travelers. Many itinerant teachers and rabbis facilitated their continual adjustment to changing times and circumstances. Merchants, pilgrims, and scholars also moved about freely with Jewish hospitality. The Law of Moses must prevail in their homes and synagogues as it had in Babylon during their exile. Hadn't they learned to keep the faith under Persian, Greek, Hasmonean, and Roman domination? 

Christians kept the custom with even more enthusiasm as they supported the work of evangelization, first to the Jews, and then the gentiles. Jesus had commanded them, to

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Not everyone could or should wander far from their homeland and families, but all could support the universal church with prayer, friendship, and generosity. Saint Paul saw a marvelous opportunity when Christians in Jerusalem -- already facing ostracism and persecution -- had to suffer drought. Both Letters to the Corinthians end with an appeal to send money to Judea during the crisis. "If any part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers;" and the Lord's disciples are the Body of Christ. It is unthinkable that some should prosper while others perish. 

That custom remains strong among the Christian and Catholic churches of this twenty-first century. It is vital that we support our missions, even as they support us. In our time we are seeing a re-evangelisation of Europe and North America as Africa, India, and Asia send missionaries to "post-Christian" countries. While prosperous churches send money to impoverished churches, they receive incalculable spiritual wealth from those same spiritually rich congregations. They're also reminded of their traditional beliefs and common sense as they suffer recurrent and increasingly bizarre waves of ideological nonsense. (i.e. surrogate mothering, artificial insemination, and transsexualism.) 

These New Testament writings remind us of our first century sisters and brothers and their habitual sacrifices. Their holy customs have supported the Church through many centuries, and remain vital today.