Homily: Thirty-first Friday of Ordinary Time
Thirty-first Friday of Ordinary Time (Rm. 15:14-21) “Breaking New Ground”
We often have the term evangelization thrown around in church circles. St. Paul was a wonderful evangelist. He describes his ministry in the reading we have today.
As American Catholics we have not been too concerned with evangelization. It seems like we are more preoccupied with maintenance. We seem to take care of our own. The primary way we increase membership in the church is that our members have children. We then educate those children in the faith, and they grow up to be members of our church. We could say that is evangelization, but we could also say we are saving the saved.
Quite often our outreach efforts revolve around trying to win back our members who have left the church for some reason. We also can invite people who are part of another Christian church to join us. But is convincing Christians from other denominations really spreading the good news? Most of these people are Christian already. The preliminary work has taken place.
St. Paul reminds us in chapter 15 of Romans that he “aspires to proclaim the Gospel not where Christ has already been named.” Paul wanted to convert those who did not know Jesus Christ. People in this situation are truly walking in darkness.
This is an important distinction to make. It is a lot harder to introduce Jesus to someone for the very first time. How do we explain our Lord’s life, death and resurrection? We need to be a lot more creative.
When we consider the fact that over fifty percent of the population in our country does not belong to a church and when we realize that the fastest growing denomination in the U.S. would be atheist, we then realize how large a task the church has. We need to evangelize this segment of the population. If we can bring the unbeliever to Christ, we are doing the work that St. Paul felt was most important.
Reflection Questions:
- Is it easier to speak to a person from another Christian denomination about faith or someone who has never heard about Christ? In what ways can I do this?
- Who do I know in my life who grew up without religious faith? Would I ever broach the subject of religion with them? Why or why not?
Dear Parishioners,
We have been trying to encourage people to return to Mass since the COVID 19 pandemic seems to be lessening. Sometimes people need a reason to return. We have had several special celebrations the last few weeks and we will continue to have these. We are seeing some different faces and we have some people coming back to church that we have not been here in a while.
This Sunday we will be having a special Mass for Veterans. This will be another opportunity for people to come back to Sacred Heart and experience a Eucharistic celebration. I would invite any veteran to attend, and I would invite people who want to pray for our men and women in uniform to join us as well.
The war in Afghanistan is now over, but there are still those who struggle with physical and emotional trauma. There are many scars that remain after any war. Let’s pray for healing this Sunday at our Veterans Day Mass.
May Our Lady and All the Angels and Saints watch over you today.
Fr. Mark