29th Sunday in Ordinary Time | 7 Habits of Highly Effective Catholics Conclusion - Habits, 5-Service, 6-Evangelization and, 7-Renewal.
[Father Paul]
Before I left on my holiday, I was doing a sermon series on the seven habits of highly effective Catholics. We spoke about three interior habits—faith, prayer, and study—and then began to discuss three exterior habits, namely worship, service, and evangelization. The final habit is renewal or conversion. Deacon Gunther preached a beautiful homily on worship before I left, and I would like to conclude our series by discussing these last three habits at once: service, evangelization, and renewal.
I want to begin by sharing an insight I learned from reading Rhonda Byrne's The Secret, a popular book that came out a few years ago. Her thesis is that if you ask the universe for whatever you need, it will appear quite magically. I think the new age group also calls this "Manifestation." So, for example, if you are searching for a parking spot at the local mall, you might "ask the universe," and a perfect parking spot will manifest for you. But this is not the Christian way. The Christian way is to look for a place as far away from the entrance as you can and put the needs of others first. It requires sacrifice.
James and John in today's Gospel might not have realized this when they asked Jesus who would be first, and Jesus corrected them. Sacrifice is at the heart of Christianity. But what does this mean? There is a positive way to look at sacrifice. I believe Jesus is asking us to use all of our talent, joy, love, and ingenuity to build up the Kingdom of God. Maybe we have started to lose sight of that.
In our work of parish renewal, I often refer to a book entitled "Rebuilt Parish." We are being coached by an organization dedicated to parish renewal that emerged out of one very successful parish in Baltimore. They talk in their book about three phases that Catholicism has gone through in the last 75 or 80 years:
At first, we were "needy consumers." Many Catholics came to North America from the war and needed help. So, the Catholic church built orphanages, hospitals and schools; it was a wonderful display of generosity and the Christian spirit. But then, once things started to settle and economic status began to change for all, Catholics became "Compliant Consumers." In other words, whatever the church said (i,e. "father") was fine. But now, we are no longer so compliant. In fact, we have become "Demanding consumers." "I want what I want when I want it." This is unfortunate because it's not the Christian way. The Christian way is to give, to be generous, to serve, to be a follower of Christ.
Here is an observation from my recent trip to Italy when I witnessed again the magnificence of some of the buildings in Rome. We were all just gawking at them, like obedient tourists, looking perhaps for some kind of consolation or spiritual experience in these incredibly gorgeous works of art. But I couldn't help but hear a reservation echoing in my soul: is this what Christianity is really about? The word ostentatious or showy came to mind. As beautiful as it is and as brilliant as these architects were, doesn't Christianity express something much deeper? I'm reminded of the people asking Jesus about the temple in Jerusalem, which I imagine was pretty impressive for the day. And do you remember his response? Not one stone would remain on top of another. Which, by the way, actually happened: That temple was destroyed not long after Jesus was crucified. But he also said, "In three days, I will rebuild it." Obviously, he was talking about the temple of his body, which is infinitely more precious, more beautiful more permanent and more stable. The great cathedrals are meant to be a reflection of the glory that is given to God, and they are a marvel of their time. But it is only an image of what is infinitely more beautiful, which is the love that is at the heart of Christianity.
At its very core, the church is not about a building, it is about being a follower of Jesus. This is the evangelization portion of my series on highly effective catholics. To quote Pope Francis:
"I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since "no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord". The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: "Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace"." (3)
What emerges out of this encounter is sacrifice for sure, but not sacrifice born out of need or compliance or demand, but sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice allowed humanity to create such gorgeous buildings hundreds of years ago? Wasn't it creativity and ingenuity, an ingenuity that allows us to flourish as a human being fully alive? I believe that being a follower of Jesus is just as much about creativity as it is about love. For love is ultimately creative. We are not meant just to gawk at the beauty of a time long past and wonder how they did it; we are also meant to build the kingdom of God right here. But today, I don't think God is not asking us to build magnificent cathedrals. Maybe he's asking us to use our ingenuity in a different place:
In ending injustice
in ending war
in ending poverty
Can we not apply our great human brilliance, your great human brilliance, a brilliance that allowed us to create massive cathedrals, fly men to the moon, allow us to text each other around the world, can we not use this brilliance to solve real problems today? Yes, I think we can. But we're not going to do it by standing silently waiting for someone else to do it, or by looking up at these cathedrals while the world around them crumbles. We must move. these are the last three habits of highly effective Catholics:
To serve
To evangelize
and to renew ourselves and our world.
If we don't build the kingdom of God, we allow our precious world to be destroyed and allow it to destroy us. Let's not let that happen.
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