Building Bridges of Love

Homily
ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
12 JUNE 2005

Matthew 9: 36 - 10: 8

[Mat 9:36] At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.
[Mat 9:37] Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
[Mat 9:38] so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."
[Mat 10:1] Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
[Mat 10:2] The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
[Mat 10:3] Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
[Mat 10:4] Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
[Mat 10:5] Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, "Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
[Mat 10:6] Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
[Mat 10:7] As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
[Mat 10:8] Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
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1. Introduction

In today's Gospel, Our Lord mandates the apostles to go forth and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This proclamation is to be made first to Israel, the children of God's choice. Afterwards it will be proclaimed to the whole world in what is called the "mission of the Church".

2. [From The Catechism of the Catholic Church: 849 - 865]

2.1 The Missionary Mandate

"...the Church, in obedience to the command of her founder and because it is demanded by her own essential universality, strives to preach the Gospel to all men".

[Mat 28:18] Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
[Mat 28:19] 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,
[Mat 28:20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

"The Lord's missionary mandate is ultimately grounded in the eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity: 'The Church on earth is by her nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has as her origin the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit'. The ultimate purpose of mission is none other than to make men share in the communion between the Father and the Son in their Spirit of love."

2.2 The Apostolic Mission

"...And he appointed twelve, whom also he named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach. From then on, they would also be his "emissaries" (Greek apostoloi). In them, Christ continues his own mission:

[John 20:21] (Jesus) said to them ..., "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

The apostles' ministry is the continuation of his mission. Jesus said to the twelve:

[Mat 10:40] "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me."

"Jesus unites them to the mission he received from the Father. As the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but receives everything from the Father who sent him, so those whom Jesus sends can do nothing apart from him, from whom they received both the mandate for the mission and the power to carry it out. "

2.3 The Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles

"...the Church teaches that the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ."

2.4 The Apostolate

"All members of the church share in this mission, though in various ways....Indeed, we call an apostolate every activity of the Mystical Body that aims to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth."

Let us now look at one historical manifestation of apostolate.

3. Charles de Foucauld

There is a great number of those in the Church who followed Our Lord's missionary mandate to a heroic degree, including St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and St. Francis de Sales. Noteworthy among these is Charles de Foucauld, whose cause for beatification is underway.

Charles de Foucauld was born into an aristocratic French family in Strasbourg, France in 1858. Despite his advantages of birth, as he grew into young manhood he lost his faith. After converting from an unexemplary life, and after an arduous spiritual journey, he was ordained to the priesthood, spent some time in Trappist monasteries, and eventually went to Algeria to live among the Tauregs. He lived with them from 1901 until his assassination on December 1, 1916.

Charles' focus had been on the hidden years of Our Lord in Nazareth: those years that Jesus spent living an ordinary life among ordinary people.

Any distinction between the contemplative and active life melted away in His dual worship of Jesus in the Eucharist and of Jesus in the poor. His "Nazorean" spirituality was manifested in living the same life as those around him to whom he was brother.

His obedience to the missionary mandate of Our Lord was not to be rewarded in his lifetime by conversions. There were even times during his life among the Tauregs that he had to apply to Rome to be allowed to celebrate Mass alone, since there were no Catholics available to be altar servers.

At the time of his assassination in 1916, Charles de Foucauld had not made a single convert. The following verse from John could well serve as his epitaph:

[John 12:24] Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Charles de Foucauld did indeed bear much fruit. His vision was to result in several religious foundations, including the Little Sisters of Jesus, whose charism is to provide a continuation of Our Lord's presence in those places where the Church, in the structure in which we know it, is remote to a greater or lesser degree.

4. Our Share in the Apostolate

At baptism, we receive a share in the God's own life. At confirmation, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit with a mandate to evangelize. In the John 7 we read:

[John 7:38] Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: 'Rivers of living water will flow from within him.'"
[John 7:39] He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive.

That is, each of us in his own way is to participate in the Church's mission of being Jesus present in the world. We are to be conduits of the Spirit: rivers of living water flowing from each of us.

Some of us, like Bishop Fulton Sheen, will be like Paul, proclaiming the kingdom of God by preaching and teaching. Others, like Charles de Foucauld, will be doing spade work for a harvest that will be accorded to others.

Whatever form our share in the apostolate takes, like Charles de Foucauld we first build bridges of love. We build them to be strong enough so that they will bear the weight of the truth that is ultimately to pass over them.