Nothing Ordinary About Our Call

This Sunday is best called the “3rd Sunday after Pentecost.” I say it is best called that because it reminds us that Christ’s Catholic Church is Pentecostal–evangelical in the original sense. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit, working in us individually, as families, and as community to bring the Good News of Jesus and His Church to the whole world. In the Latin Missal, this is “Dominica 13 Per Annum,” which translates as 13th Sunday Through the Year, and is rendered “13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.” But our evangelical mission is anything but ordinary. The words completely obscure our extraordinary vocation to be missionaries to our sad, dysfunctional society, and the hopeless folks who make up our society. We must bring joy to a joyless world. That’s why when you ask me “how are you,” I usually respond, “still grateful.” Try it sometime in your own world.

Today’s first reading picks up the story of Elijah the prophet, who–almost in despair–has made his way to Mt. Horeb where he hears the Lord speaking to him in a soft voice. He has come from what was apparently a triumph over the prophets of Baal and Astarte, the Canaanite fertility gods, in a contest on Mt. Carmel. But the king and queen of Israel are pursuing him in anger, and he feels quite alone in his dedication to the One God. The Lord tells him essentially to start three revolutions–in Syria, in the northern kingdom of Israel, and in his own ministry, which he is to turn over to Elisha. We focus on the call to Elisha today, who, at Elijah’s nonverbal call (the mantle) abandons his family and follows the older prophet.

Like Elisha, Jesus “firmly set His face to go to Jerusalem,” where He will testify to Ultimate Truth and lose His earthly life. The Samaritans will not open their doors to Him, because He was on Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which they considered the false Temple. James and John, noting the inhospitality of the Samaritans, ask for the power to treat Samaria as God treated Sodom and Gomorrah back in Genesis. Jesus denies that revenge-purification. After all, the crime of the Sodomites went way beyond inhospitality.

As the Jesus-band goes along the road, three encounters occur. The first is told, when he asks to follow Jesus, that the follower of Jesus is basically homeless. St. Paul would later tell all of us that our citizenship is not here, but rather in heaven. The second, whom Jesus calls, asks for time to be with his father until he dies. Christ’s reply seems heartless, but really tells all of us that there is nothing more important than proclaiming God’s kingdom. The third, called by Jesus, asks for time for a farewell party at home. Jesus invokes the spirit of Elisha with his reference to a plow, and focuses on the time for proclamation being too short for us to temporize.

St. Paul tells us in reading 2 that ‘the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."’ We are called to freedom, but that does not mean license to do whatever our fleshly feelings prompt us to do. No. Freedom, as Thomas Aquinas told us, is the liberty to know what is good and do it. This week, be free of worry. If you see someone in pain, listen to them. If you find someone who is open to Christ changing his/her attitude and behavior, invite them to Mass or to your Scripture group.