”Words” will never accomplish a similar outcome…..“The Son of Man came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”

Today at Hoy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…Jesus and his 12 friends are walking to Jerusalem and they enter a Samaritan Village…For those who may not know…The people of Samaria hated the Jewish people and the Jewish people hated the people of Samaria…Sound familiar to the tribal behavior we see today?…..Since Jesus and his friends were Jews, the people of Samaria did not welcome them…Upon receiving this bad treatment…The two brothers (James & John - Known in our Catholic tradition as the “Sons of Thunder”) say the following…..“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”…Jesus interestingly enough addresses this statement in a surprising way…..”Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.”….What can we learn from this encounter?…God sees the world differently then we do…Jesus did not walk the earth to “settle a score”…He came among us to show us a better way to live…To save us from our sins….Jesus could have “taken care of” the Samaritans but instead he walked away……He took the “high road”…What “good” would have been accomplished if Jesus “crushed them”?…Jesus came to save the Samaritans too from their sins…James and John did not see it that way….What can we learn from this today?……Do we look to “settle old scores”?……Do we work to “win over” our enemies?……Or….Do do we look to crush them to satisfy our wounded pride?

“O LORD, my God, by day I cry out; at night I clamor in your presence. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my call for help”

The word of God is written on the hearts of all men!…..However mere words or simply reciting scripture like a parrot will not open the hearts of people to the Truth…People need to see it lived out in real time…..But know this…When people see the word of God lived out…Its like a thunderbolt crashing upon the earth!…Even the hardest of sinners can not ignore it….This is how we are to live and this is what needs to be witnessed to the world….”Words” will never accomplish a similar outcome

“The Son of Man came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”

When Mother Teresa first started her work she received a lot of push back from within the Church and from the people of India….Everyone thought she was crazy…The first house she established was in the Red Light District of Kolkata…I know this because I served at that home…It was a home for the Dying and Destitute taken from the streets…Next to her first home was a Hindu Temple, which stands to this very day…The Hindu men at the time hated Mother Teresa…They did not understand why she was helping the poor and dying from the streets and they thought she only wanted to convert them to the Catholic faith…So they fought against her and tried to have her leave the neighborhood…This went on for some time…Until the men saw what she was actually doing with their own two eyes…How she helped all people…It did not matter if they believed in God or not…She helped Hindus, Muslims, and Christians alike…When the people saw with their own eyes what Mother Teresa and her sisters did with their very hands…Their hard hearts softened and they stopped fighting her…In time…All the people of India supported her….. Mere ”words” would and could NEVER have resulted in this outcome - This change of heart….People need to see sacrificial love in action…Love that costs us!….This is the love of the gospel…And when the world witnesses this kind of love…….People will realize that this love was meant for them too!!!!…This is the “thunderbolt” that will change the world

“I am troubled* now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”

Getting back to the gospel today from Mass……James and John wanted to crush the Samaritans for not being good to them…Jesus had other ideas…Jesus wanted to “win them over”…But he knew simply lecturing them would not make that happen…He had to show them that he came not only for the Jewish people but for the people of Samaria too…Just like he came for us today…The only way he could show them is by “rolling up his sleeves” and serving them…Looking past any wounds, grievances or past disagreements….Seeing the people of Samaria as God sees them….If Catholics want to “win over the world”…This is the ONLY way we will do it…Lecturing people and reading off “canned lines” from the Bible will not change the hardest of hearts - This will not “win over” those who oppose us….We must be willing to give until it hurts….This is why the “good thief”, who was crucified beside Jesus said these words……“Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”……..”Words” will never accomplish a similar outcome…..“The Son of Man came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”