Total Dependence on God: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sermon by Emmanuel Suntheni OSB – Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
Sermon and Christian Act in the Word
Theme: Total Dependence on God! Take Nothing on this Journey, just depend on God!
Point of Reflection: What do I depend on in my daily life? Money or Human Beings or God! This fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time calls our attention to the need for complete dependence on God, which leads to a positive transformation in our lives and in the lives of the people we encounter. This dependence expresses itself through the attitudes of hope, faith, and loving generosity described in today’s readings.
First Reading: Isaiah 66:10–14
Psalm: Psalm 66:1–7, 16, 20
Second Reading: Galatians 6:14–18
Gospel: Luke 10:1–12, 17–20
Sermon (Reflection): The Lord invites us today to depend on him. Our dependence on him makes our life’s mission efficient and effective. When we allow the Lord to take charge of our lives, he brings us to a point of saying with St Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”; we become another Christ in a world that needs Christ. Let us, therefore, accept this invitation to allow God to use us for his glory through our complete dependence on him.
The first reading of today from the book of Isaiah clearly speaks about the awesomeness of God and his acts, aimed at the restoration of Israel to its lost glory. There is an African proverb that says, “No matter how bad a child is, the mother will not give it to the lion to eat”. We see the truth of that proverb in God who has not turned his face away from Israel, even if Israel was an unfaithful partner. Learning from this we recognise that God will never turn away from his own.
Thus, even if we should fail in our response and love of God, he will always seek to restore us to the dignity of being his children. God renews and re-energises us for a dignified life every day.
Prophet Isaiah is set in the context of the gradual restoration of Jerusalem, after its destruction in 586 BC by the Babylonians. Seeing the restoration taking place, Isaiah compared Jerusalem to a nursing mother and the Israelites to her children. He began with the call to those who just recently mourned over the destroyed city to rejoice. This one-time heap of ashes was now rising like a mother who nurses her children with the milk of her breasts and dandles them on her knees. These metaphors of motherly nourishment and care portray a God who, like a caring mother, brings his children, Israel, out of a state of desolation and anguish to confidence and prosperity.
The Gospel reading of today contains Jesus’ comprehensive instructions for his followers and future apostles. Luke uniquely reports these instructions delivered to the seventy-two disciples, thus, a large group symbolising the future universal mission of the Church to the world.
At the very start of everything, the disciples are sent ahead of Jesus in pairs. This means that they are representing Jesus and preparing a place for him. This is a lesson for us pastors and Christians that sometimes we behave and act as if we are God himself. The disciples were sent into the world where they would encounter opposition and severe adversity, they will be like “lambs among wolves”. This sombre warning is not meant to frighten and discourage, but to make them keenly aware that they can succeed and survive this challenging mission only with Jesus’ help. They are not to “take a purse or bag or sandals”, which means that they must rely on God’s providence to avoid the danger of being consumed by the concern for food and clothing. They are commanded “not to greet anyone”, as the prophet Elisha commanded his servant Gehazi (Cf. 2 Kings 4:29). This peculiar command means that the disciples’ task is not to make friends for themselves, but to represent Jesus, and carry out his work with a great sense of urgency. They are to bring the gift of peace to the households they enter. Peace is a state of harmony with God, which those who accept Jesus in response to their proclamation will experience. The disciples are to remain in the same house, which means they ought not to seek better lodging but be satisfied with what they are offered. Finally, they are to heal the sick and proclaim the message of the kingdom. The rejection or acceptance of their message will determine the eternal fate of those who hear it.
Concluding, Jesus emphasised that the apostolic mission has truly cosmic consequences. Since even the demons, Satan’s servants, submit themselves to the disciples’ authority received from Jesus, it means that Satan has been defeated; thus, he has “fallen from the sky”. Thus, because the disciples are doing Jesus’ work, they are safe from all permanent harm. Even if they experience dangers and sufferings, their names are “written in heaven” – their salvation and final union with God is assured.
In all those instructions, the common underlying factor is that the mission of the disciples is Jesus’ mission, and it can only be executed faithfully and fruitfully when they depend on Jesus as their guide, the source of sustenance, and their ultimate hope.
With Paul’s words, from the second reading which come from the concluding part of his letter to the Galatians, reflect its main argument on righteousness. Paul forcefully argued that righteousness before God can only come through faith in Jesus Christ. In Paul’s language, faith is not an abstract belief but an existential attitude of trust and dependence on Jesus for life and for salvation.
This must be the mission of all us Christians to totally depend on God, not human beings who want to be more powerful like God.
Christian Act in Word of God: “Total dependence on God”
To live in faith as the Scriptures are telling us, is to entrust oneself completely to Christ and rely on him for a happy life. This means that we consciously choose Christian values and ways, rather than try to succeed in life by means and ways that go contrary to the way of life that Jesus taught.
The discovery of Christ’s love led Paul to abandon all his former securities and privileges in favour of the cross which secures righteousness and salvation for all who rely and depend on Jesus. Thus, the cross became for Paul the central symbol of his faith. He looks at the world and himself through the light of the cross. The former divisive distinctions between the circumcised and the uncircumcised, that is between the Jews and Gentiles, became irrelevant and meaningless, as the cross of Jesus marked the start of the “new creation”. This new creation is the new people of God, “the Israel of God”, founded not on ethnicity or allegiance to the Jewish law, but on the trustful dependence on Jesus Christ and his saving death, which Paul calls faith.
The Gospel of today helps us to see the benefits of complete dependence on God. Like the disciples, we are also invited to take part in the universal mission of Christ; to represent Christ in our time and place and make his saving power known and felt. Is it an easy task? Surely NO. As we see in today’s Gospel, Jesus prepares his followers for possible opposition and severe adversity, but he also promises them his help to survive and succeed. Every Christian knows that practising the faith, especially in anti-Christian environments, is costly, but, with the help of Christ, we are more than conquerors. When we let go of our concern for unnecessary things and unimportant things and hold on to Christ, he will strengthen us beyond all measure. Discipleship is very often all about emptying ourselves and letting Christ fill us. As Christians, let us always trust and depend on God.
Action: I will open my heart and will to depend on God at all times
Prayer: :O loving God, your mercy and compassion reach the ends of the earth and every human being. Teach us to depend on you at all times, for you are our saving help. You open your door of love, providence, and grace to all people. Help us to humble ourselves to depend on you and allow your will to be done in our lives. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.
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