Homily for the Week of October 18, 2008

HOMILY: Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2008
World Mission Sunday
Isaiah 45: 4-6; Psalm 19; 1 Thessalonians 1-5; Matthew 22: 15-21
As you may know there are many publishers which provide Sunday bulletins for parishioners. After reviewing many of these 8 years ago I decided on the one we have primarily because of the excellent spiritual reflections on the front of the bulletin and then the Dear Padre section on the back. Those of you who have brought home one of our bulletins every weekend for the last 8 years, and kept the Dear Padre section have on hand an encyclopaedia of basic information on our Catholic faith in all of its dimensions. This week Rose asks the Padre about why must each nationality has its own Mass. On any given weekend, on both the East and West Coasts of the United States, Mass is celebrated in more than 65 languages. What is the significance of this fact?
On the one hand it clearly reminds us how universal is the Catholic Church and how far and wide it extends, literally to the ends of the earth. St. Ignatius of Antioch whose feast we celebrated on Friday, was the first to call us Catholics in the year 85 A.D. He did not call us Roman Catholic because the center of the church was not in Rome.
It also illustrates how diverse is the service required by the Church in our country – outreach to a diverse group of people who speak many languages. We might be surprised how many foreign-born priests offer such service to the Church here at home. They are both immigrants and, at the same time, missionaries to us, in much the same way that Italian, French,Irish and Spanish missionaries from Europe served our country just over a century ago.
Much of California's history began in the 1700’s when Father Junipero Serra started the Spanish Missions. The chain of 21 missions along 650 miles of California's Royal Highway from San Diego to Sonoma represent the first arrival of Catholic missionaries to California. They were priests of the Society of Jesus and Francsicans. Every one of the California missions tell a story about the history of California. We are all familiar with their names such as Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Jose, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz. They were all named in memory of a Catholic saint or of Jesus or the angels.
Missionary priests also settled along the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and the French, Irish and Italians in the Eastern States.
We would not have a church here in Cadyville if 160 years ago, Father James Rooney, a priest of the Oblates of Mary of Ireland, had not decided to be the priest for the Irish immigrants who came here to raise their families. Once a month or once every other month he would come from Plattsburgh and stay in the home of some family. He would have Mass, baptise the new born children, anoint those who were very sick, and then witness the marriage of young couples, and with their moms and dads, teach parents and their children about the Catholic faith and prepare them for First Communion.
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, commented on the diverse makeup of our Church when he visited with us in April of this year. He found here a young and vibrant Church; the influx of immigrants has certainly contributed to that fact. Our Holy Father also noted that many of the vocations to the priesthood here came from first and second generation immigrant families. Such were Fathers Francis and Clarence Devan and Father Ed Delaney who brought up on farms on the Hardscrabble Road and became priests in this Diocese. That was 56 years ago. No one from St. James Parish have decided to become priests since then. I am sure many young men have been invited by God, but none have answered.
Till 100 years ago this year the United States was dependent on the Catholic parishes of Europe for their priests and nuns, and for much of the costs associated with the running of a parish. This year we celebrate 100 years of being “mission independent” as a national church – no longer dependent on the sacrifices of the Catholics of Europe through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith – and as we gather at the altar to celebrate World Mission Sunday, our thoughts, prayers and offerings are directed to one place – the altar. At the Table of the Lord, intimately in the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, we renew our commitment to our vocation to be missionaries. This vocation, which each of us received at Baptism, is to, in the words of today’s Psalm, “Tell the Lord’s glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
From the original Pentecost event when the first Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, were sent to carry this “Good News” to the four corners of the world, until today, that same mandate of Jesus is as active and operative as ever. Go and make disciples of all nations,” St. Matthew tells us in his Gospel. “Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. Our Lord gave this, His “Great Commission,” to the His first Apostles; it is now our task.
World Mission Sunday unites us in this work of continuing the Church’s missionary outreach – unites us in the continuing Pentecost. At every altar of the world, the language spoken on World Mission Sunday, as it is at every Mass, is the same. It is the language of love as taught to us by Christ Himself. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is the way, the truth and the life. We are all missionaries to show others the way, the truth and the life. In most places we will be the only Bible than anyone will ever read.