WITNESS TO JESUS | FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Here is the text of Bishop Larry Silva’s homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, delivered July 15 at a Mass at Catholic Charities Hawaii marking the 40th anniversary of Hawaii’s Catholic Charismatic Renewal.
On several occasions I have met with city and state officials regarding our crisis of homelessness. The wisest solution seems to be what is referred to as “housing first.” This means that someone who is living on the streets is first given housing, then is surrounded by social services that will help them with mental health or addiction issues, life skills or job training. However, if such an approach is to be successful, there must be people who can offer these kinds of services.
Of course, the government officials naturally think that trained social workers or mental health professionals, and all of the learning and skills these professionals bring to the situation, are essential. But my contention is that there simply are not enough of such professionals to really make an impact, so why not use some of the time of these professionals to train volunteers, men and women in our community who are compassionate and who are not afraid of the homeless because they already interact with them through shelter or feeding programs in our parks and beaches.
Bedding and pillow drive for recently homeless veterans. Photo: Iwie Tamashiro
But there does not seem to be much interest in engaging these non-professionals. And so, the enormous task of really helping the homeless seems to become more overwhelming by the day. While I definitely affirm the importance of professionals in social work and mental health, I also have to ask the question: What did people do about mental illness before Sigmund Freud, that is, before there were professional psychologists and psychiatrists? Did they simply learn to listen to each other, to accompany each other in difficult times, and to gradually help people be freed of the demons of mental illness? What was done for the poor before there were professional schools of social work? Didn’t people simply reach out to the poor to help them in whatever way they needed help?
But I think this attitude of overdependence on professionals also applies to our faith. Jesus did not just send out the Twelve to preach repentance, to heal the sick, and to cast out demons, but the risen Jesus continues to send all his disciples out to do what those original disciples were able to do. Looking at the Twelve, we know that at least four of them were fishermen and one a tax collector, so they were by no means professional preachers when the Lord sent them out. Then there is the prophet Amos, who was told to stop contradicting the “professional prophets” who made it their business to tell the king and the people just what they wanted to hear rather than call them to repentance. But Amos replied that he was not a professional prophet, but rather “a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores,” but that his call to be a prophet was very authentic.
There are more people who do not know Jesus Christ and the liberation and love that come from knowing him than there are homeless people. There are fewer people living on our streets than people who know Jesus only as a character from history and not as the risen and living Lord of Life. So we need professionals who can reach out to them as priests, deacons, or religious sisters and brothers. But the harvest is so vast that there is no way that only “professionals” can do all that is needed to call people to turn away from the empty promises of the world to the rich spiritual blessings that God wants to give to his adopted children in Jesus Christ. And so it is that all of us, whether we are shepherds or secretaries, tree surgeons or business executives, fishermen or fire fighters, are sent by the Lord to preach the good news of repentance, to heal the sick, and to cast out demons.
Jesus tells the Twelve that they do not need to take a lot of baggage along, but are to go simply, two by two. And so he sends us out today. If we are professionals, wonderful! But if we are not, there is no need to take the baggage of a degree or title in order to accomplish the prophetic work of proclaiming redemption by the blood of Jesus and forgiveness of transgressions.
However, we must be careful, too, lest we become false prophets, sharing fake good news of a redemption without the cross, or of self-improvement without the Redeemer of all the world. We must stay close to Jesus, opening ourselves more and more to his Word, joining him in praise and obedience to the Heavenly Father, and anointed by the same Holy Spirit that anointed him at his baptism in the Jordan. We must never go out on our own, lest we ourselves become the center of attention, but always joined in partnership with the Body of Christ that is the church. We must above all resist the very real temptation to only sing and praise in the safety of our churches, but refuse to go out to those who may very well reject the message of salvation.
There remain the great sickness of debilitating poverty in our culture; the demon of self-advancement at the cost of the lives of the unborn; the illness of a hopelessness that leads to so many suicides or to people just wanting to anesthetize themselves with drugs or alcohol; and the demon of ego-theism, the belief that “I” am god who makes my own decisions about what is right and wrong. How will the Lord heal these sicknesses and drive out these demons unless all his blessed and beloved children become prophets of his love, going out simply but boldly, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to proclaim the freedom that only Jesus can bring.
