Had A Few Minutes So I Typed Out Fr. Jack Lynch's Short Sermon

HAD A FEW MINUTES so I transcribed this, Fr. Jack Lynch's excellent sermon from yesterday's Daily TV Mass from outside of Toronto.

I would say this text from the Gospel of Mark* is most enlightening. The disciples report something which bothered them very much. An  unknown person was expelling demons and this behavior is an intrusion into their work and mission because he wasn't one of them.  And Jesus reproaches them and shows how radically different his thinking is to theirs. The first and most important thing is not the growth in the prestige of this small group but rather that God's grace should reach every human being even through people who don't belong to the group. Jesus rejects the sectarian and exclusive policy of his disciples and adopts an open and inclusive attitude in which the important thing is to free people.  Free people from what dehumanizes them and makes them feel unhappy. That is the Spirit that must always animate us and the disciples.  The doors of this new Temple, which is Jesus, are open to all. No one is excluded. Sinners, the unclean, even non-believers.  The God who lives in Jesus belongs to all and is for all.  

Paul's description of the Church as the one body of Christ in which there is no longer distinction between Jews and Christians, Jews and gentiles, slave or free, should continue to inspire our work for all-inclusiveness within the church and in the world. I like to recall the words of Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury who said, "Mission is finding out where the Spirit is at work and then joining in." 

The Spirit is present in our world in other Peoples' cultures and religions and other efforts for Justice.  Where the Spirit of God is at work, we are to join in. And as Pope Francis reminds us, we do so with the joy of the Gospel.  In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis expressed a concern and a hope that remains uppermost in his thoughts. 

And he writes, "Once this health crisis passes, our worst response would be to plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation. God willing, after all this we will no longer think in terms of "them and those" but only "us". "For this reason," - these are Francis's words, "I wish to devote the message for tomorrow's celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees to the theme Toward an Ever Wider We. In order to indicate a clearer horizon for our journey in this world.  That horizon is already present. God created us male and female, different but complementary in order to form a We destined to become even more numerous in the succession of generations. God created us in his image, in the image of his own triune being, a communion in diversity."  

And Pope Francis offers this prayer in his reflection, "Holy beloved Father Your Son Jesus taught us that there's great rejoicing in heaven when someone lost is found, when someone excluded or rejected or discarded is gathered into our We, which thus becomes ever wider. We ask you to grant the followers of Jesus and all People of good will the grace to do Your will on Earth, bless each act of welcome and outreach that draws those in exile into the We of community and of the Church so our Earth may truly become what You, Yourself created it to be, the common home of all our Brothers and Sisters, Amen." 

I can say from my experience as an LGBTQ man that hearing that use made of that line from Genesis so often thrown up by those who want to oppress and discriminate against us used by Pope Francis and Fr. Lynch for the very opposite purpose of inclusion in diversity was enormously appreciated.  I'd thought of typing out this sermon before I heard that passage and that is what made me take the time to do it today, for today's celebration of "them and those" who they insist it is our obligation to include as We instead of waiting till time wasn't so pressing.   I can't help but point out that Pope Francis, so devoted to Franciscan thinking must have included the animals, the Earth and Creation, itself as "our Brothers and Sisters."  I will note that the capitalization is mine, I don't know if they wrote it out the same way. 

*  From Mark: 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

At that time, John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ, 
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"

I'd point out that the first reading from yesterday's liturgy was from Numbers 11:25-29 which attributed the same kind of universalist thinking to Moses.

 ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit he had given to Moses and gave it to the seventy leaders. When the spirit came on them, they began to shout like prophets, but not for long.

²⁶ Two of the seventy leaders, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp and had not gone out to the Tent. There in the camp the spirit came on them, and they too began to shout like prophets. ²⁷ A young man ran out to tell Moses what Eldad and Medad were doing.

²⁸ Then Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' helper since he was a young man, spoke up and said to Moses, “Stop them, sir!”

²⁹ Moses answered, “Are you concerned about my interests? I wish that the Lord would give his spirit to all his people and make all of them shout like prophets!” 

Good News Version