The Field Hospital of Life, Mercy and Unity, First Saturday (II), January 18, 2014

Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Bernadette Parish, Fall River, MA
Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Beginning of the Octave of Christian Unity
Start of the Nine Days for Life Novena of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
January 18, 2014
1 Sam 9:1-4.17-19.10:1, Ps 21, Mk 2:13-17

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today in the Gospel we see in a powerful way Jesus’ mission and the constant mission of the Church. Jesus taught the crowds and then he put his teaching into action. Seeing Levi (Matthew) at his tax collectors post — where, like other tax collectors, he would rip off his own people for profit, giving the Romans what they assessed and using the military to force out of his fellow Jews whatever more he could get so that he could keep it for himself — Jesus called this notorious public sinner to follow him, to leave his money behind, to leave his sins behind, and follow him down a path not of grasping but of giving. Matthew was so moved by being given this second chance, this salvation, that he called together all of us his friends, who likewise had a reputation, probably well-earned, of being notorious sinners, so that they, likewise, could meet Jesus and encounter the Lamb of God who had come to liberate them from their sins. It was too much for some of the scribes and Pharisees, however. They complained to Jesus’ new disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Their attitude was to separate themselves as far as possible from sinners, to let the sinners sleep in their iniquitous beds and die in their sins, failing to recognize, of course, that they, too, were sinners, and if Jesus abided by that principle they would themselves be cut off from salvation. Jesus, however, hearing what they were saying, said one of the most important lines in the entire Gospel: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
• Yesterday, we heard the powerful Gospel of the healing of the paralyzed man, first his sins, then to show that Jesus had the power to heal sins, his paralysis. All of us, likewise, have been paralyzed in our lives by temptations, by sinful choices or even habits. We are all in need of Jesus’ healing. To the extent that we have received a Christian calling, a Christian vocation — and we all have — we must remember that we have received it insofar as we are sinners. Jesus came to call sinners. The entire mission of the Church is, like Matthew, to host a banquet for sinners so that other sinners, just like us, can encounter Jesus and the liberating power of his merciful love.
• Back in September, in a famous interview with Fr. Antonio Spadaro, Pope Francis said that the Church is a field hospital on a battlefield, where all people, wounded by sin, are invited to come to experience the compassion and healing of the Divine Physician. The first action of the Church, he said, has to be to heal wounds, to offer Jesus’ mercy, to those who have been maimed in the various battles of life. To the extent that we have been healed in that same hospital free of charge, we’re called to collaborate in that mission of bringing others to receive that same gift. Just as it would be absurd for a hospital only to treat the healthy, so it’s absurd for the Church to look at herself as a place only for saints, rather than sinners, for people who please us rather than sin against us, God and others.
• This truly Christian mentality of the Church as a hospital offering mercy for others together with Jesus the Divine Physician, as a banquet for sinners who seek to be healed, can help us to appreciate a little better two invitations to prayer that begin today.
• The first is the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, which starts today and continues through next Saturday, the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, who labored so much for the unity of believers in the early Church. Since the Protestant Reformation, there have been many periods in which Catholics and Protestants have looked at each other as enemies rather than as separated brothers and sisters, focusing more on what we don’t have in common theologically than the much more that we retain, especially our love for Jesus, for his Word, for others. We certainly have in common our baptism, which means that we are both beloved sons and daughters of God and therefore spiritual siblings. We need to respect that reality. In today’s first reading, Samuel anoints Saul as the first king of Israel. Much later, after Saul displeased the Lord and had Samuel anointed David as king and successor of Saul while Saul was still living and Saul began to attack David seeking to kill him, David had plenty of opportunities to slay Saul, but he never did, because Saul was anointed by God. David refused to attack the one God had anointed. The reality is that by valid baptism, every Christian has been anointed by God and we should look at each other as beloved siblings, rather than spiritual enemies. The Church Christ founded is a hospital for the reconciliation of sinners and we need to model that by our attempts at reconciliation with each other. We pray for that grace during this Octave for Christian Unity, making our own Jesus’ prayers from the first Mass that we might all be one with the unity that exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• The second period of prayer that begins today is the Nine Days for Life, a new initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life Apostolate, led by Cardinal O’Malley, which envelopes in prayer the witness of Christians in our country to life as we mark the horrible 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22. This prayer seeks to offer mercy to a world that is so wounded that it slaughters its future, assassinating another child in the womb every 23 seconds in our country alone. Sometimes in the history of the pro-life movement, Christians have taken on the mentality of soldiers in a war zone attacking the enemies that support the destruction of innocent human life. It’s been us versus them, the good guys against the bad guys. Today’s readings and Pope Francis’ words remind us that fundamentally we’re not supposed to be warriors on the battlefield but nurses working alongside the Divine Physician to heal the wounds of this world, seeking to offer mercy and help others experience it and share it, mercy for women who have made tragic choices, mercy in saving the life of the children whose silent screams can’t be heard, mercy for personnel who have carried out this diabolical slaughter, mercy for politicians and citizens who have supported this grisly practice. As we pray throughout this novena for life, we’re asking God for mercy for ourselves, for them, for our culture. The Lord has come to call sinners and therefore he calls us all of us from the culture of death into his life saving hospital.
• After he himself experienced Jesus’ mercy, Matthew called his friends, fellow sinners, to experience the same healing love in a banquet with Jesus. Today Matthew joins us at this daily banquet for sinners in the refectory of the hospital that is the Church. We begin this Mass remembering who we are, confessing ourselves to be people who have “greatly sinned” through our own “most grievous fault,” crying out “Lord, have mercy,” proclaiming that we’re not worthy to receive him under our roof, but begging him to say the word, to forgive us, and make us capable. And we make that prayer not for ourselves individually but for all of us, turning to the Lamb of God and asking him to have mercy on “us” together. Today at this great banquet of Christian unity, this great feast of life, we ask him to help each of us become the Matthews of our day, inviting all those we know— the fellow sinners in our families, among our friends, in our neighborhoods, our separated Protestant brothers and sisters, even those caught up in the practice of abortion — to come to experience the same healing in this great hospital we ourselves have received. Jesus came to call sinners. And our mission is as reconciled sinners to go and proclaim the Gospel of the Lord, the Good News that salvation from sins is possible, so that one day we may all be reunited in that banquet of eternal life among saved sinners in the heavenly Jerusalem.

These were the readings for today’s Mass: