Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A - 6/25/2023)

Good morning. For the past several Sundays since Pentecost, Fr. Charlie has led us through a homily series on charisms. To review, charisms are “special abilities” given to each of us by the Holy Spirit that enable us to be “powerful channels of God’s love and redeeming presence in the world. . . Charisms are used in charity or service to build up the Church” (CCC 2003). Today is the final Sunday of the homily series and the two remaining types of charisms are organizational charisms and creative charisms. Organizational charisms are those charisms that meet the needs of an organization or group, and include the charisms of giving, service, administration, and leadership. Creative charisms are those charisms that enable us to express our faith, bringing glory to God as Creator of Heaven, Earth, and all of humanity, and include the charisms of music, writing, and craftsmanship. I will not say much about creative charisms because, aside from chanting certain parts of the Mass and practicing for 40 days to chant the Exsultet for the first time at the Easter Vigil, let’s just say the Holy Spirit has not granted me these spiritual gifts. However, I think that I know something about giving, service, administration, and leadership to share about organizational charisms.

In his essay, titled “The Servant as Leader”, Robert K. Greenleaf coined the phrase “servant leadership.” Mr. Greenleaf wrote that a “servant leader” is “servant first.” Sound familiar? Jesus “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many“ (Matthew 20:28). Servant leadership, therefore, “begins with the natural feeling that [we] want to serve, to serve first (the charism of service). Then conscious choice brings [us] to aspire to lead (the charism of leadership). This is sharply different from one who is leader first. . . The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served (the charism of giving). The best test. . . is to ask ourselves: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served. . . more likely themselves to become servants?” (the charism of administration).

Perhaps this short tale can help us better understand what it means to be a servant leader: Saint Peter and the Angel Gabriel had a problem. Peter was sorting people at the Pearly Gates letting some in and keeping others out, but Gabriel was finding more people in heaven that Peter was letting in. They were befuddled. Gabriel told Peter to keep working and he would get to the bottom of this. A few hours later he came back and told Peter not to worry; he had figured it out. “It’s Jesus. He’s pulling people in over the wall.” Jesus is pulling people over the wall. In other words, Jesus lifts others up, holds their hands and pulls them with him, leaving no one behind. Christ is a servant leader par excellence because, as the Prophet Jeremiah stated: “. . .the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion. . . to you I have entrusted my cause. . . for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked.” Jesus is the “mighty champion” for the causes of the poor, the downtrodden, and the voiceless because “not one of [the sparrows] falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. . . and [we] are worth more than many sparrows.”

Leading by example, Jesus “summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness” (Matthew 10:1). He commissioned them to go and do what he himself had been doing - to proclaim “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and “[cure] the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons”. Christ prepared them for the coming persecution, warning them: “I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves” and that they “will be hated by all because of my name.” Then, as a servant leader who probed the minds and hearts of the Twelve and understood what they needed, he said to them: “Fear no one. . . do not be afraid.” Jesus speaks these same words of encouragement to each and everyone of us today, saying: “Do not be afraid of persecution, of being sheep in the midst of wolves, of being hated because of my name.” Therefore, in times of trials and tribulations, when faced with difficult and challenging situations, servant leaders are those who do the work, bear the burdens, serve from within and give themselves for the common good. When confronted with fear, servant leaders are “self-possessed (calm, confident, and. . . composed) in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work [needed]; and fulfill [their] ministry. . . they “finish the race” because they “have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:5, 7). 

Saint John Paul II, a servant leader, once said, “Do not accept anything as truth that lacks love and do not accept anything as love that lacks truth. One without the other is a destructive lie.” I think sometimes our greatest fear is to love others as God loves them because we are afraid we might lose them. We stand by as they continue to do what they are doing and live the lifestyle they want to live. The reality is, because we do not have the courage to love others as God loves them and speak Truth to them with love, even if we occasionally have to say: “Get behind me, Satan! [. . .] You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23), we continue to inflict wounds on the Sacred Heart of Jesus by our sin, unfaithfulness and neglect. When we fear loving others as God loves them, we ourselves become indifferent and lukewarm in our faith, and God vomits out those who are lukewarm (Revelations 3:16). In the end, we get a millstone around our neck (Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:1-2) and our loved ones are not any closer in their relationship with God because as Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel: “[whoever] who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” 

We fear losing the love, affection, respect, and friendship of people we care about. Yet, there is one fear that we have lost as a people and as a society. . . and that is fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is not “‘servile’ fear, whereby we fear punishment” but a gift of the Holy Spirit “whereby we revere God and avoid separating ourselves from him” above all else (Summa Theologiae). We are “one Nation under God” but we are not servant leaders of God’s first (Saint Thomas More). How are we revering God when people or groups openly mock our Lord and our God? How are we avoiding separating ourselves from God when we think that we have the “right” to end the life of a human person? How are we revering God when we think it is okay to shun and mutilate the “image and likeness” that God lovingly created and breathed His Spirit into us? How are we avoiding separating ourselves from God when we prioritize our other activities over coming to Mass? How are we revering God when 60% or more of us Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist? Jesus asks us, “what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matthew 16:26).

Everything I have just mentioned are opportunities for us to become servant leaders of Jesus Christ for our family, our Church, and our society. For me personally, a servant leader is one who encourages another. One of my charisms is encouragement. My patron saint is Saint Andrew the Apostle, the fisher of men, because I feel called by God to encourage others to grow in their Catholic faith and to come and follow Christ. My wife and I work with couples to prepare them for the Sacrament of Marriage. If any of the couples, or anyone for that matter, tell me that they stopped going to Mass because they disagreed with Church teachings, then I would encourage them to wrestle with their doubts and seek answers to their questions rather than stop coming Mass, deny their Catholic faith, or, worst, turn their back on God who loves them. I would invite them to attend O.C.I.A. (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults) and even offer to attend the classes with them. I extend the same offer to you all. For the men, I invite you to join my Weary Travelers faith-sharing small group for men. For couples who desire to get married in the Catholic Church, I offer to accompany you on your journey toward a sacramental marriage. 

My sisters and brothers in Christ, each of us has the capacity to become a servant leader in our own unique way, using our charisms to speak Truth to others with love, starting with our family, the domestic church, and to carry out the mission of the Church that Christ has commissioned us at our Baptism. As our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ tells us: "What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops." Therefore, let us go forth from Mass and do not be afraid but be bold, be Catholics, be the servant leaders God called us to be and we will set the world on fire for the love of God. 🙏🕊❤️