11th Sunday of Ordinary Time (We've Never Heard the Gospel)
Last week, I spoke of the meaning of the Eucharist and its place in this act of worship that we call the Mass. I spoke of how it serves as the climactic element to our worship. But before we begin our prayers at the altar, we proclaim the word of God for the purpose of hearing it, receiving it and being shaped by it.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus charges his twelve apostles to go out, to proclaim the Good News, that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. He further told them all that would come from this proclamation: the sick would be cured, the dead raised, lepers cleansed, demons expelled. It all seems to tell us that an authentic proclamation of the Gospel can give way to miraculous and powerful effects.
I just started reading a book entitled Rescued: The Unexpected and Extraordinary News of the Gospel by Father John Riccardo. The author makes the point that while on one hand, we may regularly hear the Gospel proclaimed, on the other hand, most of us have never really heard it. Yet, how desperately we need to hear it.
In the book Fr. Riccardo declares that too many of us have lives marked by despair, and that the world is crying. One way of seeing this is to consider a 2018 statistic—pre-pandemic, mind you—revealing the recent national trend of a declining human life expectancy. That might surprise you. Why is the average life expectancy declining? Sociologists say we are succumbing to deaths of despair, and Fr. Riccardo cites three significant causes:
· The first is suicide. In recent years, the numbers have increased substantially. Horrifically, among the young, the increase is much greater. In 2016 there were more than twice as many in our country as there were homicides.
· The second cause is liver cirrhosis, most commonly attributed to alcoholism. From 1999 to 2016 there has been an increase of 65%, and the group most affected are those between the ages of 25 and 34.
· The third cause is due to the current opioid addition. As Fr. Riccardo cites: “Despite being only 5% of the world’s population, Americans consume 80% of the world’s opioids”.
These are among the many indicators that we have lost touch with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, its purpose and power, the hope and joy it was intended to bring to us—and can bring us still. As stated in this book, we’ve lost sight of what the story is, and furthermore, where we fit into it. The Gospel has become something we may know about, but not as our Good News. In whatever way we’ve pushed God to the margins, we’ve lost sight of what it means to be created in His image. It’s leading to despair.
In the book, Fr. Riccardo likens it to the people of France, who up to the first half of 1944, had undergone months and months of bombardment at the hands of maniacal tyrant, as so many people were killed and seemingly everything around them was destroyed. Each day, they likely thought, as they awaited what might next be coming: Will this be our last day? Is there nothing that will save us?
Imagine, though, on June 7, 1944, that you open the newspaper to the bold headline: The Allies have Landed! As you peruse the paper, your spouse asks, “So, what news of the day?”, to which you respond, “Mmmm…nothing, really….looks like the Allies landed on our western shore to rescue us, but that’s about it.”
That, Fr. Riccardo suggests, illustrates how we’ve lost sight of the power and meaning of the Good News. As the Allies emerged to fight and to save us, so did Jesus come into our world: to save us from all that blinds us from experiencing God; from feeling His touch, and the strength, joy and meaning that comes from it. All that we long for: to be loved, accepted, to experience meaning in life, to feel secure—somehow, it’s all rooted in the proclamation of Jesus.
He says to us, ”The kingdom of heaven is at hand”. We, lost sheep that we are, need to hear it, to receive it, at last. May our lives not be marked by despair; that we might hear the words of the one who came to save us: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).