HOMILY
Respect Life Mass – October 6, 2024
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
“I came so that they might have life, (Jn 10:10).” … The theme for Respect Life Sunday and this sacred season is taken from Saint John’s gospel discourse on the Good Shepherd. This venerable image of the People of God as God’s flock and Jesus as our Shepherd is significant for several reasons.
First, the image of Jesus as our Shepherd both consoling and hopeful as we reflect upon the selfless care and guidance of God who walks with us in this journey of life. Second, it’s context in John’s gospel reminds us of the harsh reality of discipleship and the challenges that we as followers of Christ confront in our journey to God. In this portion of the gospel, Jesus more precisely refers to himself as the gate for the sheep, the one who gives access to God, the source of life. While many who seek to direct our values in our world and society can lead us to destruction, Jesus alone guides God’s flock to life and salvation.
Today’s gospel passage for this 27th Sunday of the Church Year, on the surface, may seem like an unlikely message for our consideration on a Sunday devoted to prayer for respect for human life. By scratching its surface, however, like all that Jesus proclaims, today’s gospel is a powerful reminder of what WE need to do and to be as authentic disciples and followers of the Lord Jesus.
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus offers a radical teaching on marriage and divorce. There was little appreciation for love and commitment in marriage in the patriarchal society in which Jesus lived. Divorce, sadly, was tragically common, not unlike the world in which we live today. Yet, in the midst of this context, Jesus cites the Genesis account of the creation of man and woman – today’s first reading – to emphasize that husband and wife are equal partners in the covenant of marriage. Indeed, Jesus’ vision of marriage with its restored sense of unity and mutuality reflects God’s very covenant relationship with Israel, established upon God’s total, complete, and selfless love and respect.
Jesus’ novel and demanding notion of marriage situates the sacrament at the very of core of discipleship. For the disciples of Jesus – and that includes each of us, married or single – we are called to embrace a selfless spirit of love, acting out of a sense of compassion and justice, rather than merely fulfilling legalisms and detached rituals.
And so, we come to appreciate from the Word of God – yet again – the timeless challenge given to all who seek to be disciples of the Lord. Embrace the spirit of selfless love manifested so powerfully by Jesus throughout his life, ministry and death on the cross – and in the process, discover meaning, purpose, peace and life.
Jesus concludes today’s gospel by outlining the path of discipleship that leads us to life and eternity – a path that is both disarmingly simple even as it is profound.
He invites each one of us to accept the Kingdom of God as little children. … In so doing, Jesus calls us to a new understanding of our lives in relationship to one another, to our world, and to God. … Jesus calls us to recognize, like a child, our powerlessness to control and direct our lives. God is the one who directs our place in the world – not we ourselves, no matter how sophisticated and knowledgeable we may think ourselves to be. … Jesus calls us to acknowledge, like a child, our dependence upon God for all that we have and all that we are. God has given us the incredible gift of life. It is not ours to determine or to direct. That is God’s responsibility and promise. … Finally, Jesus calls us to be open to receive, like a child, God’s presence and love: gifts that come to us through the sacramental life of our Church, particularly in the Eucharist – and gifts that also come to us in the most ordinary and often unlikely of ways when we are wise enough to first treasure the gift of life that God has given.
Sadly, many of us fail to appreciate the depth of God’s love, much less embrace the responsibility given to us by God to, in turn, love so selflessly, patterning our lives on the example of the life of Jesus. While grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision two years ago to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade, the division that has emerged in our country since the Court’s 2022 decision is a stark reminder of the fact that many simply refuse to acknowledge the dignity and value of the human person, particularly evidenced in disregard for the lives of the unborn. With the overturning of Roe, the challenge to protect human life has not diminished at all. It’s merely shifted from being a national issue to a state issue.
Moreover, threats to human life are increasingly evident in our world today; threats that we often fail – or refuse – to recognize. In addition to the tragic and continued widespread scourge of abortion, we’re also confronted with proposals and policies that favor assisted suicide, euthanasia, infanticide and human cloning. These too are dire threats to our belief in the dignity and value of the human person – as are the death penalty, human trafficking, and unjust immigration laws.
The good news of this gathering, however, is that the voice of faithful, selfless disciples of Jesus continues to be heard and their message proclaimed. May we give thanks this day, that in the midst of a broken and imperfect world and Church, life is still treasured by many as the gift of God that it is.
Pope Francis has often reminded us that every person – from the most vulnerable unborn child to the sick, the elderly and the poor – “as an inviolable right to life” and “is a masterpiece of God’s creation, made in his own image, destined to live forever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect.”
Though well beyond our ability to determine or control, life – from the moment of conception to natural end – is a gift to treasure and respect. We do so, however, not through our self-righteous criticisms of those whose beliefs may appear to be different than our own. … We treasure and respect life when we are courageous enough to proudly proclaim our values to the world in which we live, despite how we may be regarded. … We treasure and respect life when we vote carefully and thoughtfully according to the beliefs that we hold within our hearts. … But we most effectively witness to life when we first begin to tear down walls that separate us one from another and when we are humble enough to embrace the Gospel message of Jesus and to treat the lives that come into our own with reverence and dignity as children of one and the same God.
Therein lies the essence of Jesus’ words, “I came so that they might have life, (Jn 10:10).”