October 11, 2021, Optional Memorial of St. John XXIII, Pope
Monday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 1:1-7
Ps 98
Lk 11:29-32
Today we begin reading Paul’s letter to the Romans, making us feel as if we are immediately projected into a borderless universe: Paul writes to recipients he does not yet know, to a Church that was not founded by him, yet one he still wanted to visit so that the people might become formed in their Christian faith. Paul had wanted to go as far as Spain after first passing through Rome, where a Christian community made up of converted Jews and people from paganism, already existed.
Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an Apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God, which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, the Gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In this solemn introduction, Paul presents himself as a servant of the Messiah, and an apostle not by personal choice but rather by vocation; he is “set apart” to announce the good news of salvation.
In a wonderful summary, he proclaims that in the Scriptures the prophets had already foretold the Gospel, but they had been brought to fulfillment in Jesus, born of David’s lineage, declared the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead.
It is Jesus Christ himself, the Lord, who gave Paul the grace and the ability to be an apostle, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, and therefore also of the Romans, loved and called by God. To them, Paul wishes grace and peace from God and his Son Jesus Christ.
After such a consoling and solemn introduction, the responsorial psalm explodes with jubilation for the wonders worked by the Lord:
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds; his right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm. The Lord has made his salvation known: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice. He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; break into song; sing praise.
The Gospel also has a universal appeal: there is great sadness caused by the blindness and obstinacy in evil of the generation that Christ is addressing:
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
Jesus speaks to the crowds that gather around him, who appear to be interested in his words, yet he denounces their superficiality. He bluntly describes it as 'evil': they do not wish to convert, they do not want to change their lives. Driven by curiosity for sensational things, the people who listen to him just want to witness miracles. They are not interested and moved by the presence of Christ, who is much more than Jonah, much more than Solomon; his words do not move them to repentance, as the Ninevites were; they do not want to listen to his wisdom, as the queen of the south did. In their superficiality, the listeners are content to be amazed by the Master’s signs, perhaps even to be moved by his words and to agree with his teachings.
Jesus asks for more. He wants more. He wants more from that generation listening to him during his public life, from the men of all future generations, from us who now listen to his word: from us he expects true conversion so that opens our lives may open to him, our way of thinking and acting might be transformed and newly directed by a sincere love for the One, who is the way, the truth and the life. And then, through the witness of our changed life by Him, he wants more than anything for us to communicate the truth and beauty of our transformed existence to our brothers and sisters who do not yet know him, who have forgotten him, or who’s conception of him is tainted because they have only been exposed to our lukewarm testimony. Conversion and mission belong strictly to our essence as Christians.
Some members of the Church then receive a specific missionary vocation from God to evangelize pagan or de-Christianized realities: they need our prayers and our help.
Today, October 11, we remember the Supreme Pontiff St. John XXIII, initiator of the Second Vatican Council and great promoter of the Missions. In the encyclical Grata Recordatio of September 26, 1959, he wrote:
On October 11, 1959, We shall have the great pleasure of presenting mission crucifixes to a large group of Catholic missionaries who are about to leave their beloved homes and undertake the heavy responsibility of bringing the light of Christianity to distant people. […] These young men present such a wonderful spectacle that We must be optimistic for the future. They have overcome many obstacles and inconveniences and given themselves to God that other men might gain Christ (cf. Phil 3:8) whether in foreign lands as yet untouched by the light of truth or in those immense, noisy, and busy cities in which the pace of daily activity, rapid as a whirlwind, sometimes makes souls wither and become content with earthly goods.
From the lips of their elders, who have labored long in the same cause, comes the ardent prayer of the Prince of the Apostles: “Grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness.” (cf. Acts 4:29).
We trust that the apostolic labors of these young men will be commended to the Virgin Mary in your devout prayers through the month of October.
But the 'good' Pope does not forget that a clear Christian witness is everyone’s duty: Baptism leaves an indelible mark on our being. In this sacrament the fire of the Holy Spirit marks us, so that all baptized men and women may live as missionaries. It is up to each one of us to rekindle this fire so that as it burns it continues to transmit its light and heat to others.
In the encyclical Mater et Magistra (May 15, 1961) the Pontiff underlines this fundamental task of every baptized person:
The Church today is faced with an immense task: to humanize and to Christianize this modern civilization of ours. The continued development of this civilization, indeed its very survival, demand and insist that the Church do her part in the world.
That is why […] she claims the co-operation of her laity. In conducting their human affairs to the best of their ability, they must recognize that they are doing a service to humanity, in intimate union with God through Christ, and to God's greater glory. And St. Paul insisted: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31). “All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” (Col 3:17).
To search for spiritual perfection and eternal salvation in the conduct of human affairs and institutions is not to rob these of the power to achieve their immediate, specific ends, but to enhance this power. The words of our divine Master are true for all time: “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and his justice; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6:33). The man who is “light in the Lord” (Eph 5:8) and who walks as a “child of the light” (cf. ibid) has a sure grasp of the fundamental demands of justice in all life's difficulties and complexities, obscured though they may be by so much individual, national and racial selfishness. Animated, too, by the charity of Christ, he finds it impossible not to love his fellow men. He makes his own their needs, their sufferings and their joys. There is a sureness of touch in all his activity in every field. It is energetic, generous and considerate. For “charity is patient, is kind; charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” (1 Cor 13:4-7).
In conclusion, Venerable Brethren, We would remind you of that sublime truth of Catholic doctrine: our incorporation as living members in Christ's Mystical Body, the Church, “For as the body is one and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body; so also is Christ.” (1 Cor 12:12).
We most earnestly beg all Our sons the world over, clergy and laity, to be deeply conscious of the dignity, the nobility, which is theirs through being grafted on to Christ as shoots on a vine: “I am the vine; you the branches.'' (Jn 15:5) They are thus called to a share in His own divine life; and since they are united in mind and spirit with the divine Redeemer even when they are engaged in the affairs of the world, their work becomes a continuation of His work, penetrated with redemptive power. “He that abideth in men, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit.” (cf. ibid.). Thus is man's work exalted and ennobled—so highly exalted that it leads to his own personal perfection of soul, and helps to extend to others the fruits of Redemption, all over the world. It becomes a means whereby the Christian way of life can leaven this civilization in which we live and work—leaven it with the ferment of the Gospel. (Mater et Magistra, 256-259).