Video (5pm Mass)
Audio (12pm Mass)
(My schedule: 2 homilies, 2 follow-up mtgs. for marriage prep & 1 house blessing)
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A Message to
Former Catholics to Return Home to the Flock of the Church:
Rescuing the One
& Strengthening the 99 Sheep
(Homily #162)
24th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sept. 15, 2019
According to data from the Center for Applied Research
in the Apostolate (CARA) and also the Pew Research Center, 1 out of 10
Americans is a former Catholic. There is
even a story that while the American Association of Retired People (AARP) is
largest group of people in the U.S., with the 3rd largest group being
the Catholic Church, do you know what the 2nd largest group is? The 2nd largest group is former
Catholics!
From the number’s perspective, this situation in the
Church in the United States is called “disengagement.” Disengagement [disaffiliation] means that
there are members of the flock that are leaving the Church at an alarming rate. Many of these are identifying as “nones”
(meaning either no religion or atheism).
This reflection on concrete numbers on the declining
state of the Church in the U.S. leads us to today’s Gospel on the Parable of
the Lost Sheep. There are 2 simple parts
to this homily. First, there is a
message from the Word of God for former Catholics (disengaging from the Church
as the “one lost sheep”). Second, there
is a message from the Word of God for active Catholics, the 99, to find them. Christ reaches out to the lost sheep and
Christ strengthens and equips the 99 to outreach to the one. This hits very close to home and is not just
statistics because, after all, how many of us have family members that either
practice their Faith lukewarmly or half-heartedly or who have either left the
Church?
I.
In today’s Gospel, Christ gives a message to former
Catholics to return home to the flock of the Church. To those who have left the practice of the
Faith after they were baptized and even confirmed, the Word of God proclaims
this message to you: Our Lord rejoices when he finds you! “And when he does find it, he sets it on
his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his
friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found
my lost sheep’” (Luke 15).
Jesus also calls his friends and neighbors over one
lost sheep. Jesus is showing us the
dignity of one soul. With all the people
that you see around you, he is focusing on just you. He calls one person by name. Jesus does something very illogical and
against human wisdom: He leaves 99 to search for YOU. St. Thomas Aquinas said that everything in
the created world is not equal to just one immortal soul. It was also said that when you were in the
presence of St. John Paul II, he was just focused on you.
And even family members or friends who love us dearly
treat us like we are not a number. If
that is true for us humans who love imperfectly, how much more true is it in
the spiritual world of God who loves perfectly?
You, the one, are so wonderful to Jesus that when he finds you, he
places you on his shoulders with great joy.
He delights that you, and just you, are on his gentle shoulders. He focuses on just you. He has a unique mission for you, and no one
else can ever take your place in his Sacred Heart.
II.
Now let us turn to those of us in the 99 that Jesus
apparently leaves behind in this second part of this homily. For us who come to Mass regularly, the 99, the
message of the Word of God today is this: Rejoice with Our Lord! Rejoice when a fallen brother or sister has
returned to the Flock of the Church! What
did the man with the found sheep do upon his arrival home? He called together his friends and neighbors
and says, “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.” What does the woman who lost one coin do when
she found it? She called together her
friends and neighbors and also said, “Rejoice with me because I have found my
lost coin.”
So, the first way to strengthen and equip us, the 99, if
you will, the so-called regular churchgoers, to search for the one, is to have
strong hearts and attitudes. Our hearts
are one of happiness and delight and welcome.
St. Jacinta was the youngest of the 3 shepherd children that Mary
appeared to at Fatima. Even at her young
age of 10, she was ready to offer all she had for the value of just one soul,
that one lost sheep. And St. Faustina,
the Secretary of Divine Mercy, wrote of Jesus’s love for souls. She wrote that Jesus showed her that love for
the salvation of souls is measured by the willingness to suffer for these
souls. The more one loves the more he is
willing to suffer for those he loves. St.
John Bosco, the great priests who serve youth, said, “Souls, souls, souls…give
me souls…take away the rest!” Our hearts,
our labors, our sufferings for love of souls— all of these come from the
foundation of prayer especially the Holy Mass.
We rejoice best at Mass. The Mass
is the great feast of heaven where angels rejoice in those that were lost but
have now been found. Let us come
frequently to Mass and for those whose state in life allows it consider daily
Mass.
Finally, as important as the numbers are, as alarming
as the numbers may show, today’s Gospel reminds us of the dignity and significance
of that one soul that is faithful. Even
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has referred to what is a called the Benedict
Option. The Benedict Option is where
even though we are experiencing a smaller Church, it is more important that we
be a more faithful Church. We may be
smaller, but we are faithful. As St.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said to her novices, “I don’t want numbers.” She wanted fidelity.
In closing, again, Our Lord rejoices when he finds a
lost soul that returns to the Church. And
we too rejoice with Our Lord and strengthen our hearts. So be faithful, even when the rest of our family
or friends or neighbors are not faithful.
Be faithful and be the woman who turns her house upside to find one
little lost coin, be faithful and be the man who rejoices and places the one
lost sheep on his shoulders. Be faithful
like Moses in today’s First Reading from the Book of Exodus, who intercedes for
God’s lost people.
Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord to them, go and invite
others to Mass, go and welcome back others to the practice of the Sacraments,
go and invite lukewarm or inactive or former Catholics home to the Flock of the
Church. "Go and announce the Gospel of
the Lord!" As the Responsorial Psalm
today says, “I will rise and go to my father.”
Let us too go and rejoice. Let us
rejoice go labor with Christ, the Good Shepherd, for that one lost soul.
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Comment:
An Amazing Homily by Deacon Dennis. Absolutely brilliant, inspirational, and heartfelt. I feel privilege to have studied under Deacon Dennis and the friendship and privilege of knowing him and his beautiful family. We miss you dearly
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