Twenty-third Sunday A in Ordinary Time, MT 18,15.20

23. Sunday 2020

Introduction

Do you know why some people reject religion? Because they consider Jesus’ demands to be an unpleasant burden. For example, a student recently wrote in a newspaper like this: I reject religion because I don’t want to be limited. However, we know that whenever the Lord Jesus requires something of us, He does so not to limit us, but to help us be happy. For example, in today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus tells us, “For where two or three are gathered  together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Mt 18,20

Sermon

That this request of Jesus is significant for our lives, we see that the Lord Jesus supports it with his strongest motive. His most substantial reason is when he puts himself at the center of that demand. For example, when he wanted to lead his listeners to do good acts of love for their neighbors, to give the hungry to eat, to give the thirsty to drink, to snuggle the wanderers, to dress the naked, to treat the sick to visit the prisoners, he supported this demand with his strongest motive. : Whatever good you did to one of my youngest brothers, you did to me. So they build themselves as a motive for people to do acts of love to others. Or when the Lord Jesus wanted the believers to be faithful to the doctrine of the Holy Church, he declared before his apostles: “Whoever listens to you listens to me, whoever rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.(Luke 10:16).

Do you see the Lord Jesus standing here as a motive of faithfulness to the Church? And with this strongest motive, the Lord Jesus also supports his demand of today’s Gospel when he says, “Whenever two of  you on earth  agree about  anything you pray  for, it will  be done for you  by my Father  in heaven. For where two  or  three  come together  in my name, I am there with  them.”  He stands here as a motive for people to love spiritual communities. This requirement of Jesus is part of the essence of the Christian religion. Christian religion cannot be understood only as a relationship with God, so only to pray to God but not to be interested. The Lord Jesus does not recognize such a religion; remember the ancient stylites, the stylist means; a man living on a pillar, they were people who wanted to live their vibrant personal relationship with God by building a pillar and a small booth on the post for themselves. Our dovecote dwelt in that booth on the pillar day and night and always prayed to God; people admired him and brought him food to the pillar, but soon these monks recognized that their religion is not complete. After all, the Lord Jesus put into his faith the love of God and the love of neighbor. But how could such a warden cultivate fellowship with neighbors when he lived high above his neighbors. Therefore, the monks gradually descended from those pigeons to the ground, among the people, to live in communion with their neighbors a real Christian life. And today, we no longer have any scholars in the Church.

Today, on the contrary, spiritual communities are beginning to spread significantly in the Church. For example, in World War II, the Italian city of Trento was often bombed. People had to flee to hiding places. And so, in the hiding place during the bombing, a group of female students always met with a student of philosophy, Chiara Lubich. Before the war, they peacefully dreamed of their ideals: of studies, of spending, of founding family happiness, of art, and of their homeland. But the war that was ruining their city was destroying all their plans. The girls realized: Everything is in vain! And then, with their minds and hearts, they rose to God. They said to themselves: God alone can be the ideal of our lives. And they began to form a new relationship with God through daily holy communion, fervent prayer, and regular encounters in spiritual communion. At these meetings, they deeply experienced the word of Jesus:For where two or three are gathered  together  in my name there am I in the midst of them. In Italian, the term “in the midst ” means “in mezzo”. And so, they kept saying: Gesu in mezzo. Jesus in the middle of us.

And they were never sad. And they were so happy with Jesus that they renounced worldly pastimes and lived their happiness in Jesus, who was present in the midst of them. This is how they lived in Jesus’ community for years. And from them spread the experience of religion in the community, first in the immediate vicinity, which observed their lives. Then their community gradually spread to more distant cities, and today, after fifty years, Focolare is already widespread all over the world. It was accepted not only by girls and women but also by students and professors and workers.

They were never sad. And they were so happy with Jesus that they renounced worldly pastimes and lived their happiness in Jesus, who was present in the midst of them. This is how they lived in Jesus’ community for years. And from them spread the experience of religion in the community, first in the immediate vicinity, which observed their lives. Then their community gradually spread to more distant cities, and today, after fifty years, Focolare is already widespread all over the world. He was accepted not only by girls and women, but also by students and professors and workers and monks and priests and bishops, and they all meet in small spiritual communities where they experience closeness with the Lord Jesus and where they receive light, strength, and love from him in their daily lives.

Shouldn’t we, too, long for a social experience of our religion? The Lord Jesus so strongly recommends this to us because He knows it will contribute to our lives’ happiness. And the same is what today’s scientists – psychologists are saying. They say that those who live alone, in isolation, closed in on themselves, often become mentally and even physically ill. That is why Professor Bach, who teaches psychology at the University of Beverly Hils, organizes weekly courses during the holidays, in which the Reds recruit them to make fellowship with others. He tells them an example like this: Student A came to the beach in the hot sun, and when she disintegrated there, she found that she did not have oil with her. She wondered what to do. Finally, she packed up and went to buy oil at the drugstore. There was an inventory. And before she found oil in another drugstore, the sun was setting, so it was no longer worthwhile for her to go to the beach. In the same case, Student B was thinking about what to do. And she said I would sunbathe without oil, and let the sun burn me. And she had severe burns. Student C didn’t think long in the same case, but with a kind smile, she spoke to those who dreamed around like this: Please, could someone give me some oil? I forgot to get fat. And the result? Everyone offered her oil. And she said: I’ve never used such refined oils for sunbathing. And so, Professor Bach puts his listeners at heart: Stop being type A because the sun will set for you. Stop being type B because the sun will burn you. But become all type C because you will find help in the community.

And so, brothers and sisters, when the Lord Jesus and modern psychology recommend fellowship to us, we pray that we will abandon our isolation and loneliness and closeness and that we will enjoy family, kinship, neighborhood, and working communities with Jesus in the midst.