A Cycle – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time 26

Mt. 18:31-35

If we take the time and reflect on our faith community, would we go beyond what we see on the surface?  Two decades ago, the book “Intentional Discipleship” was written provide Catholic parishes a guide to deepen their relationship with God and actively live as disciples.   The author studied several parishes nationwide that were known to be “vibrant.”  One of those parishes was Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Plymouth, Michigan. 

Since our parish was becoming vibrant, my wife and I decided to attend mass there one Sunday. It was everything the author said it was. A welcoming community, activities too many to mention, a powerful sense of worship, capped off with a challenging sermon. It was obvious that their parish was growing because people hungry for a faith that challenges them were preferred to a lifeless parish focused only on obligation and duty without any opportunity for spiritual growth and service.

We left with a vision and an understanding of where my own parish in Brecksville, Ohio was heading.  Vibrancy was growing and over the years we continued to grow because our parish staff was focused on spiritual growth, service, and discipleship.  But over time that growth became the source of pride and an insidious sense of comfort and complacency. We took pride in our being the best parish in the diocese.  We knew no other parish had as many programs, and hundreds of individuals served others.  Creative services were added to the existing ordinary services.  But the big plus was the focus on living a life of discipleship. 

But over time the extra ordinary became ordinary in Our Lady of Perpetual Peace and in St. Basil’s.    

It took courage for our new pastor to take the time with key staff and pray for a revelation concerning where is Satan actively working to keep us from becoming an even more active community of faith.  What tool was Satan using to deceive us.  It did not take long to discover we had become comfortable and complacent.  We had fooled ourselves into believing we were no longer encouraging our parish to go deeper.  Cast your nets into the deep means more than Jesus first words to those He called to be disciples.  

Jesus in today’s gospel expands on last week’s gospel on our need to forgive for us to be forgiven. Peter understands the message but, in his humanity, he wants to limit forgiveness. How many times Lord must I forgive, seven times.  No Peter, not seven times but seventy times seven times, every time, all the time.  We, like Peter, are willing to forgive but we first want those who wounded us to suffer.  We want them to feel the pain they caused us and come to us begging for forgiveness. We are the righteous ones and those who we judge as unrighteous must come to us instead of us going to them.

We are far too comfortable and satisfied with our ability to live a life following the rules and attending the rituals of our faith.  Jesus did not call us to a comfortable faith. He told us to “pick up our cross” and follow Him.  He told us we will face hardships, challenges and yet He will be with us and never abandon us.  Our abilities, age, health, and knowledge are not obstacles; they become excuses for us to do nothing but show up.  God promised us He will give us what we need when we begin to speak out and serve as disciples. 

We need to stop depending on our ability to practice our faith and begin to comfortably live our faith.  We need to begin a journey that begins with us acknowledging we have become comfortable with our faith practices.  We begin by admitting we are guiding our spiritual lives instead of allowing the Spirit to guide us and empower us to become disciples.  It begins with us forgiving ourselves for desiring a comfortable faith and commit to be bold witnesses of God’s mercy and love. 

It begins with us allowing Jesus to embrace us as prodigal sons and daughters.  We need to acknowledge our need to trust Holy Spirit to restore us to holiness. To clothe us with the holiness we received at our baptism and open the doors for us to forgive the church for allowing us to settle for less than God wants to give us.  Yes, even our clergy can become complacent.  Our Lady of Perpetual help also slid into complacency over time. 

Forgive the church for not speaking the harsh words challenging us to get out of the boat and walk on water.  We are today’s disciples and it is time for us to Thake God’s message of forgiveness to our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our parishes, and yes to those who causes us deep and lasting pain.