Homily: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

     Deacon Craig Borchard and I are huge roller coaster fans. I remember the first time I went to Cedar Point with him. His instructions to me sounded very similar to those we heard in the Gospel today: “Take no backpack, no keys, no wallet, no cell phone. Stuff simply slows you down.” Now as silly as it sounds, the truth of that statement carries over into our life in Christ as well. Jesus instructed the Apostles to take only sandals and a walking stick, traditional objects used by travelers, because we are in fact on a journey in life, a missionary journey. And while on that journey, we can be slowed down by stuff.

  The Apostles were instructed to take nothing for several reasons: 

1. It is easier to travel and focus on the task at hand, in this case the spreading of the Good News of the Kingdom of God, when you are not carting around a bunch of stuff you really don't need. 
2. Not having a lot of material possessions with you, forces you to rely on the providence of God. 
3. Traveling with nothing calls others to provide hospitality for you and minister to your needs as well, thus building community.
4. Last but not least, a certain degree of poverty lends credibility to the message you present. 

  So what does this mean for us? Do we all have to sell our homes and cars and beg for food everyday in order to be saved and please God? In a word no. Some are called to live out lives of drastic poverty for the sake of the kingdom of God. Others are not called to do so. But we are all called to live in healthy relationships to our material possessions. Having possessions is fine, but it becomes a problem when our things begin to possess us. We should be responsible, plan for the future and care for our families, however, we must practice a certain degree of detachment from things. We need to remained focused on the purpose of our time on this earth, that is, to know, love and serve God in this life and be happily with Him in the next. As my mother always said: “There are no U-Hauls in heaven.” 

  Living a life of simplicity, not allowing your possessions to possess you, is an amazing witness to Gospel values in our modern, secular, pagan world. In a world where happiness is obtained through wealth, superficial beauty, and power, an individual who recognizes, yet doesn’t seek constantly for those things, and is more deeply fulfilled and genuinely happy and peaceful, boggles the secular mind. 

  I urge you to preach that message of simplicity through your life and your relation to things. if you are rejected in your mission to bring Christ to others, don’t sweat it. Our task is simply to be obedient to our mission, the success of the mission is in the hands of the Almighty. When we face rejection, we can be at peace with even that. The Jews of Jesus’ time would shake the dust of pagan lands off their feet upon returning home from a journey. This served as a rejection of pagan ideas. When Jesus instructs the Apostles to shake the dust off their feet from town that rejected their message, it would have served at the time to those witnessing it as the greatest form of rejection and separation. Therefore, we must shake off our feet, the dust of the materialistic world in which we live. Only then, can we be free to share with others, the Kingdom of God and the joy, peace, and fulfillment that an intimate relationship with Our Lord provides.