Homily for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Evangelii Gaudium Sunday

Roughly two weeks ago, the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Miguel

Maury Buendía, was visiting this diocese. If you don’t know what a nuncio is, the

word derives from the Latin word nuntio, which means to announce, relate or

inform. The nuncio is like a messenger from the Pope, a channel of communication

between these isles and Rome. He celebrated the Mass at Harvington Hall two

Sundays ago, and then on Monday he spoke with the priests of the diocese, before

then celebrating Mass with us all. Among the different things he had to say, he

commented on what has been referred to as the “Quiet Revival”, the fact that

numbers of converts are going up, as well as attendance at Mass, and the rather

unusual phenomenon that it was claimed that among young people, there were more

men than women – usually women tend to be more religious than men. Perhaps, he

was saying, this could lead to an increase in vocations to the priesthood.

He went on to also say that he thinks the real crisis in the Catholic Church in

England and Wales is not so much to do with the numbers of priests, but rather the

shortage of laity, but that the Church can be revived by good and holy priests. In

Spanish, apparently, there is a saying, which doesn’t rhyme when you translate it

into English, but it goes like this: if the priest is a saint, the people will be pious. If

the priest is pious, the people will be cold. And if the priest is cold, the people will

run away. Chipping in with something I read myself some time ago, an American

bishop asked his clergy what he could do to increase the numbers training for the

priesthood. One priest stood up and said that the best thing for vocations would be

the bishop’s canonisation. Well, we have something like that happening now, with

Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification taking place in America on Thursday this

week, 24th September, which makes him one step away from being declared a saint.

Returning back to these shores, I think I’ve mentioned that roughly fifty percent of

the priests of this diocese are due to retire in the next five years, so we’ve got to get

our skates on. I understand the diocese is hoping that many of them will want to

have an active retirement, rather than putting their feet up and watching TV, perhaps

at least helping out a bit here and there. In the second reading today, St Paul says,

“My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the

flesh is more necessary on your account.” I am sure there are many priests in their

seventies for whom those words apply. He then goes on to say, “Let your manner of

life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” I’m currently reading a book which is a

collection of letters of Pope John Paul I, before he became Pope, and in one he says:

“preaching about virtue to a heart without the love of God was like suggesting that

someone with a weak body should suddenly take up athletics. Strengthening the

organism with the love of God, on the other hand, means training a champion and

launching him confidently up to the heights of holiness”.

Holiness, or sanctity, is so important and necessary, not just for priests, but for

everyone. But it has to be adapted to each person’s situation. A bishop can’t have

the prayer life of of monk, and neither can a married man or woman who has a

family to look after and to go to work.

So, turning to the Gospel, the parable about the labourers in the vineyard can have a

few applications. It can be about men being called to the priesthood, some

responding when they are young, and others when they are not so young. It can

refer to people’s conversion to the Catholic faith, responding at different times in

their lives: as children, teenagers, young to middle-aged, after retirement, or even on

their deathbed. And it can also be applied to our call to evangelise, to spread the

Gospel, a call that we might find difficult and want to put to the back of our minds,

especially if we’ve had a few knocks and bruises in the past. But the first reading

says not to delay in turning to the Lord, and the same applies to our efforts for

evangelisation. We all know people who used to come to Mass and don’t anymore,

and we might think it’s easier to get a football supporter to watch a match played by

his or her rival’s team than to get some of the people we know to go to Mass. But

that’s further down the road. We need to do more work preparing the ground

beforehand.

On that note, I have a Handbook for Parish Evangelization Teams produced by the

Archdiocese of Southwark, and it would be good to get a team together to work

through some of the practical ideas it has, working through some of the simple

things such as making sure the church is known in the wider community, how

visitors experience coming here to Mass, opportunities presented by the school,

parish website, outreach into the local community, and then it has various projects

and ideas, but it states to take on no more than two at a time. It would be good to get

a few people together and then we can begin to work our way through.

There are signs of hope in society; sometimes it might even be the case that as the

darkness deepens, people are increasingly drawn to the light.

I’ll just finish with one anecdote, which is that St Maximilian Kolbe was sent on a

mission to Japan. As part of his missionary work, they had someone praying before

the tabernacle throughout the day, I presume every day of the week. After all that

intense prayer, they had just one convert. But he was so happy that he had found

Christ, and for that, all the effort was worth it.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk