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Mission Sunday — God’s Patience
User's Guide To Sunday
BY Tom and April Hoopes
October 14-20, 2007 Issue |
Posted 10/9/07 at 10:24 AM
Oct. 21, 2007, is the 29th Sunday in ordinary time (Year C),
Mission Sunday.
Parish
EPriest.com offers “Best Practices” resources to help
parishes learn from the success of other parishes. One highlights the “Welcome
Back” program at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Indialantic, Fla. Mission Sunday
is a great time to begin organizing this Advent/Lent program.
Family
Go on a “mini-mission” this Sunday by donating food or
clothing to a drop-off point. If possible, find one in the inner city and bring
the kids.
At dinner, talk about mission work you (or friends or
family) have done.
Check with your parish for volunteer possibilities.
CRS.org Catholic Relief Services is the U.S. bishops’ aid
agency.
CatholicWorldMission.org sells Glory Stories, great
introductions to the missions for younger children.
Movies
Keys of the Kingdom (Gregory Peck, 1944) explores a
missionary vocation. Ignatius.com offers several documentaries about Mother
Teresa.
Readings
Exodus 17:8-13; Psalms 121:1-8, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2; Luke
18:1-8
Epriest.com provides excellent homily aids.
Our Take
Today’s readings explore the virtue of patience — God’s and
ours. First we hear how Israel wins at war as long as Moses holds up his hands
over the battle. When he lets his arms droop, Israel loses. The story is
appropriate for Mission Sunday.
God insists that we do his work in the world, even though he
is the Creator and sustainer of the universe, its King and sole source of
power. Our “help” is like Moses’. It truly is work, hard to do and hard to
sustain, but the credit for the results goes to God.
God knows that the best way to show us his concern is to
make us partially responsible for what he does. He uses our “raised arms” to
show his power. In the Gospel, Christ takes this further. He compares himself
to an unjust judge who we must pester for results. Why would God do that?
Because, as we persist in prayer about a need, we begin to
put it in perspective — and see that no earthly power answers it. As the Psalm
says, “Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Also, the more persistent we are in prayer, the more we
demonstrate faith and trust. Like St. Paul says, we need to “be persistent
whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage
through all patience and teaching.”
Tom and April Hoopes are editorial directors of Faith & Family
magazine (FaithandFamilyMag.org).
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