THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 

DIVING INTO OUR VISION MISSION: THE MASS IS ALL ABOUT MISSION 

Scripture: Jer 31:7-9   Heb 5:1-6    Mk 10:46-52

America Magazine – James Keane – An Image

Several summers ago, I was walking up Sixth Avenue in Manhattan after work when I was passed by a man standing on the back bumper of a water truck. Holding a long hose affixed to a metal rod, he was performing the same task again and again: As the truck stopped at each sidewalk lamp post with a flower pot attached, he would delicately raise his apparatus thirty feet in the air and water the plants within…There was something about his work that was oddly comforting: the ritual application of the water; the syncope created by the roar of the truck in transit and the silence of the act of watering itself; the careful task of keeping something alive in a place no flower would bloom.

A Crucifix in Every Home, in Every Chapel in Almost Every Country 

• Mother Teresa hung a crucifix with Jesus’ arms outstretched 
• Hoping to gather every human being into his wounded heart
• Along side the cross – two words – I THIRST

Jesus Thirsts

• For you and me – every person – to open his or her heart and to place it in the heart of the Risen Lord Jesus
• He promises to become our holy fountain of living water
• Jesus thirst will never be quenched until everyone is invited to share in his life

Just as Long Ago 

• God the Father longed to gather his children, exiled Israelites back in their homeland
• He wanted to lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so none would stumble

Before His Ascension

• Jesus commissioned his closet friends Go therefore, and make disciples, baptizing them…and teaching them to observe all I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. Mt 28:19-20

You and I 

• Would not be here today if Jesu and not taken him seriously
• What if they waivered and convinced themselves that talking about Jesus is too hard?
• What if they convinced themselves that their good deeds would be sufficient to invite Jesus into other people’s lives?
• Thank you, Good Lord that Jesus’s disciples witnessed to Jesus’ life, values, attitudes and character with their words.  
• Wordless witness might not have  worked

Pastoral Response to the Synod

• Every Latin Mass ends with Missa est – which means go
• Our words, Mass, dismissal, and mission are all connected to the Latin Mass
• We have one mission and one mission only – to go from this place as the Lord’s missionary disciples to spread the Good News of Jesus the Lord

Like Bartimaeus and St. Paul 

• We must let go of anything that keeps us from following Jesus
• More than just a cloak tossed to the side of the road
• What are our pre-conceived notions, blind spots, areas of selfishness, laziness, stubbornness, shame?
• Like St. Paul, we are all beset by weaknesses and brokenness – we have to continue to follow Jesus
• Our brokenness can through us into the arms of Jesus and draw us closer to our brothers and sisters
• Jesus reassures us that “perfect” missionary disciples need not apply
• Like Bartimaeus, the blind man, so many are hoping to see Jesus in you and me
• So many are thirsting for something or someone and don’t know it
• Many are trapped in their own hurts, anger, resentment, low self-esteem, addictions
• They want to be healed and freed-We need to tell them about Jesus
• They will not come to us-we must go to them

Justin Welby – Archbishop of Canterbury-Head of the Anglican Church 

• Encourages everyone to share Jesus and his Gospel in twenty-seconds
• His abbreviated message: A very long time ago, someone explained to me all about Jesus and how his death made it possible for me to know God was real and that has completely transformed my life. All the way since, despite my many stupidities and ups and downs.”

What Could You Say? 

• About your experience with Jesus in your family, work, neighborhood and friends thirsting for Good News?

ITE, MISSA EST! GO AND INVITE PEOPLE TO COME TO JESUS!

Questions for Reflection 

• What impacted you from the readings/homily?
• Can you describe a thirst that you may have had?
• How do you personally understand the command to go and make disciples in your life?
• What must you let go of to be able to share the Good News with others?

Live Connected 

• Write your own twenty-second Jesus statement- witness