by: Deacon Paul Rooney (deaconpaul@cox.net)
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Cycle "C" - July 4, 2004)

Q. 274: Does the gospel reading today about "mission" (Lk 10:1-12, 17-20) have any remote connection with our Independence Day celebrations (4th of July)?

A. 274: This weekend I am happily out-of-state, attending a family reunion. It is a glorious time for our Rooney clan, well over 150 of us. We are holding our reunion at a Benedictine Abbey, which will highlight our deep rootedness in the Irish Catholic Tradition, not just our own private and unique family traditions. We will tell stories and reflect and share about God's goodness in our lives. We will encounter Him in covenant love at many levels. It is also the weekend of Independence Day, when we celebrate our nation's liberty and freedom and maybe boast about our nation's strengths.

It will also be a serious time to look at our clan's weaknesses and needs. We will extend loving support and prayers for each other; that is what families do. But it is also the time to look at our "bigger" family, the USA, to see what we can do to help in her weaknesses. Our nation's defects are all too glaring and loathsome: high rates of abortion and drug abuse; a contraceptive mentality; a mounting rate of suicides from hopelessness; a widening gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' from greed and materialism; and a general atmosphere of "relativism" that denies the existence of objective truth.

The Good News of liberation and freedom always resides in the message of God's love and God's kingdom. Seventy-two disciples were sent out to plant seeds to convert the hearts of those who had forgotten how to love. That is what will happen at our Family reunion: a renewal of our commitment to spread the Good News to our country, both in corporal and spiritual works and words. Jesus Christ can heal our hemorrhaging nation, but he needs all of his believers to get involved and take responsibility for the mission of His church.

Know Your Catechism! Jesus gave us a share in his mission, his joy and his sufferings; what do we do with that gift (CCC #787)? Are you being subtly snared by 'contemporary atheism' which looks for liberation only through economics and temporal society (CCC #2124)? By leading a holy life, the laity consecrate the world itself to God through that very holiness (CCC #901). On this Independence Day we could remember that there is no 'true' freedom except in the service of good alone (CCC #1733).

Deacon Paul Rooney
Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha