Healing the sick

Brothers and sisters in Christ. It is very good to be with you. I have been pastor just since Tuesday and feel like I have already lived a lifetime in just these past few days. That has been busy, but very good and I look forward to getting to know you better as I focus on what I've been asked to do of preaching the gospel and sanctifying you through the sacraments.  I also look forward to what we're going to do as a parish to focus on this mission of preaching the gospel, which Christ invites us to do. Something a bit strange happens in this gospel, but at first it seems very simple, so we might not miss it. Our Lord Jesus has been preaching in the surrounding towns. He's been healing the sick. He's been casting out the demons, and he's been raising them up. But today he sends out the apostles. Two by two. He sends out the apostles. Why does the Lord send them out as he not the Son of God? He certainly is, as his own preaching not sufficient. It absolutely is. So why does he send them out? He could have saved the entire world just by one will.

One desire of his heart. One choice as being God. But he sends these two out. Something different is going on here. That great Marian saint, Saint Louis de Montfort. He said that Christ brought more glory to God the Father through being obedient for 30 years to the Blessed Virgin Mary than if he had converted the entire world. God sees things a bit differently than we does. He sends them out because God wants us to actively participate in his work of salvation. He wants us to also have the glory and honor of participating with him in the salvation of souls. We come to mass and the other sacraments to be sanctified, to hear God's Word, to be edified, and to know how we need to keep aligning our lives to what God has asked of us. But then after that, that sanctification as not just for our own good, that sanctification is for others as well, especially for those who've been entrusted to our care. The document agents from the Second Vatican Council. It calls the church the sacrament of salvation. So, a sacrament is something that is visible, something that can be experienced and touched. The church is meant to be that within the world. And if you're baptized, you're part of the church. So, people come in contact with salvation through coming into contact first with you. What I hope the Parish of Saint Dorothy is already is, but it's going to be even more as a sacramental and a spiritual oasis, a place to encounter the living God, and then to be refreshed and to have everything you need to live out your vocation in a holy manner.

Or for our young people are so blessed with so many kids to prepare them for their vocation. It was God, the Holy Spirit. We believe in faith who chose Pope Francis our Pope because he is only one man. He has ordained Bishop Michael Martin and sent him to Charlotte to watch over every soul within the Diocese of Charlotte, but also because Bishop Michael is just one man. He sent me here to watch over every single soul that's in the parish of Saint Dorothy's, in all of our territory. He's sent me to do that. But I too, am just one man. If you don't know that already, you'll find it out. I am only one man. That means I need you and doesn't just sound good. I need you, and that's what the church expects. I need your prayers. I need your penances. But I also need your preaching and your witness to the gospel. What does that preaching mean? Only I or a deacon can preach the homily at mass because it's so united to the Holy Sacrifice. So only we can do that. But that's not the totality of what it means to preach. Any time you act in accord with God's will, you're preaching. Any time you call somebody back to the truth, you're preaching. And at times it will not be a popular message. Our Lord sends him out to preach a message of repentance. And Amos, in this first reading, he is reprimanded by another prophet because he's preaching a tough message. He's preaching the message of God. What does it mean when we need to preach that message of repentance? What does that actually mean? It's not condemnation. That's repent. It's to think again as to reconsider your life. First of all, with those priorities we need to have where God is number one for taught us, taking from the Old Testament. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength. As God absolutely number one in our hearts and in our minds, that's what we need to call others to as well. Saint Augustine wrote that we must first preach. That's first by hearing that message of salvation, that the whole world then will begin to believe. Then by believing they will have hope, and then by hoping they will have love. When you were baptized, deep in your heart was placed this love. That love of charity. That love which is shared between God the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit. That love which means to will the good of somebody else. So, friends in baptism were given this love, which should be a burning fire for the salvation of souls.

That shouldn't be an absolute furnace and a fire to save those around us. Not just ourself. But love is always diffusive, desiring the good of the other. That's what it should be with us. And that's where the sacrifice of the mass prepares us for. I want to leave you with one thought in one beautiful image before coming over.  You know, it's maybe about a bit towards the altar. And I was saying a prayer. I was asking God to cleanse my heart and my lips before proclaiming his holy word. That comes from the book of Isaiah. So, Isaiah is first cleansed by a coal taken from the altar, by a seraphim by an angel, which cleanses his lips, and then sends him out on a mission to God.

God first draws near to us and cleanses us of our sins before sending us out. That coal taken from the fire as an early image and a symbol of the Holy Eucharist. Christ living presence, the resurrected Christ present to us, who draws near to us, to cleanse us and free us, and then sends us out as well to actively work for his plan of salvation.