16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 17, 2011
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Gospel: Matt. 13:24-43 The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Homily summary: Five hundred years ago, before the Protestant Reformation in England, the Catholic Church owned one-fifth of the land. Monasteries served the people, with the world’s original hospitals, hotels and motels. They met each person, not just as a guest, but as if he were Jesus. They believed they should treat that person as if he was Jesus. That’s how the monks and nuns took care of the guests, and the homeless.
Walk on the spiritual path along with St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal into the Love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Are you a lay person interested in plunging more fully into a way of daily devotion? Or considering a vocation to the monastic Visitandine tradition? Go to Visitation Spirit website.
You could not walk sixty miles without coming upon a monastery. One-fifth of the people in England were monks or nuns. It was a wonderful society, until the Reformation, led by King Henry VIII, closed the monasteries and sent the monks and nuns into the streets. The kings gave the property of the monasteries to their friends. Cities of England swelled with homeless monks and nuns.
Monasteries taught us how to live
We are Catholic today because our ancestors learned the faith from missionaries who came from monasteries. Those in monasteries taught others how to live good and fruitful lives, how to grow grapes, and make beer and wine.
The people of the monasteries taught others about something else — about beauty, about how to compose music, do art. Thousands of tourists today see the beautiful churches built in that age. We hope that they ask, “Who were these people who built all these beautiful buildings?” The monastic system existed in Europe, Mexico, and South America. It was the monks who taught society about caring for the needy. Would an atheistic government today learn about welfare and food stamps, which are sometimes necessary, by itself? We gave it to them.
St. Benedict, founder of Western monasticism
Last week we had the feast of St. Benedict, the founder of the monastic system. St. Benedict and his sister St. Scholastica told others, “These are the implications of believing in Jesus. You must live lives in charity and truth.”
We should try to live as the monks and nuns of old. To see Jesus in the stranger at the door.