Too Fast For Family: Homily for the 14th Sunday OT 2025

14^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   July 6, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville

Have you ever been on the highway behind someone going too slow? You go to pass them, but right as you get even with them, it seems like they speed up to stay even with you? Are they being spiteful? Trying to stop you from passing? Maybe. More likely is that it’s not a conscious choice. Human beings are instinctively communal. Some part of our subconscious tells us “stay together.” So, unless the person is using cruise control or actively thinking about what they’re doing, they feel a subconscious desire to keep up with whoever is right next to them.

That “herd instinct” can make road trips annoying, but it’s kind of important when it comes to faith. Consider what Jesus does in the gospel. He’s got 72 disciples to go on a preaching mission. Apparently, it’s not enough because he tells us to pray for more. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says the apostles won’t be able to reach every town. Despite that, Jesus insists that the 72 travel in pairs. Why? The goal is deliver a message, couldn’t that be done by one person well enough? Especially with a message that important, why would Jesus want to reach fewer people by doubling up his messengers?

Because a messenger cannot give what they do not have. The gospel is not just a headline “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The gospel is also a community. Jesus Christ did not come just to give us information. He came to establish a kingdom, a kingdom of love, a kingdom that is also a family. It’s tempting to think of Jesus as a teacher with disciples – and he is that – but that’s incomplete. Above all else, Jesus Christ is a Son. He is someone in relationship and he yearns to be in relationship with each of us – sons and daughters of his Father.

So, when he sends the disciples out to reveal his kingdom, he can’t just give them words to speak. He must give them a relationship to live. That relationship belongs to the very essence of their message as brothers in Christ. This idea of the spiritual family is the reason our first reading from Isaiah so jubilantly talks about Jerusalem – the Church – as a mother. Spiritual family sounds vague and ethereal, but scripture puts it in very physical terms. The people of God are like siblings nursed by the same mother or like the old idiom “bosom buddies.”

The whole of the gospel is ordered toward this deep sense of God’s family. Sin separates us from God, so Jesus offers us redemption and forgiveness, removing obstacles that prevent family unity. Wealth fools us into thinking we’re self-sufficient, so Jesus strips the money, possessions, and even shoes away from his disciples, forcing them to depend on each other and on other people – to enter into relationships – in order to survive and carry out their mission.

There’s also the requirement not to move around from house to house. Much like children don’t get to just pick another set of parents and siblings, Jesus doesn’t want his disciples constantly trading up for better housing arrangements and better company. A family is not about navigating the most comfortable arrangements, but about choosing to love and serve those in your own home, regardless of how appealing the neighbor’s house might be.

Even Jesus’ warning shows this: those who reject the disciples and the kingdom of God will be worse off than Sodom. Sodom and Gomorrah were punished for disrupting and rejecting the natural family in their perversion. These towns, because they are rejecting the supernatural family of God’s kingdom, face an even worse penalty.

When the disciples return from their mission, even they still don’t quite get it. They’re excited that they could expel demons and perform miracles. That is amazing, but Jesus reminds them of something much more valuable, that their “names are written in heaven.” In other words, the display of power is nothing in comparison with the fact that they are counted among God’s family, able to love and be loved for all eternity.

So, what does this mean for us? It is a reminder to keep the family of God as our highest priority. This logic of love, of divine family, ought to permeate our entire lives from our personal decisions to family life to careers to the way we engage with the wider culture.

We have to reject a worldly idea of power and efficiency – the promise of keeping everything completely personalized and individual. From the beginning of human history, meals and entertainment have been communal, familial. But now it’s all about the efficiency of giving each person their own space – my shows on my smartphone eating my pre-made meal while drinking my one cup of Keurig coffee. Privacy and personalization can be good, but we are becoming isolated. So, when it comes to the things that really matter, we have little to no experience of what it means to share, to compromise, to live in community. That’s part of the reason so many people turn to a “spiritual but not religious” approach to God. If everything from their job to their food is built around an individual experience, why not faith?

So, how do we respond? By making the family – the spiritual family – our priority. Eating together, working together, playing together, even when doing something on your own might be more fun, more convenient, more comfortable. So, here’s a “spiritual family examination of conscience” for us all to consider:

How often do you pray with other people? How often do you actually follow up on your promise to pray for other people?

Do your hobbies and entertainments isolate you or connect you to others? Do they get too much priority? How much control do sports have in your life? Watching it, playing, travel ball, betting on it… are these things so important that you plan your entire week, your whole family schedule, and even your religion around it?

How often do you prioritize private distractions over small groups, parish events, and service opportunities? How often do screens get in the way of face-to-face interactions? How often do you set aside time just to be with other people? How often do youtalk about meaningful things – not just sharing gossip but setting aside times to talk about what’s best for your family and how you’re trying to grow in your faith.

Are you a registered member of this Church parish? A registered member of any Church parish? Or do you hop around based entirely on convenience? Do you treat the Church parish like a family with loyalty, love, and service? Or like a restaurant that has to earn your business or risk losing you to a competitor?

Do you practice hospitality? Do you prioritize family meals and prayer time so that you and your loved ones know that Jesus belongs in your home? Do you welcome fellow parishioners, visitors, priests, religious, or the poor into your home?

Convenience is not always a bad thing, but it can become an idol. It might be more efficient and more convenient to go through life on your own – like driving on an empty highway – but the question is, where are you headed so quickly? The goal is divine communion. No matter how fast you go, you can’t be a family by yourself. Rushing to the next game, fixated on the next sale, glued to our screens, frantic to just get away from people, would we even notice if 2 of these disciples came to our town? Or would we learn from them that what matters is not the speed, money, or power, but the fact that, if we’re willing to accept the call to be God’s own family, our names are written in heaven.