Woe is me, if I do not preach the Gospel!

February 5th, 2012 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s second reading we hear St Paul speak of his grave obligation to preach the Gospel to the People of God. This Gospel is the Truth that Jesus Christ gave to the twelve apostles, and to St. Paul as well. St Paul humbly admits that his charge, to preach the teaching of Christ--the teachings and doctrines of the Church, is not something that He boasts about, because it is an obligation placed on Him by Christ Himself. And so, St. Paul rightly realizes that He must give the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth or woe to him if he does not do so.

In the Gospels, Jesus himself tells us that his own mission is to preach, to spread the Good News. Jesus’ Father actually sent Him for this very purpose. Jesus then picked the twelve, the first priests and bishops to take what they learned from Jesus’ preaching and turn around and preach it to others. The twelve were commissioned to make the truth about God and man known to the whole world through preaching.

It’s clear that preaching is the very method selected by God to bring about the salvation He desired for man. So the apostles obviously took very seriously the duty to give the truth their people needed; even if the people did not always want to hear it; and many times, sadly, they didn’t want to hear it. St. Paul says to Timothy, who himself was a bishop and priest, “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and teaching.”

St. Paul knew that an authentic and living faith comes only from hearing the pure truth. He tells Timothy that preaching is not about making people feel good or for entertainment, but to convince the people of the truth and necessities of the teachings of the Church for their eternal salvation; it is for rebuking them by telling them about the reality of sin and the need for every one of them to repent because sin keeps them from experiencing God fully. And finally, preaching exists to exhort the people to amend their lives, to do better and to live more and more fully according to the truth; and so, according to the teachings of the Church (which are the greatest certainty of truth there is in this world, because they come from Truth Himself); and living these truths with the help of God’s grace in order to begin to experience heaven on earth; and then, with the love of God alive in their hearts, going out and sharing that love with all they meet in the world.

This is why they Church identifies preaching the Gospel as one of the main tasks of Bishops and priests. St. Pope Pius X went so far as saying that “for a priest there is no duty more grave, or obligation more binding than preaching the truth as found in the teachings of the Church and to do so in order to dispel ignorance and lies.” Vatican II reiterated this duty by saying that “the People of God is formed into God’s true family by the Word of the living God which is given to them and sought by them from the mouth of priests.”

Nobody can be saved unless they first believe and nobody can believe unless they first hear the truth and hear it in its purity and fullness; so the first task of the priest is to preach the truth unadulterated and in its fullness to all men. And so not only is the priest gravely sinning if he does not preach the teachings of the Church fully and correctly, he also is not showing love to his people-a priest who does not preach the truth, does not love his people, no matter how nice he may be--Period.

The priest’s preaching should always imitate Jesus’ preaching. But remember Jesus preaching was not just limited to words, he backed up his teaching with authority. And His authority came not only from the fact that His was God, but because he backed what he said with His integrity of life. In other words Jesus’ actions, His life, bore witness to the truth of His words.

The words of Jesus were also attested to by His mighty deeds, which brought healing and salvation to the people He touched, if they were open, like the woman in our Gospel today. All of the encounters in the Gospels with the Person of Jesus, brought more than just the experience of mighty works, they were more importantly real, intimate encounters with the Living God, with the True and Living God that these people found in the very person of Jesus Christ.

This is the real goal of all preaching. Preaching is meant to convince, rebuke and exhort us, but only in order to draw us into the same healing encounter with Jesus as the woman sick with a fever had and those others had who were ill or possessed by demons. The fact is, is that we are all in need of healing. There doesn’t have to be disease or systemic evil in our lives for us to have a great need of the healing power of Christ. Our need for the touch of Jesus in our lives can be from the burdens of our sins or just from the burdens of every day life.

But where, where do we today experience this healing and saving encounter with Jesus? Good preaching gives us, leads us to the true answer! The Sacraments of the Church, especially the renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary--the Holy Mass!!! It is there that we hear not only His powerful words of salvation, but we, through faith, can literally and personally encounter God in the flesh and experience the power of His healing touch.

The Sacraments actually effect or carry out the saving words of Jesus. In the Sacraments it Jesus Himself who reaches out in order to touch our feverish bodies, cooling them and calming them, if we but have faith. In the Sacraments it is Jesus Himself who releases us from the power of satan; it is Jesus who releases us from the burdens of our sins; and it is Jesus Himself who helps us to carry the heavy burdens of life…

The longer I am a priest the more I see the incredible awesome power of God in the Sacraments, the Sacraments that I have been given the great privilege of administering to souls. I have seen their awesome power not only to heal and to save, but to do so by bringing souls who believe into an incredible mysterious but very real encounter with Jesus the Son of the Living God.
However, even before I was ordained I have witness the awesome power of the Sacraments in my own life, with regard to my late wife, and my own ongoing conversion and growth in my relationship and friendship with Jesus and His Father and the Holy Spirit.

Let us daily pray for all priests that they may always have the courage to preach the truth of the Gospel in all of its fullness not only in their words, but with their lives as well. Preaching the truth leads to salvation and salvation comes to us through the Sacraments, because the Sacraments are intimate encounters with Jesus Christ the Living God, the One who heals and the One who saves-they are real encounters with the very power and love of God Himself.

May we who have had the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to us go, to Sacraments in faith in order to be healed more fully, but even more in order to have a deeper intimate encounter with Jesus Christ and begin to live heaven on earth filled with His love. May we then be impelled to share that love with others by preaching them the truth of the Gospel with our lives.