Principle Ten

There is an undeniable urgency in Luke’s Gospel and it runs in two directions. In the Gospel reading for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C), Jesus shares his most compelling desire, “I have come to set the world on fire and how I wish it were already blazing.” (Luke 12:49-53) Jesus is bursting at the seams to announce the Good News of the Father’s love to any and all who hear his voice. It seems there is so much to do and so little time! Again, “(t)he harvest is abundant but the laborers are few… (A)sk the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Luke 10:2)
     There is a foreboding side to this urgency as well. We know that we will be held accountable for our efforts, especially as they pertain to those among us who are spiritually vulnerable. Souls are at stake! The story of the now-deceased Lazarus proclaimed on the Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle C) (Luke 16:19:31) and the “woes” recalled on the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Luke 6:17, 20-26) make this clear. Jesus reserves his sharpest language for the religious leaders of his day, including both clerics and lay leaders:
“Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms and behold, everything will be clean for you. Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces.” (Luke 11:39-44) Jesus’ cautionary words should resonate with all of us today, as well! 
     A certain urgency is reflected in much of Pope Francis’ writing, too. He often uses the word “crisis,” which he defines as a kind of “self-forgetting.” 68 The family is in crisis 69; our postmodern culture is in crisis; our politics are in crisis; the world economy is in crisis 70; the environment is in crisis and so on. Pope Francis reserves his harshest rhetoric, however, for the Church itself. His criticisms of the Church and leaders in the Church are not so much alarmist in nature, however. He is, after all, a man of great hope.
     In the end, his criticisms are more impatient and regretful than apocalyptic. And this impatience and regret is born, it seems, out of his sense that the Church may not be living up to its missionary calling at this pivotal moment in time. Pope Francis knows that we, too, will be held accountable for our labor in the Father’s vineyard.