Catholic Identity

Reflection  

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings and Gospel this Sunday are about relationship, the deep covenantal relationship between people and God. From the relationship between God and the Israelites in the desert of Sinai, Christ death for us ‘while we were still sinners’, and the Gospel of Matthew 9:36-10:8, where Christ summoned his twelve disciples and sends them forth as apostles to help in his mission. Christ recognised the need for help in his mission to tend the needs of the weary, fallen, harassed, lost, scattered, cast down and helpless. Christ calls people to their vocation in Christ.

In 2023 are we listening to the call to vocations?  Perhaps our vocation in 2023 is to help in God’s name the weary, fallen, harassed, lost, scattered, cast down, and helpless in a more contemporary way. At our Staff professional learning day on Friday, St Anne’s College teachers and LSO’s considered how through theologies of responsibility and vulnerability and demonstrated in Catholic Social Teachings, we can assist our students examine their own feelings, reactions and motives and how these influence what they do or think in a situation. How they can grow into amazing humans while experiencing interruption from difference, challenges and otherness in their lives. 

In his encyclical letter, ‘Caritas in Veritate’ Pope Benedict XVI, states;

 ‘ The greatest service to development, then is a Christian humanism that enkindles charity and takes its lead from truth, accepting both as a lasting gift from God. … Openness to God makes us open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity.’

The way the apostles answered the call of Christ is an example of the Theology of Responsibility, they were asked to respond, it was not always pleasant and positive, and the experience sometimes turned their whole world upside down. 

We reflect and ask ourselves today, am I answering God’s call as an interruption acting through the other? Am I open to God and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task accomplished in a spirit of solidarity?

- Elizabeth Holligan, Religious Education Leader