Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Friends,

We are in an exciting time at our parish, as this week is the beginning of Missionary Discipleship Month! It will span the whole month of November, and it will serve as a time for us to grow as followers of Jesus and sharers of the Gospel. In this first week, we are focusing particularly on our mission to ENCOUNTER Jesus and the people around us. In our Gospel this week, Jesus advises us in this mission of Encounter, cautioning us to not become inflated preachers with no substance behind our gestures. He reminds us that we have one Master and one Father, and that we must encounter him first in order to be able to share him with others. 

Sometimes, the deeper we go in our faith, we can be tempted to become lofty in our practices or judgmental of others. But today’s Gospel, in no uncertain terms, calls us to humility. A great description of humility is: “humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but rather thinking of yourself LESS.” What a great way to approach Missionary Discipleship! If, in our mission, we are turned constantly outward, not seeking ourselves, but seeking Jesus in the people around us, then God can use us in amazing ways! St. Augustine describes sin with the Latin phrase “curvatus in se,” which means to turn inward, to cave in on oneself. But today, Jesus calls us to do exactly the opposite: to think less of ourselves, and to live an outward-facing life of encounter. Let us use this Missionary Discipleship Month to shed the false trappings of superiority and inflated piety, and to become genuine, humble, Christ-centered people of encounter.

Jule Coppa, Penn Campus Minister