The World Cup has been one of the most heavily-watched sports events recently. Watching the skill of the players, seeing the beautifully mowed grass, and experiencing the anxiety and suspense of some of the games has stirred up within me feelings of nostalgia for my own soccer-playing days. Growing up, soccer was my favorite thing to do; and though I loved the game, the physical endurance needed to play it and the friendships I built on the pitch, the thing I loved the most was the feeling I experienced before a game--the anxiety, the nervousness, the intensity, and the feeling of adrenaline pumping through my body. For me, there is nothing quite like the feeling of putting on a crisp, clean jersey, methodically lacing up your cleats, carefully and deliberately stretching out your muscles, and mentally and physically preparing yourself for such a battle. These pre-game feelings were often uncomfortable and even inconvenient and stressful at times. But my desire to win the game and to play this sport I loved outweighed these feelings of discomfort and anxiety.
The truth is that there is a battle that exists within our world--the battle to bring ourselves and others back to Christ, who is our source of life and love. And we are in desperate need of Christians who are willing to overcome their feelings of discomfort, inadequacy, stress, and fear to bring Christ and his truth to the world. One of my favorite Scripture passages of all time comes from Paul's second letter to Timothy in which he says, "I charge you, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient". This is one of my favorites, because every time I read it, I am haunted by my own desire for the convenience of the mission. I desire to live for Christ with minimum effort and little feelings of fear, anxiety, stress, or discomfort. C.S. Lewis once said that "Our temptation is to look eagerly for the minimum that will be accepted" and this is often the truth of my life.
But truthfully, friends, the minimum cannot be accepted anymore. We cannot be comfortable with the complacency of our faith and the indifference we feel towards the state of our world. We should not be content when the battle is upon us. We should not lack intensity or enthusiasm or fervor in going out on mission for Christ--to visibly show the world that it is him that we seek in every longing and every desire.
In the Gospel on Sunday, we heard Jesus say to his disciples that, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves". Jesus needs us, as Christians, to boldly submit to being laborers. Jesus needs us to be the lambs going out to be witnesses to a malicious and unrelenting world. And yes, it is true that Jesus is sending us out into the cruelty of secular society, amidst the wolves of relativism, greed, and ignorance. It is true that we, the lambs, will undoubtedly face fear, will experience discomfort, will be stressed and overwhelmed. It is true that cultivating a culture of love and peace requires the strongest and most persistent of all laborers. It is true that people needing to be shown authentic love and true peace come to us in abundance.
But this is what our world needs. We need Christians who look past their own personal feelings of anxiety, stress, and discomfort, and focus on the importance of winning the battle--the battle for souls. We need Christians who are convicted that Christ should not have died in vain, that his suffering on the cross to bring redemption to the world is not just offered to those of us lucky enough to sit in pews on Sunday and hear his word. We must be convinced that the grace we receive cannot be used for ourselves alone but should bring wholeness to a broken world. We must be certain that the mercy we receive from the Lord must be used to overcome the inconsistencies between our profession of faith and our practice of it. And we must be convinced that each seemingly insignificant encounter in our day is an opportunity for us to vividly show that to follow Christ does not mean giving up freedom or joy or personality, but in fact means experiencing the fullness of these.
As we lace up our shoes for such a battle and vow to proclaim the word despite its inconvenience, we, by our perseverance and sincerity, "Tell the world that it is beautiful to be a friend of Jesus and that it is well worth following him. With our enthusiasm, (we) demonstrate that, among all the different ways of life that the world today seems to offer us -- apparently all on the same level -- the only way in which we find the true meaning of life and hence true and lasting joy, is by following Jesus" (Pope Benedict XVI). Good luck, my friends.
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