Posted by The WORD in other words (2010) by Fr. Oliver Quilab, SVD – Germany
Monday 25th Week in Ordinary Time
A dynamic priest celebrating a town fiesta dismissed the congregation after the final blessing with a chuckle, “Go in peace and remember to buy a parish raffle ticket on your way out!”. Of course, the joker knows that Pope Benedict had earlier approved three alternatives to “Ite, missa est “ to stress the missionary spirit that flows from the Eucharistic celebration.
The other words of dismissal are:
• “Ite ad Evangelium Domini nuntiandum” – Go to announce the Gospel of the Lord
• “Ite in pace, glorificando vita vestra Dominum” – Go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your lives
• “Ite in pace” with “alleluia, alleluia” added during Easter season. – Go in peace (alleluia, alleluia).
The parable of the lamp has nothing to do with selling parish raffle tickets, but it can be understood as an invitation to sell audaciously a priceless treasure that we have freely received – the message of God’s Kingdom. It is about going out of our comfort zone and proclaiming what we continually hear and celebrate.
If we read the Parable of the Sower that precedes this one, we realize that hearing the Word of God and bearing fruit is a leitmotif of the whole message of Luke 8:1-21. The light of the lamp is the Word of God, the good news of God’s Kingdom that Jesus has been passionately proclaiming in all of Galilee. Some will hear the message and balk or refuse to understand. In others the growth of the Word will be choked by fear of losing one’s status, of ostracism and persecution.
But for those who hear and embrace it with a generous heart, the Word will produce the crop of a meaningful life and a fruitful ministry. Fascinated and transformed by the light, they cannot contain and hide the lamp. They cannot stifle the message of the Kingdom or keep it a secret, but are compelled to proclaim, or if you may, sell it openly, just as people shamelessly sell parish raffle tickets.
Obviously, the best sellers of the Kingdom are those who embody the Kingdom values, through their shining conviction and personal witnessing. In the light of the Word, they go in peace, announcing the Good News of the Lord and glorifying Him with their lives.
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