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Saturday, October 19, 2013

Mission Sunday, Year C, 20.10.2013

Isa 2:1-5/ Eph 3:2-11/ Mk 16:15-20     
 
The term “social media” is a relatively new term.

We understand what social means. And we understand what media means.

But when these two words are put together, there is a new meaning to it.

We may not understand its full meaning, just like we do not realize fully the impact of camera-phones, which play a huge role in the rise of social media.

In the past, a camera was just a camera, and a phone was just a phone.

Then the phones, the mobile phones, began to have cameras, and with that what was personal became social and that became media for mass consumption, or what is called social media.

Not that anyone is complaining (though some parents might be…) 

We get to see people on Youtube and Facebook and Instagram, and the pictures and photos and videos tell a thousand words (and sometimes they tell too much).

And one new term that has come up in social media is this word called “selfies”.

You might think that I am trying to say “selfish” but didn’t get the pronunciation right.

Well what I am saying is “selfies”, as in S-E-L-F-I-E-S.

What is done in “selfies” is that you take photos of yourself while holding a camera phone at an arm’s length. (definition from urban dictionary)

And then you post your self-portraits on whatever social media you are on. In other words, you broadcast yourself.

The purpose for this is to just share with your friends, and the entire world, through photos, about what you are wearing, eating, or where you are going or how you are looking.

And these are not just ordinary photos. Some are even very slick glamorous shots, maybe even photo-shopped.

Yet with every photo that is posted on the social media, there is a purpose.

Of course, it is obvious that we want to let others see us.

But more than that every photo has a message, because a picture tells a thousand words, or more.

A person who puts a personal photo on social media wants to give others a message.

It may be about lifestyle, about likes and dislikes, about beliefs, about character; in short, it is about something personal.

We heard in the gospel that Jesus told His eleven apostles to go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News.

Putting it in social media terms, Jesus has posted eleven photos of His apostles, each of them with a message about the Good News.

One might be a photo of an apostle baptizing a person.

Another photo might show an apostle casting out devils from someone who is possessed.

Another might show an apostle picking up a poisonous snake with his bare hands.

Another might show an apostle laying his hands on the sick and healing them.

But Jesus wants to post one more photo because He has twelve apostles.

And that photo will be about each of us. So what would that photo be about? What would that photo show us doing?

Today, as the Church celebrates Mission Sunday, Jesus is asking us what we are doing to proclaim the Good News.

So as we think about it, we may remember that St. Therese, our patron saint, is also the Patroness of the Missions.

Yet, as we know, St. Therese never left her convent in Lisieux. So how could she be the Patroness of the Missions?

It all began with a man by the name of Henri Pranzini. He was among the most notorious criminals of his time and also one of the most brutal.

On the morning of March 17, 1887, the bodies of 2 women and a child were all found brutally murdered in an apartment.

The motive was robbery and a few days later, Pranzini was caught and convicted of the triple murder.

Shocking as it was, Pranzini would have been executed and forgotten, if not for Therese Martin (St. Therese) who was only 14 years old at that time.

She felt compelled to intervene for him. As she recounts in her autobiography, “The Story of a Soul”, she stormed Heaven for a man, whom many thought was beyond redemption.

St Therese wrote: Everything led to the belief that he would die unrepentant. I wanted at all costs to keep him from falling into hell, and to succeed, I employed all means imaginable, and feeling that of myself I could do nothing, I offered to God all the infinite merits of our Lord Jesus.

As Pranzini’s fate approached, St. Therese increased her prayers until he was brought before the guillotine on Aug 31.

The next day, St. Therese read in the papers that recorded what happened, how when Pranzini was about to put his head under the guillotine, he turned, took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him, and kissed the sacred wounds three times!

Then his soul went to receive the merciful sentence of Jesus who declared that in heaven there will be more joy over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine who have no need of repentance.

St. Therese was convinced her prayers had helped save the forsaken Pranzini from damnation, and the experience strengthened her conviction to become a Carmelite nun, and intercede for others who are in desperate need of God’s love.

So there we see, one picture of St Therese praying for a condemned soul to be saved from the fires of hell.

Yes, her mission as a Carmelite nun began with prayer.

Each of us has a mission. But that mission must begin with prayer.
Because with prayer, our mission picture will slowly begin to form, and with that mission picture, we will proclaim the Good News to the world.

So by all means take a selfie, and make it a mission: let others know, by our photos, that we are praying that the world will hear the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ.