05/25/14 Resident or Citizen?

Homily from the Sixth Sunday of Easter.

"That's our ratio, that's our statistic right now, 6% of Catholics are doing over 80% of the work, 80% of the giving, 80% of the service, 80% of what the Church is. And that's the crazy thing, think about this: the Catholic Church is the single largest charitable organization in the world. The Catholic Church does more service for the entire world than virtually every other service organization combined. That's a pretty good statistic, imagine, we are running off of 6%! Think about this! We are doing more for the world than any other organization and we are only running off of 6% power! Can you imagine if you're in your car, driving down the road, and you're only using 6% of the power your car has the potential for? Would you say, 'This is pretty good,' or would you say, 'No, no, no, this is not good enough'? If we are doing more for people around the world than every other service organization using only 6%, what would happen if only 1% [more] of Catholics stepped up? What kind of difference would that make? We don't even have to go to 20%! What if today, in this church, rather than saying 'I am here to consume, I am here to show up,' you were to say, 'You know what? I am here to serve. ...Rather than be residents, let's be citizens.'"

Mass Readings from May 25, 2014:
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
1 Peter 3:15-18
John 14:15-21