A Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 Matthew 10:37-42
David Jones was one of the most significant British artists of the 20th century. An illustrator and an engraver, he was also a poet, one praised by both T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden.
In his introduction to Jones’s epic World War I poem, “In Parenthesis,” Eliot described the poet as
[A] Londoner of Welsh and English descent. He is decidedly a Briton. He is also a Roman Catholic and he is a painter who has painted some beautiful pictures and designed some beautiful lettering. All these facts about him are important.
David Jones was a convert. As he put it ever so simply, “I’m a Catholic, as all artists must be.”
That is not how his father put it. Indeed, a letter he wrote to his son, whom he affectionately called “Toadie,” illustrates the price that many converts have had to pay in misunderstanding, even estrangement. It can be found in Melanie McDonagh’s superb study of British Catholic conversions, Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century (2025). Here’s the gist of the letter:
Dear Toadie,
I am amazed at the contents of your letter re your joining the Romish church. It baffles my understanding how any well-balanced mind can be brought to accept such teaching. I always gave you credit for insight and common sense. To link yourself to a Church that has always barred the spread of the bible and that is and always has been an enemy of progress and Enlightenment….
By joining the church you are limiting your loyalty to the King, for his highness, the pope, claims first place. You are dishonoring God by accepting the dictates of the church in preference to the plain command of His Word….
You speak of the want of authority. The Roman church, as the R.C. bishop of Clifton said the other day, puts the Church first and the Bible second; and that the authority of the Bible is subordinated to the authority of the Church. God de-throned; Man enthroned!
No one can suggest that Mr. Jones did not let his son know what he thought of his new faith.
Jesus sends out his disciples, telling them,
Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward (Mt 37:40-43).
Implicit in the commissioning is the assurance that God will provide for those whom he calls, just as he does for the Prophet Elisha. That is important to note because so often fear keeps us from responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
We sense that the Lord is calling us to something. What that might be is as individual as each of us: priesthood or religious life, becoming a catechist, taking a new job, proposing to a hopefully future spouse, having a baby, asking if a friend in need could use our help or, in this case, joining the church.
We sense the nudge, and we immediately rehearse every possible negation. Yet we must remember that, whatever the powers of our imagination, whatever the strength of our perspicuity, the future belongs to God.
Perhaps it helps to know that if the Lord gives the call, he will prepare the provisions. We are only being asked to take small steps and see where they go, trusting in God’s love for us.
It is still not easy, but we cannot allow our anxieties to drown out the call of the Lord. As we ponder where the Lord might be asking us to go, we need to remember what St. Paul taught the church in Rome:
If we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him (6:8).
Discerning when we are being called is no small task, but posing possible obstacles to success should not be part of the process. For as St. Paul went on to write:
And those he predestined he also called;
and those he called he also justified;
and those he justified he also glorified (Rom 8:30).
When God calls, God provides. As harsh as his letter was, the father of David Jones ended it by writing,
Mother sends her love and thank Mr Gil for invitation [to stay] which not possible to accept.,
Your affectionate Dad.
● ● ●
“Lourdes” by David Jones, 1950, © The Estate of David Jones.
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