Preaching to Those Not in the Choir
This weekend about 80 of our young people are attending a Youth Conference hosted by Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. There will be 3 to 4 thousand young people there. There are actually 19 of these conferences throughout our country. Over 50,000 Catholic Teens will attend. Another 2,000 will merge play and spirituality at Cove Crest Camps, and the other Catholic Camps run by Life Teen. The most spiritual and intense of all of the experiences was completed a few weeks ago when 450 Teens, including 15 from our parish, attended the Life Teen Leadership Conference.
It is quite a sacrifice the young people make, giving up a week or weekend of their summer to come closer to Christ. Many of them have to change their summer jobs. Some have to forego family vacations. Many have to find ways to pay for their trip. All have to sacrifice the beach, the mall, hanging with friends and so forth. They make whatever sacrifice is necessary and with the support of their parents and their parishes, they arrive willing to grow.
The week or weekend flies by. It concludes much sooner than they expect. Then the real work begins. The Teens come home full of enthusiasm. They want to change their lives, keeping Christ as their Center. This is not easy. It is one thing to focus on Him when in a secure, spiritual environment. It is another thing to focus on the Lord when continually confronted with the temptations of those elements of society that have deified materialism. Many of the Teens will actually write out new schedules for themselves to put prayer before everything else in their lives. Some will begin Journaling. They will form plans to avoid immorality.
All this is actually easy when compared to the more difficult task waiting for the Teens when they return home. The Teens want to share their experience of Jesus’ Love with others, particularly their families. And many others, sometimes even within their families, simply do not want to hear it. The challenge of Christianity might be too much for them, particularly when it comes from an unexpected source, one’s own child.
But that doesn’t decrease the importance of the message, or the need for the Teens to proclaim it.
This is not just about Teens returning from a spiritual experience. This is about each of us, called to make the spiritual real in the world. All of us are called to allow God into the Center of our lives. All of us are called share the experience of the Lord with others. This isn’t just the work of the priests and sisters and religious brothers. No, it is the work of all the baptized. It is the work of Amos.
Amos was a normal, everyday working man. We hear about him in the first reading. He lived just south of the border between the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, on the Judea side. Amos crossed the border into the North and proclaimed God’s truth to those in the City of Bethel. The people there were soft selling their faith. They were part timing their devotion to Yahweh. Amos told them to change their lives and be
committed to the Lord. The priest Amaziah told Amos to stop confronting the people and go back to Judah. Amos responded: “I am not a professional prophet. I am an arborist, a dresser of trees. But I cannot refuse to proclaim the Lord.”
Nor can any of us. We have to “proclaim the word, in season and out of season” as St. Paul writes in 2 Tim 4:2. We have to proclaim the truth we experience within us whether it is a time others want to hear it, in season, or whether it is a time they would rather we just keep quiet, out of season.
While He was still with us on earth, before his passion, death and resurrection, Jesus sent his disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven. These disciples were ordinary, everyday men entrusted with an extraordinary task. Jesus told them that the mission was urgent. They shouldn’t be bogged down with impediments of luggage. (By the way the Latin word for luggage is in fact impedimentum.) But they should wear sandals because they had a lot of ground to cover. They needed to proclaim to all. Some would listen, and others would reject them, but the message had to be proclaimed to as many people as possible.
It is the same for all of us. We need to bring the message, the experience, the very presence of Jesus Christ to the world. Some will listen to you who will not listen to me. Perhaps it is people your age, be it senior citizen down to child, who will say, “I want to be happy with life as he or she is happy.” Perhaps it will be people who look to you for guidance, such as your own children or grandchildren. Perhaps it will be people who respect and love you, such as your parents and brothers and sisters. Many of these people will hear the message clearer when it comes from you rather than from me or any priest. So proclaim the message.
And yes, there will be people who will reject the message. You may indeed have to move on and proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ to others. But don’t stop praying for them. And be patient. Joy, happiness and the Presence of the Lord are contagious, but sometimes it takes time for the Cure to Life to overwhelm a person.
50 to 60 thousand young people will grab an eagle this summer and will soar. All of us have been called to grab the eagle and soar.
We pray today for the courage to hold on tight and the wisdom to find ways to hold out our hands for others to join us. For the ride, the journey with Christ, is wonderful.
TRAINED AND TESTED
Jesus did not send his disciples without a plan and discipline. In order to be partners in His project of the Kingdom of God and extend His mission,
His disciples required to have a unique life style. Without it, they might achieve many things, but they would never announce and proclaim His spirit. Mark reminds us about some of Jesus’ recommendations. Let us single out a few of them.
First of all, in whose authority were those disciples going to work? According to Mark, “Jesus sent them out in pairs giving them authority over unclean spirits.” He does not give them authority over the people they will be meeting along the way. Jesus himself did not use any authority to rule over people, only to cure them.
As always, Jesus is hoping to make a better world, free from all the evil forces that enslave and dehumanize people. His disciples will have to pass on to all people His saving spirit. They should make their way into society, not using their power over them, but humanizing their lives, alleviating their sufferings and giving them more freedom and compassion.
They will take for the road just a staff and a pair of sandals. Jesus sees them as just wayfarers, not as settlers. They should always be on the road. They should never be bound to anything or anyone. They should own the barest minimum. That’s how Jesus was himself free and available to go anywhere where He was needed. Jesus’staff wasn’t a sign of authority, but an invitation to walk.
His disciples should not carry “bread, haversacks, money in their purses.” They should not be concerned about their security. They were carrying something much more important: Jesus’ Spirit, His word and his authority to humanize people’s lives. It’s curious how Jesus isn’t thinking about what they should carry to work efficiently, rather what they should not worry to own. In that way they would never forget the poor and be concerned about their own welfare.
They were not to “take a spare tunic”. They should dress like poor people. They did not need to wear the sacred vestments that the priests wore in the Temple. Nor were they to dress like the Baptist in the desert. They were to be like prophets among the people. They would become a sign of God’s presence to everyone, especially the poorest among them.
Will some of us, within the Church, be able to pass such test and become disciples and wayfarers of His message? We must acknowledge and realize that we have been forgetting some of those instructions and failed to carry and preach His Spirit.
TO NEW EVANGELIZATION
Within the Church today, we all feel the need of a new evangelization.
What can that be? Is there anything new or different that we have to adopt? What did Jesus really want when he sent his disciples to continue his
task of preaching the Gospel?
Mark’s gospel clearly tells us that Jesus alone must be the source, the inspiration and the model of any evangelization plan by his followers. His disciples had received their authority from Jesus. Everything they did was on Jesus’ command and wish, and nothing was their own. They had been sent by Jesus. They were not preaching their faith, simply announcing the Gospel. They did not have any other goal or interest except that of showing the way to the kingdom of God.
The only way, therefore, to return to this “new evangelization” is to purify and intensify our union and dependence on Jesus. There cannot be a new evangelization without new disciples. These new disciples must have a more real, enlightened and passionate relationship with Jesus. Without Jesus
anything we do is not going to help bring his Spirit back to the world.
When Jesus sent his disciples into the world, he did not leave them alone to their own initiative. He gave them his authority, which was not simply the power to control, govern and dominate over others. He gave them the power to “expel evil spirits” and thus free all people from anything that enslaves, oppresses and dehumanizes individuals and society.
The disciples knew very well Jesus’ command and message. They never saw Him having authority and control over others. They always saw Him healing the wounds, helping the suffering, giving new life, delivering people from fears and renewing their trust in God. “Healing” and “giving people freedom” were Jesus’ priority tasks. And these are the actions that would give a radically new face to our evangelization.
Jesus sends his disciples with just what they need for the road. According to Mark, they were to carry with them just “a staff, sandals and one tunic.” They did not need anything else to be witnesses of the truth. Jesus wanted them to be free and always available to others: they were not to depend on comforts, just trusting in the strength of the Gospel.
If we do not recover such evangelical style, there cannot be a new evangelization. We don’t need to start new activities or strategies within the Church; rather, we must get rid of certain customs, structures and requirements that impede us from having the freedom to preach the Gospel in all its truth and simplicity.
The Church has lost this itinerant style that Jesus so clearly talks about in the Gospel. The way the Church walks is too slow and heavy. It does not keep up with the way the world is moving. We are not quick enough to move from one culture to another. We hold on to the power that we once had. We get involved with things that do not interest the kingdom of God. We need a real conversion.
TWO BY TWO
In today’s Gospel Lesson, Mark tells us that “Jesus summoned the Twelve and began sending them out two by two”. He organized his disciples in teams of two and sent them on a mission of preaching and healing. The story is very sketchy, to say the least. Mark doesn’t tell us very much, but it is enough for us to gain some understanding of how Jesus looked upon people.
Every Christian is commissioned to a ministry of love and justice, in the name of Jesus Christ. Whatever our vocation – salesperson, lawyer, clerk, doctor, homemaker, musician, whatever – we are at the same time full-time ministers of Jesus Christ out in the world.
As loyal disciples we don’t come to church merely to get what we can from Jesus. We don’t come to Church merely to have our needs met. If we are serious about wanting to follow Christ, we soon discover that we cannot qualify if we merely are “on the table,” so to speak. We soon discover that genuine discipleship involves more than getting what we can for ourselves. We soon discover that we are being called to a ministry of loving service. No matter where we are, no matter what our vocation, no matter what neighborhood we live in, while we are there we are the Lord’s ministers – full time.
But many of us do not understand this. We have been conditioned, somehow, to identify only the ordained clergy as those who minister. They are the religious professionals; they are the ones who do the preaching and the teaching and the service. But this is a colossal cop-out for the lay person in the church.
The episode in today’s Gospel Lesson occurs at a point in Jesus’ public ministry when the Apostles have been with Him for some time. Jesus has been forming them, training them, preparing them for this moment. They have benefited from all his preaching and teaching to the multitudes that came to hear Him. They have witnessed all His miracles of healing. Now Jesus calls them together and begins to send them out as His emissaries. He gives them certain powers and authority over “unclean spirits,” He says. Then Jesus gives them a list of things they must leave behind if their mission is to succeed. “Carry no food,” He says, “no traveling bag, no extra clothing and no money.” If a wrist- watch had existed in Jesus’ time, no doubt He would have added, “Carry no wrist watch, and no cell phone, either!” After the Resurrection, Jesus meets His disciples and says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.”
We who have been given much need to remind ourselves that we are members of a world minority who have never buried a child due to starvation. Most of us have to tighten our belts from time to time, but how many of us have had to “travel light” to the extent that we watched our own children literally starve to death? Most people in the world in which we live have undergone such horrors, and we have witnessed them on TV. And the servant of the Lord cannot be indifferent to that grim reality
Jesus saw his disciples also as a strange mixture of good and evil. He asked them to preach “the need of repentance.” They were to preach that message everywhere they went, because everyone needed to repent. Jesus warned his disciples that their message would be rejected by some. But the real irony is that the apostles themselves were a part of that same mixture. If they had ever forgotten that, their usefulness as co-workers with God would have come to an end. You and I need to remember the same thing about ourselves.
One of the most powerful novels written by Charles Dickens was “A Tale of Two Cities.” The story begins with those well known words: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Those eloquent lines not only describe that period in history that we call the French Revolution they are also a fairly accurate description of the condition of every human heart – then and now.
ON A MISSION
What are the words in today’s gospel that most grab our attention? Perhaps the words that stand out for us are those that are not part of our daily vocabulary and lifestyle: “unclean spirits, demons,” “walking sticks, or “tunics.” Try as we might, when we think of these words, we can’t imagine ourselves in the place of the disciples, and the gospel seems to have little relevance for us here and now. But there are other key words in today’s gospel, timeless words for each and every one of us as disciples of Jesus: “Summoned”, “Sent them”, “They set off to preach”. These are words that should not only be part of our vocabulary as Christians, but should define the very life we live.
“Summoned”: we may be summoned to testify in court or summoned for jury duty. It has an official ring to it, doesn’t it? When we are summoned, there seems to be a greater urgency or importance than simply being asked to fulfill a task. Today we hear that Jesus “summoned” the apostles, that is, He called upon them to fulfill his mission, a mission of love. As baptized Christians we are all summoned to discipleship. No matter how young or how old we are, no matter how rich or how poor we are, no matter our race or gender or occupation, Jesus summons each of us now.
After calling his apostles, Jesus sent them on a mission. We also are sent by Jesus to be his presence in the world. Most of us are not sent by Jesus to drive out demons and cure the sick. More often we are sent to do the ordinary things: to be kind and forgiven in our homes, to refrain from gossip, to smile and greet a stranger, to make time for daily prayer. Being sent by Jesus to do these things is no less urgent or important – or less difficult – than being sent to drive out demons and cure the sick. Throughout this week, let us be aware of the seemingly ordinary places and circumstances to which Jesus sends us.
Before Jesus sent the apostles off and running, he gave them authority to perform wondrous miracles; obviously, it was not by their own power. Think of the ways Jesus gives himself to us so that his mission becomes ours: Jesus gives himself to us in scripture; Jesus gives himself in the Eucharist; Jesus gives us his Spirit in Baptism. Over and over again Jesus gives of Himself so that we can become more and more like Him. With all that Jesus gives us, we are empowered to love in ways both small and great.
So here we are, gathered together for the Eucharist, each of us summoned by Jesus and being given the power to make his mission of love our mission as well. What’s next? Well, the Gospel tells us that the disciples went off to do what Jesus asked of them. Before leaving here today – and every time we celebrate the Eucharist – we are told to “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” Not, “Go quickly and be the first one out of the parking lot!” but “Go to love and serve Jesus – and your neighbor.” Go and do what Jesus asks of you. Go and love in ways small and great. How are we doing in that regard?
How does the gospel read when we become the disciples? That is the relevant point for today. Because we are summoned and sent in the same way the apostles were. Jesus gives us no less of himself that he did the apostles. The apostles went where Jesus sent them. Will we have the courage to do the same?
TRAINED AND TESTED
Jesus did not send his disciples without a plan and discipline. In order to be partners in His project of the Kingdom of God and extend His mission,
His disciples required to have a unique life style. Without it, they might achieve many things, but they would never announce and proclaim His spirit. Mark reminds us about some of Jesus’ recommendations. Let us single out a few of them.
First of all, in whose authority were those disciples going to work? According to Mark, “Jesus sent them out in pairs giving them authority over unclean spirits.” He does not give them authority over the people they will be meeting along the way. Jesus himself did not use any authority to rule over people, only to cure them.
As always, Jesus is hoping to make a better world, free from all the evil forces that enslave and dehumanize people. His disciples will have to pass on to all people His saving spirit. They should make their way into society, not using their power over them, but humanizing their lives, alleviating their sufferings and giving them more freedom and compassion.
They will take for the road just a staff and a pair of sandals. Jesus sees them as just wayfarers, not as settlers. They should always be on the road. They should never be bound to anything or anyone. They should own the barest minimum. That’s how Jesus was himself free and available to go anywhere where He was needed. Jesus’staff wasn’t a sign of authority, but an invitation to walk.
His disciples should not carry “bread, haversacks, money in their purses.” They should not be concerned about their security. They were carrying something much more important: Jesus’ Spirit, His word and his authority to humanize people’s lives. It’s curious how Jesus isn’t thinking about what they should carry to work efficiently, rather what they should not worry to own. In that way they would never forget the poor and be concerned about their own welfare.
They were not to “take a spare tunic”. They should dress like poor people. They did not need to wear the sacred vestments that the priests wore in the Temple. Nor were they to dress like the Baptist in the desert. They were to be like prophets among the people. They would become a sign of God’s presence to everyone, especially the poorest among them.
Will some of us, within the Church, be able to pass such test and become disciples and wayfarers of His message? We must acknowledge and realize that we have been forgetting some of those instructions and failed to carry and preach His Spirit.