Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 27, 2023 - Wednesday in the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Ezra 9:5-9 and Luke 9:1-6]Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdomof God and to heal the sick. He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them." Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere. [Luke]
SEPTEMBER 27 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL,
The "big picture" of the story of Jesus and the beginning of Christianity, as presented by the evangelist Luke in the gospel and the Acts of the Apostles takes us from Jesus' initial preaching in Nazareth to the choice of the Twelve, to their commissioning in today's gospel passage, to the appointment of a further seventy-two, to Pentecost, to the missionary journeys of Sts Peter and Paul and then to Rome, where they are martyred. It is an expanding and broad vision - the first history of Christianity.
In today's passage from the gospel, Luke tells the story of the first "sending" of missionaries. Jesus gives the Twelve "power and authority" to heal, to cast out demons, and to proclaim the Kingdom of God. This is the first expansion of the mission. They are also told that their lifestyle has to be completely simple and dependent on the generosity of others (something St. Dominic enjoined on his first preachers). Luke may be idealizing these first efforts to some extent, but the missionary thrust of Christianity is clear, since Luke was probably writing his gospel portrait of Jesus to encourage early missionaries and their new communities of faith.
However, we are now the audience for the Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. By virtue of our baptism we are commissioned to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God and to do what we can to heal our broken world. Pope Francis has reminded us of this in his initial encyclical, THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL, in which he has reminded us of our baptismal vocation to become "missionary disciples" bringing others to a Church that he calls "a field hospital for the sick and wounded." We become like those stretcher bearers earlier in this gospel (Luke 5:17-26) who bring the paralytic up on the roof to get him to Jesus. It is THEIR faith that Jesus responds to. The story of the initial commissioning of the Twelve is not simply something in the past, it is something in our present and we are the ones who have been commissioned as "missionary disciples." AMEN