Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 - 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 Kingdom of 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...." [Luke]
For about 10 years (2009-2019) I was a fulltime itinerant preacher. This was the original ministry of the Dominican Order when it was founded by St. Dominic in 1216 and received the title "the Order of Preachers." But I cannot say that I traveled as lightly as the Twelve and the subsequent Seventy-two disciples [Luke 10:1-12] or as lightly as those first Dominican friars when Dominic sent them out! What Jesus' instructions highlight are, first, the centrality of the message: the Kingdom of God; and second, the lifestyle of the preacher as a form of preaching in itself!! What the preacher does outside the pulpit can be just as important as what he or she says from the pulpit. Jesus' attacks on the religious authorities of his time were precisely aimed at the difference - their hypocrisy! They were not practicing what they preached!
Jesus' instruction to the Twelve and the Seventy-two might be called "downsizing!" St. Dominic wanted his friars to be more like the heretical but austere preachers who were gaining converts, instead of the bishops and abbots who were traveling in high style and getting nowhere. It's not a matter of destitution as a way of life, but a recognition of how "stuff" can weigh down the preacher and the message. Where should our focus be? And what is the most effective way of getting the message across? It is a question for all "missionary disciples" - i.e. all of us who are baptized!! AMEN