Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7-3-16
Peace be with You,
Last week, we saw that the call of Jesus is a call to be about one thing, a life of unity with God. This week, we are given a clearer picture of what that life entails.
In our gospel reading this week, we find Jesus sending out 70 disciples (the number patterned on Moses’ commission to 70 elders of Israel to be prophets in Israel; cf. Numbers 11:24-25; N.B. some translations use the number 72). Jesus sends the 70 out as ‘lambs in the midst of wolves,’ suggesting that these disciples would face clear opposition from those to whom they preached the gospel. Unfortunately, this situation has not changed much over the course of time. Today, Christians face passive-aggressive opposition in countries like ours by secularists groups and violent persecution at the hands of various anti-Christian groups in the Middle East for example. However, though encountering opposition wherever they go, Christians bring a message of peace to whomever they meet, most especially to those who meet them with so much resistance. Notice, Jesus does not say, ‘respond in kind as you are treated,’ but rather He encourages them to not be discouraged, and to move along with their mission, which is an urgent one.
This urgency is indicated by Jesus’ instructions to “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals and salute no one on the road.” No purse indicating both radical dependence upon God for our sustenance; no bag indicating our detachment from material possession; no sandals because as St. Augustine says, we must renounce dead works (for the sandals were made from the leather of dead beasts); and do not salute anyone because we must not be slowed or distracted in our work.
Friends, this is the life of Christian discipleship, a life characterized by radical dependence upon God and detachment from the things of the world. We need have only one thing on our mind: bringing the life-giving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all we meet in word and deed. In doing so we may rejoice, ’For our names will be written in heaven.’
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Tony Crescio is the founder of FRESHImage Ministries. He holds an MTS from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a PhD candidate in Christian Theology at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on the intersection between moral and sacramental theology. His dissertation is entitled, Presencing the Divine: Augustine, the Eucharist and the Ethics of Exemplarity.
Tony’s academic publications can be found here.