Don’t Keep the Word To Yourself

July 11, Sunday

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

A good test of how strong our faith is would be how much we want to share it with the people around us. We cannot keep for ourselves what is good and rich and beautiful. If the Gospel has shaped our lives and made it deep and precious for us, why not let it become Good News also to others? Not everyone is called to go out and preach it but just to let it speak for itself by the way we live it. Ask the Lord here in this Eucharist to help us live and spread his Good News.

 

First Reading: Amos 7:12-15

Then Amaziah confronted Amos: “Seer, be on your way! Get out of here and go back to Judah where you came from! Hang out there. Do your preaching there. But no more preaching at Bethel! Don’t show your face here again. This is the king’s chapel. This is a royal shrine.”

But Amos stood up to Amaziah: “I never set up to be a preacher, never had plans to be a preacher. I raised cattle and I pruned trees. Then God took me off the farm and said, ‘Go preach to my people Israel.’

 

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14

The God of Glory

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first instalment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

 

Gospel: Mark 6:7-13

The Twelve

Jesus called the Twelve to him, and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority and power to deal with the evil opposition. He sent them off with these instructions:

 “Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple.

 “And no luxury inns. Get a modest place and be content there until you leave.

 “If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.”

Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits.

 

Prayer
God of justice and mercy,
you have set us free from the evil of sin
by the life and death and rising again
of your living reflection and word,
your Son Jesus Christ.
Let his life and message inspire us
to voice his truth and bring his freedom
to everyone on this earth.
Give us no other assurance
than that we proclaim his Good News
and that our companion on the road is
your own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Carry the Word

The wise man in chapter 30 of the book of Proverbs asks the Lord for two things: “I ask you not to give me poverty and not to give me riches; let me have my piece of bread. Because if you give me riches, I could say to the Lord I am no longer interested in you because I have all that I like. Do not give me poverty because, in poverty, I might steal or even curse.’ These are the two things that the wise man asks for: neither riches nor poverty.

When we have the necessities of life, when we have your daily bread, the rest belongs to the brother and the sister. Always keep in mind that at the end of our lives, as we pass through the gates of heaven, all the riches that were accumulated, but which we failed to share with the brothers and sisters and, therefore, have not been transformed into love, will be appropriated, taken away from us.

St. Paul reminds us of our mission to help the weak by our hard labour as he recalls the words of Jesus, who said ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’.

Before sending out the disciples, Jesus gives instructions. First of all, he says what
they can take for the road. What can they carry with them? In the Gospel according to Mark, a walking stick is permitted while Matthew and Luke say not to carry it. Why? Walking stick according to Matthew and Luke, is the symbol of the weapon of the poor. Matthew had insisted on the nonviolence of the disciple. Remember, it was Matthew alone who mentioned about Jesus asking Peter to keep his sword away on the night when Jesus was betrayed and captured. According to Matthew, God’s kingdom is not built by violence.

Instead, in today’s passage from Mark, the walking stick has a different meaning. It is a symbol of God’s Mission to perform wonders: God gave Moses the staff with which he divided the Red Sea and provided water flow from the rock. It symbolizes the power that God gives to the disciples to carry out an extraordinary mission. And this is the only power the power of God’s Word and the Spirit of Christ that we need to rely on.

We are all missionaries. On our journey, all our luggage is useless if we are not carrying the Word of God to bring God’s love and his forgiveness to those who live without hope. Be a missionary and miracles will follow! You will heal the sick, save the people from the “demons” that oppress their lives.

 

Video available on Youtube: Carry the Word