Fifteenth Sunday of the Year B (15 Jul 2018)
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Gospel Transforming
Today’s Word seems to point in too many directions at once: Amos was one of the prophets; Jesus sent his apostles to prepare his way by preaching repentance; St. Paul praised and thanked God in an extended way in his letter to the Ephesians. Let me offer what the readings share and how they encourage our Christian outlook.
The first reading and the gospel share this: God chose and continues choosing unprepossessing people like us to advance God’s desire for our world. Take Amos. He was a shepherd and pruner of trees. The priest Amaziah was royal chaplain; he focused more on keeping the court cool than on God’s desire for God’s people. Then as now to keep close to God’s heart does “challenge us and [and may] demand a real change in the way [we] live.”1 God called someone open to God’s desire—Amos—to announce God’s desire instead of a professional religious line that would not promote true growth. What better way to begin than for Amos to go the king with God’s message?
_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg)
Jesus called ordinary people—fishermen; an activist; one despised for colluding with Roman occupiers; another swayed by money; all seekers of God’s desire. After they had been with him a while Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick. Jesus sent them to join his work to announce God’s desire in deed: they exercised authority over unclean spirits as Jesus did; they made God’s presence felt. Both the journey and unclean spirits deserve comment.
Ancients recognized nonhuman beings and ranked them according to power: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; other gods, archangels, angels, spirits. Unclean spirits disturbed human well-being in all manners of ways. Jesus kept authorizing his apostles with power over unclean spirits throughout their tour.
We miss how extraordinary was the authority Jesus gave them if we think in our North American ways. You and I think nothing of traveling; yet in the ancient Mediterranean one would not travel unless one had to leave one’s extended family and the village: both provided a social network and the necessities of daily living. To accept Jesus’ authority challenged what the apostles knew about safety and prudently staying safe. Sending them two by two was more than a strategy. Two by two let each be for the other an extension of their apostolic family: the social network Jesus established with them. That was more vital than being six pairs carrying Jesus’ message in six different directions at once. In a word, the apostles had all they needed both to perform the mission on which they went and to weather unexpected events along their way. Jesus made his authority their authority, something they could not give themselves.
In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week
- Pause in the company of our triune God.
- Ask the apostles to present us to Jesus.
- Chat with him: praise him for becoming human for us; speak any hesitation to be his apostle today.
- Entrust ourselves to Jesus and ask for the grace to infuse our world with Jesus’ Spirit by how we live.
- Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer: it is our going-on-mission prayer. Praying it keeps us close to the apostles, whose mission we extend as we put into practice our hope, faith and love.
___________
- Pope Francis, “On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World,” 66.
- Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity 2. The Abbott translation was used above.
Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise
___________
Wiki-images Sending Two by Two PD-US; Fountain of Mary PD-US
_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment