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MISSION AND ITS MEANING
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There cannot possibly be a better Gospel reading for Missionary Co-op Sunday than today’s, with Jesus sending the disciples out, two-by-two, to prepare the way for His own preaching visits. They were to “take nothing for the journey” (a passage that deeply impacted Francis of Assisi). But in fact they did take something critical for the journey: the authority Jesus gave them—no small item!
Why travel so lightly (really, hazardously)? Why greet no one (according to Luke 10) along the way? It is because the time of crisis (= the critical time) has arrived: the Kingdom is near/here (depending on how you translate the verb in Mark 1:15). There’s no time to be chit-chatting with fellow travelers; no time to be overburdened with baggage (This weighs a ton/Travel’s a curse/But here we will strive/To lighten your purse—from “Master of the House” in Les Miserables). None of this: the Kingdom must be proclaimed and made present (this is why Jesus gives the disciples a share in His authority—which they used well.
Pope Francis is strong on the thought that “mission” (being sent out to witness) is the sole purpose of the Church. Like the disciples, we are ALL called to be “bearers of the Good News.” Do we have to arrange to move to China or Guatemala or Siberia or Madagascar or Pakistan or Myanmar in order to do this? Do we have to be St Paul or St Francis Xavier or St Junipero Serra or Maryknoll’s Bishop Francis Ford (look him up!)? Not at all. There are many, many ways and places right here in Mobile that need our witness (lived, not necessarily preached). St Mother Teresa often said, “You can find [the suffering and poverty and needs of] Calcutta anywhere, if you have eyes to see.” That means our lived, loving witness can be just as critical here as it would be in the other places I mentioned. If there is sorrow or suffering or injustice or disregard for the inherent dignity of another, there is need for “missionary” witness to the reality of the Kingdom, and of the King.
We do this in different ways. Some donate from their incomes (as will happen this weekend). Others may volunteer in various places of service: Catholic Social Services, Salvation Army, downtown soup kitchens, prison ministry, helping with an ESL class, and so on. But in all ways, smaller and larger, we are missionaries, witnesses to the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is the reason why we come to the Eucharist—we need to be fed at the Lord’s “training table” and so prepared to do what needs to be done. In the words of St Teresa of Avila, “Christ has no body now on earth, but yours (and mine)…”
