The mission of the Lay Person (Fourteenth Sunday of the Year) Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

A preacher was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the following night. But he arrived a day early. He came unannounced and sat on the grass with the crowd. In front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening attentively to the preaching. When the call came for people to come forward and make a commitment to the Lord, the gentleman did not move. Dr Graham tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, “Would you like to accept Christ? I’ll be glad to walk down with you if you want to.” The old man looked him up and down, shook his head and said, “No, I think I’ll just wait till the big gun shows up tomorrow night.” In the thinking of this man and in the thinking of many people, winning souls for Christ is something that should be reserved for the “big guns.” Today’s gospel story, however, shows us that mission is for everyone, big guns and little shots alike, the clergy as well as the laity.

Luke’s Gospel has two stories of Jesus sending out his followers to go and spread the Good News. In chapter 9 Jesus sends the Twelve apostles and in chapter 10 he sends seventy disciples. Matthew’s Gospel has only one: the sending of the Twelve. Scholars believe that Luke’s story of the sending out of the Seventy is his way of emphasizing the universal scope of the message of Christ. The mission of the Twelve, according to Matthew, was limited to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). The mission of the Seventy has no such limitation. According to Jewish tradition there are twelve tribes of Israel and seventy nations of the earth. The sending of the seventy disciples, therefore, symbolizes the sending of the message of Christ to the whole world.

Today, however, I will invite you to look at the story from a different perspective, from the perspective not of those receiving the message but of those bringing the message, from the perspective of the missionaries themselves. Christian tradition identifies the Twelve apostles with ordained ministry in the church. When at the Last Supper Jesus commissioned his followers to “do this in memory of me” he was addressing the Twelve, the clergy. If this is so, then the Seventy who are sent out on mission in today gospel must be understood as lay people. Today’s gospel, therefore, is the commissioning of lay ministry. This way we can 

read the two missions in the Gospel of Luke, the mission of the Twelve and the mission of the Seventy, as the mission of the clergy and the mission of the laity. By including the two accounts Luke, unlike Matthew, is saying, therefore, that mission is not only for the clergy, mission is not only for the “big guns,” mission is for us all, ordained and non-ordained followers of Christ alike.

What is the reason for lay involvement in the spreading of the gospel? Because “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” (Luke 10:2). This is as true today as it was in the days of Jesus. What role are the laity supposed to play in fulfilling the mission of Christ? The role of the laity is twofold: “Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (verse 2), i.e. prayer, and “Go on your way. See, I am sending you” (verse 3), i.e. active involvement. It is not a question of doing either the one or the other. Every Christian is called to participate in the spreading of the message of Christ through a commitment to prayer and a commitment to action. Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you. Jesus goes on to detail the disposition we should bring to the work of evangelisation: a spirit of meekness and vulnerability, a spirit of politeness and adaptability to the changing and challenging local situations in which we find ourselves in the course of mission work.

Jesus places special emphasis on the work of curing the sick. This is not an optional task in the work of spreading the gospel. Someone may ask: Is health of body necessary for salvation? Is holiness of soul not enough? We tend to forget that holiness is another word for wholeness. It has to do with the whole person, body and soul. The Good News is good not only for the soul but for the body as well. The seventy disciples went on their way trying to implement what Jesus charged them to do. They were surprised to see that, acting in Jesus’ name, not only physical sicknesses but “even the demons” submit to them (verse 17). A similar happy surprise awaits all followers of Christ, ordained or non-ordained, who dare to embrace the work of spreading the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ just as he directed us.

FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE:

WE HAVE A MISSION

The family of Robert Giles had barely finished celebrating the birthday of their daughter; very pretty girl, when armed robbers stormed the family. He is rich but stingy, and always physically and verbally abused the wife and their children. The armed robbers tied him up, and every other person was ordered to lie on their faces. After taken everything they could find and were about to kill, the girl (4 years of age) appeared from one of the rooms with a beautiful bouquet of flowers she got from the Dad, as birthday gift. She gave the flower to the leader of the gang who had his gun pointed to the Dad, and said “Uncle take; this is all I have; please don’t kill my Dad!” Stunned by the courage and gesture of this beautiful girl, he took the flower, and they left without taken even a pin. It was like a new dimension started in the lives of armed robbers, and a new mission was given to them. This event not only changed Robert’s life but also the lives of the armed robbers, and that day each of the people involved in this episode received a new mission in life. A few years later, the leader of the armed robbery gang told the story, as a preacher of the Word of God and no longer an armed robber.

Any movement we make in life has an objective; the objective may be self-inspired or comes from another person. Meanwhile the objective may be evil intent or good but it is a mission. People had created a lot of troubles between husbands and wives after their visits. People are sent on the mission to kill for some political reasons or on personal vendetta. There are people who travel very long distances just to spread false and destructive rumors and gossip, and deform the characters of people they jealous. There are also covert military missions for various intentions, personal inspired adventures and spiritual movements like astral travels.

Like the bouquet of flowers handed to the armed robber by the little girl. God gives every Christian a special mission and instrument for the mission. The prophet Isaiah describes it as a mission of nourishment and comfort to all the nations of the world. Jesus Christ tells us that we are carrying the message of peace, reconciliation and love to the entire world. Paul who has been on this path before indicates that accomplishing this mission depends on our disposition to glory only in the cross of Jesus Christ through which God administers forgiveness, compassion, liberation, peace and love to all. We all have a crucial mission with clear objective, and the objective is the total wellbeing (body, mind and spirit) of the entire person we meet.

In this mission, a bouquet of flowers should replace the various weapons of sorrow, death, character deformation and oppression of others that we are used to. What does this mean? It means that peace has eluded many hearts and nations, and everyone wants to use different forms of violence, tricks clothed with diplomacy, power, position and all kinds of manipulation to achieve their goals. These only create more problems, violence, suffering, terror, and destruction of families, hatred, anger and sorrow among individuals, families and nations. The peace and love that Jesus talks about are gifts we can only receive from God by having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace and real Bouquet of Love. These can only be established by recognizing the dignity of each person as the images of God and not as cheap labors, instruments of terror, sexual objects, ritual objects, slaves and people good only for our dirty works. Our mission is to be like the Jerusalem described in the first reading that brings comfort and nourishment that comes from the depth of our hearts. It is a service of genuine love, rich in all the spiritual, physical and psychological nourishments (like the breast fluid of a woman that contains the nourishment) that a person needs to live healthy and happy. It is the mission of the Church as Mother of all.

The beneficiaries of this mission are each person, family and the entire world where there is poverty, starvation, chaos, abuse of human dignity, exploitation, war, hatred, lack of faith, the spirit of revenge and lack of forgiveness; to people without hope, peace, love and vision in life; we are sent to people who need to smile, to sleep without been afraid, people who have the demons of fear, shyness, disbelief, arrogance, pride, hatred, destructive languages and to people with oppressive demons. One act of love could expel the demons in a person and change him/her from being agent of hatred, confusion, violence and death into an angel of love, life and peace.

Jesus Christ sent seventy two disciples because the harvest is rich but laborers are few. So it is not a mission for priests and religious men and women alone, everyone should get involved. Nurses, doctors, engineers, farmers, educators, sports men and women, business people, lawyers, masons, youths, adults and indeed everyone has an important role to play. We evangelize more effectively by what we do more than what we say. He sends us not regarding our color of skin, language, defects in life, mistakes/sins of our past, cultural barriers and social status. The number seventy represents every person from every nation of the world. He also warns us of huge obstacles on the way, but in his name, we shall make progress. United in this mission, we can say “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy. Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, and sing praise to the glory of his name; proclaim his glorious praise. Come and see the works of God, He has changed the sea into dry land; through the river they passed on foot.” 

...BUT THE SON OF MAN HAS NO WHERE TO LAY HIS HEAD (THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR) Lk 9:51-62

A guard in charge of a lighthouse along a dangerous coast was given enough oil for one month and told to keep the light burning every night. One day a woman asked for oil so that her children could stay warm. Then a farmer came. His son needed oil for a lamp so he could read. Another needed some for an engine. The guard saw each as a worthy request and gave some oil to satisfy all. By the end of the month, the tank in the lighthouse was dry. That night the beacon was dark and three ships crashed on the rocks. More than one hundred lives were lost. The lighthouse attendant explained what he had done and why. But the prosecutor replied, “You were given only one task: to keep the light burning. Every other thing was secondary. You have no excuse.”

Temptation is a choice between good and evil. But perhaps more insidious than temptation is conflict where one must choose between two good options. The lighthouse keeper in our story found himself in such a conflict situation. So also are the would-be disciples in today’s gospel story. In such cases the good easily becomes the enemy of the best One must then say no to a good thing in order to say yes to the one thing necessary. Today’s gospel is a sequence of four incidents and encounters with people who could have become followers of Jesus but who were held back by ulterior concerns and motives. Each encounter highlights a different concern.

The first incident is the encounter between the messengers of Jesus and the Samaritan villagers. The concern that holds the Samaritans back from accepting and following Jesus is patriotism. Samaritans and Jews were bitter enemies. The Samaritan villagers had probably heard about Jesus and what he was doing and were interested. But as soon as they learnt that Jesus and his disciples were Jews and were heading for Jerusalem, their admiration turned into opposition. Patriotism and devotion to the national cause is, of course, a good thing. But when national interest becomes the spectacle through which one sees all reality, including spiritual and eternal reality, then one is in danger of losing perspective.

The second incident involves a man who says to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replies, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke (9:57-58). Why did Jesus say that? Probably because he perceived that here was a man who valued financial independence and security. It is a good thing to have high economic goals so that one could provide adequately for oneself and for those under one’s care. Yet when this stands in the way of wholehearted following and service of God, then something is wrong.

The third incident is that of the man who wanted first to go bury his father before following Jesus. Burying one’s parents is part of the command to “Honour your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). So this a man with high moral principles, a man who keeps the law and is highly concerned for his religious duties. Again this is a very good virtue. Yet Jesus is saying that we should not allow religious observance to immobilise us and keep us from following Christ who is always on the move into new territories and new challenges.

Finally there is the man who wants to go and say farewell to his family before following Jesus. He wants to follow the example of Elisha (1^st reading) who bid his family farewell before becoming Elijah’s disciple. This man has high social and family values. One could only wish that all men could be this sensitive to let their families know their whereabouts at all times! Yet before the urgent call of the kingdom of God, social and family concerns take a back seat. “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

These stories show that to follow Christ is to follow him unconditionally. Can you complete the sentence: “I will follow Christ on the condition that …” If you can complete the sentence then you are in the same situation as any of these well-meaning but mistaken disciples. Jesus will not accept a second place in our lives. He will be first or nothing. It is all for Jesus or nothing at all.

Unity in Diversity (Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul)

In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus changes the  TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus.  “These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.” “Which channel do you want?” asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?” Unity is strength. That is the main thought on our minds as we come together today to give God thanks for the two great apostles, Peter and Paul. In their lifetime Peter and Paul did not work so closely together. Peter was called directly by Jesus and given “the keys of the kingdom” (Matthew 16:16-18). He is portrayed in icons carrying the keys. Paul, on the other hand, probably never met Jesus face to face. Once a persecutor of the church, his conversion came about through a vision on the road to Damascus. His inspiration and his style of presenting the gospel came from visions and charismatic experiences. He is portrayed in icons carrying either a sword or a book. Peter and Paul were so different that Peter was surnamed the Apostle of the Jews and Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles. Paul once had a public disagreement with Peter on whether Jewish Christians could eat together with Gentile Christians. (Galatians 2). If Peter and Paul did not agree in life, they did agree in death. Both suffered the same kind of death, martyrdom, in the same city, Rome, at about the same time, 64-67 a.d. The early church recognized Peter and Paul as the two pillars of the church of Christ. This is depicted in an ancient icon with Peter on the right and Paul on the left, each extending a hand with which they bear up the church. By placing two of them together in one icon, united in lifting up the church, the church is sending a message to all her children that they all likewise should be united, in spite of individual and local differences, in building up the one church of God. In the early church there was a tendency to splinter into various factions, each faction claiming to follow the leadership of one of the chief apostles or missionaries. This was one of the reasons why Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians. The Corinthians were breaking up into followers of Paul, followers of Peter, and followers of Apollos. Paul reminds them strongly that these human leaders are all equally servants of the one Christ. Christ, therefore, should be their focus and not the human leaders. So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future – all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. (1 Corinthians 3:21-23) If division among believers was a problem in the days of Paul, it is even more so today. Like the Christians of Corinth, Christians today are divided, variously recognizing the absolute authority of John Calvin, John Wesley or John Paul. We are like the weak fingers of Linus that cannot embrace one another and unite into a formidable punch. Disunity of Christians is a scandal that weakens the Christian witness to the world. How can Christian churches preach love and unity, forgiveness and reconciliation to the world when they themselves are living in disunity, unable to forgive and reconcile themselves? Even within the walls of the same church, there are visible cracks of disunity. Today, the faithful are quick to label themselves either as conservatives or liberals. Conservatives, who often identify with the institutional authority of Peter, wage war against liberals; and liberals, who identify with the charismatic vision of Paul, wage war against conservatives. By combining the feasts of the apostles Peter and Paul, the church is inviting all her children to look beyond the conservative-liberal divide and discover a deeper level of unity in Christ. The church of Christ needs the rock of Peter’s institutional leadership as well as the vitality of Paul’s charismatic vision. Christian unity, like the unity of Peter and Paul, is not a unity in uniformity but a unity in diversity. Today the church reminds us that, even though as individuals and local communities some will prefer the style of Peter and others that of Paul, we should not let that divide us since we are all, first and foremost, followers of the one Lord Jesus Christ and children of one Father, God.

  

Who do you say I am? (Twelfth Sunday of the Year)

In psychology, I learnt about the theories of one of the American psychologists, Joe Harry. He posited his theories in what he calls ''the Joe Harry's Window'', and in this window, there is an aspect which says, there are issues about a person which is hidden from him (the person), and is only seen by other people around him. With the question of Jesus in the gospel of today (who do people say I am), could it be said that Jesus was conducting a psychology test? Among the fables of Aesop is one entitled The Hunter and the Woodman. A Hunter was searching for the tracks of a Lion. He asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks of the lion’s footsteps or knew where his lair was. “Oh yes,” said the Woodman, “I will take you to the Lion himself.” The Hunter turned pale from fear and stuttered, “No, thanks. I did not ask that; it is only his track that I am looking for, not the Lion himself.” In our dealings with God and with one another we are often like this hunter. We profess that we stand for something but when the full implication of what we profess stare us in the face we draw back.

This is what we see in today’s gospel story. Peter, speaking for himself and for the disciples, rightly confesses his faith in Jesus as the long-expected Messiah. When Jesus reveals to him and the disciples the implications of his being the Messiah they begin to draw back. By confessing Jesus as the Messiah the disciples show that they have gone above the level of the “people” who take Jesus to be nothing more than a prophet. Jesus then proceeds to tell them the implications of what they had just said: “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Luke 9:22).

Now, the disciples are not ready for this. They are looking for the footprints of the lion and Jesus offers to take them face to face with the lion. They begin to withdraw. This withdrawing is more dramatic in the gospel of Matthew where Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to talk him out of the suffering and death he was destined to undergo. But Jesus would shun him and dub him Satan for seeing things from the purely human rather than from God’s point of view.

Luke’s version of the story which we read today focuses on the disciples as a whole and not particularly on Peter. This might explain why it does not include the dialogue and the incident between Jesus and Peter after Peter had made the all-important confession. Rather Luke shows the disciples pulling back from Jesus at his arrest, suffering and death, which shows that they do not understand the implication of the faith they profess in Jesus as the Messiah.

Peter and the disciples are to be commended for the courage to think for themselves. Jesus shows that he expects his followers to think for themselves when he asks them first, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” (verse 18), and then the all-important question: “But who do you say that I am?” (verse 20). Disciples must inform themselves on what the current thinking is on any given issue. One can achieve that by reading books, listening to the radio, watching the television and surfing the internet. Over and above that, disciples must then, in light of Christian faith and revelation, make up their minds on the issue. Christians must not allow themselves to internalize the voice of the “people” such that the voice of the “people” becomes the voice of their conscience. This is what Paul is telling us in Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” As people of faith Jesus asks us to know what “people” around us are thinking, but not necessary to endorse what they are thinking. Like the prophets of old, faithfulness to God demands that we follow the voice of God within us, which we call conscience, rather than popular opinion. And like Jesus, we can also ask ourselves ''who do people say I am'', as a father running the affairs of my family, am I seen as father or a lion? As a mother or wife, what is said about me? Am I the nagging type who would find problems with everything, and would even beat my husband when he messes up with me? As a son or a daughter, do I live as though I was a father or a mother? We have the answers to all these questions, and I believe we would all expect a very positive response from people when we sample opinions. The choice is definitely ours. There is a saying ''As you make your bed, so you must lie on it''. You don't leave your bed not kept in the morning, and at night expect to meet a kept bed. It can happen any way, that is if you have a servant, but in this case, the heavens help those you put much efforts in helping themselves. Happy new week!

ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (THE COOKIE THIEF) Luke 7:36-8:3

Today’s gospel reminds one of the story of the cookie thief. A woman at the airport waiting to catch her flight bought herself a bag of cookies, settled in a chair in the airport lounge and began to read her book. Suddenly she noticed the man beside her helping himself with cookies from the cookie bag between them. Not wanting to make a scene, she read on, ate cookies, and watched the clock. As the daring “cookie thief” kept on eating the cookies she got more irritated and said to herself, “If I wasn’t so nice, I’d blacken his eye!” With each cookie she took, he took one too. When only one was left, she wondered what he would do. Then with a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her half, and he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, “Oh brother, this guy has some nerve, and he’s also so rude, why, he didn’t even show any gratitude!” She sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, refusing to look at the ungrateful “thief.” She boarded the plane and sank in her seat, then reached in her baggage to fetch her book, and what she saw made her gasp with surprise. For there in front of her eyes was her bag of cookies. Then it dawned on her that the cookies she ate in the lounge was the man’s and not hers, that the man was not a thief but a friend who tried to share, that she was the rude one, the ungrateful one, the thief.

The cookie thief story reminds us, as we see in today’s gospel, that it often happens that the one pointing the accusing finger turns out to be the guilty one, that the complainant sometimes turns out to be the offending party. In the cookie story, the woman believed she was such a wonderful person to put up with the rudeness and ingratitude of the man sitting beside her. In the end she discovered that she was the rude and ungrateful one and the man was wonderfully friendly. In the gospel the Pharisee thinks he is the righteous one who is worthy to be in the company of Jesus and that the woman was the sinful one, unworthy to be seen with Jesus. In the end Jesus showed each of them where they really belonged and the woman was seen as the one who was righteous and more deserving of the company of Jesus than the self-righteous Pharisee.

Why do things like this happen? Well, because it is easier to hear the other person than it is to hear yourself snoring. It is easy to notice the fault of other people while being blind to our own faults. Great men and women of God have been, all without exception, people who are so aware of their own inadequacies that they are hardly surprised at other people’s shortcomings. People who delight in criticising others betray their lack of self-awareness. In the end they discover that they themselves are indeed the cookie thieves that they accuse others to be.

But what was the mistake of the Pharisee? If the woman was indeed a prostitute where then did he err? After all, what he said about the woman was true, wasn’t it? Of course the woman was a sinner. Jesus did not say that the woman was not a sinner. Jesus only said that the man was a sinner too, and in fact a worse sinner than the woman.

I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love (Luke 7:44-47).

The problem of the Pharisee was his notion of sin and holiness. For him the woman was an “occasion of sin” to be avoided by godly people. Jesus corrects him: it is not what you avoid that counts, it is what you do. The Pharisee might indeed have avoided occasions of sin, but he did nothing for Jesus in need. The woman, on the other hand, attended to the practical needs of Jesus. Jesus accepts the woman’s external show of love as a clear manifestation of inner faith: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (verse 50). This practical engagement is the crucial difference between her and the Pharisee. How do we employ our faith in practical service of the needy?

Today’s gospel is good news indeed to all who have been humiliated by the “good people” of this world, humiliated in a supposed concern to maintain the standard of holiness in the household of God. Jesus assures them that they are indeed closer to the heart of God than their accusers have made them to believe. And to those who, like the Pharisee, feel that Jesus is their exclusive birthright, the Good News for them today is simple: Watch it, lest in the end you discover that it is you who are the cookie thief after all. And for the many people who are generous to share their prayers with me, I solicit for your prayers as I prepare to renew my religious vows on June 30th.