This morning’s Gospel is one of my favorites. I used to take it literally and apply it to my life. I wore sandals almost year-round, even in the snow if it wasn’t too deep. I got rid of most of my clothes and wore a very minimalist wardrobe. I hardly ever carried money on me, being poor helped with that tremendously. I learned to try and live by the idea that “it was ok to be hungry.” Not taking food to places I knew others would be eating, also knowing I’d not be able to eat whatever they had. It’s a beautiful way to live, and I still follow some of that. But there is more to it, a deeper level. One that isn’t so much about doing things in a particular way, but about what is behind those actions. Trust. Faith. Knowing God will provide.
It’s easy to overcomplicate things. We tend to make mental lists or even physical ones. Spending our lives trying to check off boxes and meet standards that we often set that are too high for ourselves. Those same standards that we would not expect other people to live up to, we mentally berate ourselves for not attaining on our own. Today’s sending of the twelve is a reminder that our faith, at its core, is a straightforward mission. It is a mission of healing while evangelizing. Healing of the sick, freedom from oppression, to alleviate suffering from disease and distress.
Tertullian once said: “These Christians, see how they love one another.” What prompted this exclamation, according to Tertullian, was that the Christians nursed their sick poor. Up to that time, only the rich received medical attention. Curing diseases was an integral part of the mission given to the twelve. Unfortunately, today’s society seems to be returning to a world where the sick and the poor are unwanted. The idea that people should be euthanized when their life becomes a burden on others is prevalent in colleges, and population control is becoming simply a way of life.
Just one example that shows how far we’ve gone down in this respect is that recently Iceland was in the news because they have eradicated downs syndrome. It seemed like fantastic news! Somehow Iceland had found the answer and was preventing anyone from having downs syndrome. But, unfortunately, they didn’t find a cure. They didn’t find some chromosome or DNA tweak that allowed them to change the person’s makeup. Instead, they have essentially made downs syndrome a death sentence. 98% of all children who test positive for it are aborted.
That’s not a culture of life, but one of death. All life should be welcomed, respected, and loved. Planned or unplanned. Fitting societal norms or on the margins. Something to meditate on today is this: Am I healing presence? Most of us would love to be a presence of God, a light for the world, someone who brings peace wherever they go. We know people like that often, who just light up a room. But, we also know people who are the opposite, the ones that when we see them, we groan and wonder what they are going to say or do today. Jesus today reminds us that we have all the tools we need. He has given us everything necessary in the Church. In the Sacraments and in our prayer lives, we find calm for our souls. Jesus provides us with the joy and peace that comes from knowing God intimately and personally.
St. Jerome said that this passage is a call to us too. “A call in which we should remember every moment of every day to act as though we are standing in God’s presence. Enter the home of each Christian as you would the Temple of God.” That’s why we call the family the Domestic Church. We are the voice for the voiceless. Christians are supposed to be hopeful for those who have lost hope! The presence of Christ, which we receive in the Eucharist, should be transforming us into beacons for this world. Beacons of healing, comfort, and love. We don’t do that by eradicating more lives and promoting a culture of death. We do it by cherishing all lives. We reveal to them the inherent dignity that all of mankind has because they are made in the image of God. We fight for their right to be born! Their right to a long and prosperous life, from the moment of conception to natural death. We do it by going forward on the mission, not allowing anything to weigh us down, but with the freedom and knowledge that Christ is with us and in us. That starts right here, at this altar, when we receive the Blessed Sacrament.
God has provided and will continue to do so! When we consume the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord, Jesus Christ, He begins to transform us into the light we are supposed to be. We begin to be more like Him! To align our will with His, and that, that is when peace and joy will radiate from our communities. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith because it is Jesus Christ! With Him at the helm, with Him in our hearts, with the unity and peace that comes with His presence… then people might again begin to say “See how those Christians love one another!”
A reflection on the readings for Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time: September 22, 2021