In this Sunday’s Gospel from Mark (6:7-13) Jesus
sends the Apostles out two by two to go and bring the Good News to whomever the
Spirit leads them to. Jesus asks the
Apostles to rely on God completely, “take no food, sack, or money with you”
just enough to be presentable, a second tunic, sandals, and a walking
stick. Talk about total reliance on
God! Their main message was one of
repentance, so this meant they had to talk about sin and how turn back towards
God, again not an easy thing to do, and yet God demands the most and the best
from us.
A reflection for us can be, have I trusted God
enough that I am willing to take nothing with me except the bare
essentials? Granted not all of us or
even a few of us can be Franciscans who follow St. Francis’ rule literally,
nevertheless we can follow this Gospel rule in many other ways.
1) When
it comes to trusting God do I really leave everything in His hands or do I try
and control every angle?
2) Have
I put God first, or have I queued him to the number 3, 4, or 5 spot in my order
of importance?
3) Do
I preach repentance, first to myself and then to others?
Often times in our lives we feel that we must take
control of a situation or situations. I
may be going on an interview and I prepare myself above and beyond the normal preparation. Which is actually a smart thing to do, but do
I keep God in mind as the One who is both helping me and preparing me for that
interview? What about starting a new
family, getting married, or finding my vocation – does God take center
stage? Often times when people plan to
get married they do not make the Church their first priority, rather the engagement
ring takes the number one spot, then after the proposal family is notified or
already know, then they plan for the place of reception –where they will have
their dinner and celebration, and then fourth if He is lucky comes God, “oh
lets go see the priest to reserve the Church.”
Granted much is going on in terms of excitement, so
one can lose focus, also some couples do keep God first. You see how easy it is to be worried about
the things of the world, i.e. my money (to pay for the reception), my food (to
give to those who come to my reception), and the sack (all my material things,
especially the engagement ring, the dresses, the tuxedos, the limos, the camera
and video, etc.) I don’t mean to be a spoiler,
all of those things are good and even fun, but were they decided with God in
mind. Does God want me to wear a $5,000
dress, pay for $150.00 plates per person, to buy rings that cost thousands of
dollars? If we are honest with
ourselves, what would God say?
The same applies to me, do I need 100.00 slacks,
150.00 shoes, a brand new car which I must have because I deserve it, because I
work so hard! Actually I did buy a new
car on May 1st, but I planned for it for two years in terms of
saving, researching and test driving different vehicles, and as much as
possible allowing God to lead me to something that was acceptable for a person
in my state of life but that would also last and be durable. The same should apply for everything we
decide and not just the big purchases.
Again, not everyone is called to be another St.
Francis in the literal sense, though all of us are called to live that spirit
of poverty, we do it in order to obtain freedom. Things weigh us down; they preoccupy us and
influence us to desire more. A famous
lyric from Bruce Springsteen’s “Badlands” says, “Poor man wants to be rich,
rich man wants to be king, and the king is not satisfied until he loses
everything.”
We need to pray for ourselves and each other in
order that whenever we make decisions that like the Apostles who went two by
two, or saints have been called by God down through centuries (like St.
Francis) that we will trust that God is enough and that He will provide for
everything we need.
Fr. John
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