The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to join in the Mission given by Jesus to His disciples and to support the leaders of our Christian communities in their vocation.
The Mission Interpreted
The reading from the Second Letter to Timothy offers thanksgiving and encouragement.
* [1:6] The gift of God: the grace resulting from the conferral of an ecclesiastical office. The imposition of my hands: see note on 1 Tm 4:14. * [1:8] Do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord: i.e., of preaching and suffering for the sake of the gospel.1
Psalm 96 gives praise to God, who Comes in Judgement.
* [Psalm 96] A hymn inviting all humanity to praise the glories of Israel’s God (Ps 96:1–3), who is the sole God (Ps 96:4–6). To the just ruler of all belongs worship (Ps 96:7–10); even inanimate creation is to offer praise (Ps 96:11–13). This Psalm has numerous verbal and thematic contacts with Is 40–55, as does Ps 98. Another version of the Psalm is 1 Chr 16:23–33.2
The Gospel from Luke (chosen by the CCCB) begins the Mission of the Seventy.
* [10:1–12] Only the Gospel of Luke contains two episodes in which Jesus sends out his followers on a mission: the first (Lk 9:1–6) is based on the mission in Mk 6:6b–13 and recounts the sending out of the Twelve; here in Lk 10:1–12 a similar report based on Q becomes the sending out of seventy-two in this gospel. The episode continues the theme of Jesus preparing witnesses to himself and his ministry. These witnesses include not only the Twelve but also the seventy-two who may represent the Christian mission in Luke’s own day. Note that the instructions given to the Twelve and to the seventy-two are similar and that what is said to the seventy-two in Lk 10:4 is directed to the Twelve in Lk 22:35.3
Chas Kestermeier, S.J. comments that the successors to Titus and Timothy and all the other early bishops spread the Good News and gave stability to the communities that formed around that hopeful message and to their celebration of that with a liturgy. They worked to support those communities by all sorts of means – orphanages and schools and medical care for all.
But what united them was love of the Lord in loving his people, service to the Lord in their serving his people. Each of us is sent in our own way, as a priestly people, to mediate Christ to those we live with, by who we are and what we do, by our sharing of the Good News, not only with our lives, but with an active sharing of the faith and belief and understanding that motivate and move us. How are we ourselves preachers of the Word and, in his name, how do we drive out demons, heal all sort of diseases, and find and care for the forgotten and discarded people?4
Fr James Crampsey SJ, Parish Priest of the Church of the Sacred Heart, Edinburgh, comments that the mission is to be sent, to meet those we do not know with an openness of heart and to receive hospitality. We prepare together with those whom we meet, with those to whom our hearts go out and beat in tune, that common ground where Jesus himself will come to break the bread. And it will be more than enough.
At the beginning of chapter nine, where today’s gospel comes from, the twelve, whom Jesus has chosen, drawn near to his heart, receive a mission to proclaim the Kingdom of God. The twelve are told to rely on the hospitality of the people they go to, not to take the insurance of an extra cloak to sleep in if nobody takes you in, not to take extra money in case nobody takes you in. Rely on the hospitality offered to you, is Jesus’s instruction. Receive well what is given to you out of hospitality.5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 2 Timothy 1:1-8 suggests let’s honor Timothy and Titus today by praying for all those who minister in the Church. Let’s pray that they strike a Spirit-inspired balance, building on the good and renovating the areas that might be wearing down. It’s not always easy, and their work often goes unnoticed. But they play a vital role in helping us deepen our faith.
Let’s also look at any renovations that our homes—the domestic church—might need. Let’s ask the Spirit to help us identify the cracks that might be forming in the foundation of our faith. And let’s ask him to give us the wisdom to know how to strengthen whatever may be weak, even as we celebrate what is already strong. “Thank you, Lord, for the examples of Timothy and Titus. Teach me how I can continue to build your Church on earth.”6
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the advanced ecclesiology contained in the Pastoral Letters. Timothy is a Jew who is circumcised and Titus is a pagan ministering in Crete. Friar Jude reflects on Mark 4:1-20 (USCCB choice for the Gospel) and the connection to the Great Commandment.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Jessica C. Williams, an activist with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, who invites us to consider the practical implications of the poverty of Jesus. What if we take seriously the proclamation of the Mule Train organizers—that “Jesus was a poor man”? [1] In the time and place in which Jesus ministered, most people lived under the subjugation of the Roman Empire and were considered expendable.
“Jesus was a poor man” is a theological statement. It is more than saying “Jesus cares about the poor,”—how Matthew 25:31–46 is often interpreted. In Matthew 25, what is usually translated as “the least of these” is the Greek word elachistoi, which literally means “the smallest or most insignificant ones”: in other words, the expendables. Jesus’s identity as one of the least of these is not a romantic, charitable notion; it is Jesus’s reality. He is saying that the social class of expendables are his people. The homeless, the poor, the incarcerated are Jesus’s friends, family, disciples, and followers, and Jesus himself.7
A mission of the Church, today, as expressed in Laudato Si by Pope Francis is to respond to the “cry of the poor” and the “cry of the earth.”
References
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