The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate our call to work bringing peace as a gift of the Spirit to those we encounter on our journey.
Peace on the Journey
The reading from the Second Letter to Timothy shares personal Instructions and Paul’s loneliness.
* [4:9–13] Demas either abandoned the work of the ministry for worldly affairs or, perhaps, gave up the faith itself (2 Tm 4:10). Luke (2 Tm 4:11) may have accompanied Paul on parts of his second and third missionary journeys (Acts 16:10–12; 20:5–7). Notice the presence of the first personal pronoun “we” in these Acts passages, suggesting to some that Luke (or at least some traveling companion of Paul’s) was the author of Acts. Mark, once rejected by Paul (Acts 13:13; 15:39), is now to render him a great service (2 Tm 4:11); cf. Col 4:10; Phlm 24. For Tychicus, see Eph 6:21; cf. also Acts 20:4; Col 4:7.1
Psalm 145 praises the Greatness and the Goodness of God.
* [Psalm 145] A hymn in acrostic form; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems usually do not develop ideas but consist rather of loosely connected statements. The singer invites all to praise God (Ps 145:1–3, 21). The “works of God” make God present and invite human praise (Ps 145:4–7); they climax in a confession (Ps 145:8–9). God’s mighty acts show forth divine kingship (Ps 145:10–20), a major theme in the literature of early Judaism and in Christianity.2
The Gospel of Luke describes 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
Barbara Dilly comments that it comes together mostly around John 15:16. We are called from the world to go and bear fruit that will last. Those of you who read these reflections are like me, we all feel called to bear the fruit of the Gospel. But we are often not so willing to give up the distractions of the world. We must live in this world, but we are often too enamored of its present dramas. And if we become distracted, Paul says to Timothy, we will desert the Lord.
While some readers know better how to achieve that devotion by joining holy orders and the priesthood that separate them from this world, the rest of us are no less called to holiness in lay lives. I happen to think we can still be remarkably effective, often even more so. We know that those who attempt to withdraw from this world are never wholly successful. I admire the Amish when they say they live in the world, but not of it. To me that means we, like them, can create our own forms of resistance to the things of this world to focus our life purposes on bearing the fruit of the Gospel.4
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus the Good Shepherd changes wolves into sheep,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"How then does [Jesus] command the holy apostles, who are innocent men and 'sheep,' to seek the company of wolves, and go to them of their own will? Is not the danger apparent? Are they not set up as ready prey for their attacks? How can a sheep prevail over a wolf? How can one so peaceful conquer the savageness of beasts of prey? 'Yes,' he says, 'for they all have me as their Shepherd: small and great, people and princes, teachers and students. I will be with you, help you, and deliver you from all evil. I will tame the savage beasts. I will change wolves into sheep, and I will make the persecutors become the helpers of the persecuted. I will make those who wrong my ministers to be sharers in their pious designs. I make and unmake all things, and nothing can resist my will.'" (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 61)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 2 Timothy 4:10-17 comments that Luke was fully invested in Paul’s ministry and wanted to help him keep preaching. Certainly, he loved and respected Paul for his brilliance and his boldness. But more than that, Luke believed that the gospel Paul preached was true and that the world needed to hear about salvation through Christ. Paul had been preaching and ministering for years already, but he needed coworkers like Luke to help people see and understand the full truth that was changing the world.
The truth of the gospel is still changing the world. True, many voices vie for influence over us, but whenever the truth about Jesus is proclaimed, all these other voices are silenced for a time. It’s tempting to think that we need to be practiced in our presentation in order to win people’s attention. While it never hurts to always be ready, nothing can replace the appeal of a person whose own life has been transformed telling another person about Jesus.6
Peter Edmonds SJ suggests a way for us to approach our encounter with Jesus and his story in Luke’s Gospel. No matter what our reasons for reading the Gospel of Luke may be, our preparation begins by familiarising ourselves with its author. Three times in letters attributed to him, Paul writes of a person called Luke whom Christian tradition has identified with the author of the gospel which bears this name.
In the Letter to Philemon, the shortest of his letters, Paul refers to Luke as his ‘fellow worker’ (Philemon 1:24). In the Letter to the Colossians, he describes a companion called Luke as ‘the beloved physician’ (Colossians 4:14). In his Second Letter to Timothy, he reports that Luke is the only one to keep him company in his prison confinement (2 Timothy 4:11). From these verses, we may conclude that this Luke was an individual who embodied in himself the virtues of friendship and fellowship, hard work and perseverance, healing and compassion – qualities we look for in a saint. Additionally, as author of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke seems to refer to himself as one who accompanied Paul in his missionary travels. He writes for example: ‘When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia. . . We set sail from Troas. . . One day as we were going to the place of prayer. . .’7
Friar Jude Winkler discusses the likely relationship between Paul and Luke seen through the author of the Pastoral Letter to Timothy. The “we” chapters of Acts are probably accounts of Luke’s time as a disciple of Paul. Friar Jude reminds us that our ministry will be brought to completion in God’s Time and Way.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that it’s possible to trace the movement of Christianity from its earliest days until now. In Israel, Jesus and the early “church” offered people an experience; it moved to Greece, and it became a philosophy. When it moved to Rome and Constantinople, it became an organized religion. Then it spread to Europe, and it became a culture. Finally, it moved to North America and became a business. This isn’t much of an exaggeration, if it’s an exaggeration at all. The original desire or need for a “Jesus” experience was lost, and not even possible for most people. Experience, philosophy, organized religion, culture, business—in each of those permutations and iterations, Christianity was seen as above criticism. It simply was the religion, the philosophy, the culture. Those are the big historical reasons that we look to different places for our authority. We gave it to emperors and kings and presidents instead of the Gospel, pretending Jesus was Lord but we didn’t really mean it. Now, he knows it’s easy to be cynical, to look at the disastrous effects of Christianity’s complicity with empire and want to give up on the whole endeavor, but he also wants to proclaim that the flow of grace is a truly wonderful thing. Even inside of each of those iterations, misguided as they were—and we still are today—humble, loving people emerged—in every one of them.
I think if we try to communicate what Jesus’ social justice teaching is, we won’t find a highly rarefied explanation of justice theories, and so forth. The way to do justice is to live simply, to not cooperate with consumerism, with militarism, with all the games that have us trapped. Jesus just does it differently, ignoring unjust systems and building up a better system by his teaching to his disciples. His name for the better system was the kingdom of God or the reign of God. The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. He’s showing us “We’re just going to do it better. Let’s not be anti-anything. Let’s be for something: for life, and for universal love.”8
As spiritual descendants of the disciples mentioned by Luke, we seek Providence to guide our mission of bringing peace.
References
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