Take nothing with you, YOU are all you need.

Dear Friends,


In this weekend’s gospel from Mark, we hear Jesus send his apostles out, two by two, to preach and to heal and to drive out demons. He was quite clear that they should take nothing for the journey but sandals and a walking stick — no food, no sack, no money, no extra clothing. Jesus knew that he had equipped them well to do what he was sending them to do — and do it well they did!

I think we are well aware that we also are sent to proclaim good news. If you’re like me, that assignment may cause some discomfort. Knowing our weaknesses as we do, we may be tempted to wonder if the Lord really knows what he is doing, entrusting this work to us (or to others we may know who “rub us the wrong way”).

The second reading this weekend reassures us (or at least neutralizes any excuses or exemptions) that we are actually who God has in mind, just as we are. Writing to the community at Ephesus, St. Paul says:

     Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.

Note the use of the past tense: “who has blessed” and “as he chose us in him.” Note also for what he chose us: “To be holy and without blemish before him.” It can take a big leap of faith and trust to believe that I will ever be “holy and without blemish.” But God assures us in Isaiah 55:11, “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me achieving the end for which I sent it.”

That is reassuring if we worry that we will somehow mess up God’s plan in our clumsy efforts to cooperate with it. And as for the good news we are to share, how about this, also from the second reading:
     
​      In [Jesus] we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.


And, if that weren’t enough, in Confirmation, we were “... sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.”
To paraphrase a slogan going around church circles recently, “God does not call the qualified; rather, God qualifies the called.” 

There is no question that we are called. We’ve heard it in the readings and in the homilies many times, particularly in recent weeks. Let’s get to it, together — remember, Jesus sent the apostles out two by two!


Siempre adelante,


Dominic MacAller
Worship Minister 

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