Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 18, 2023
/We have a mission to the world, not just nurturing personal spirituality or even that of the Church
Matthew 9:36—10:8
Chapter 9:36-38 At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to sent out laborers for his harvest. Chapter 10:1-8 Then he summoned his twelve disciples* and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.a The names of the twelve apostles* are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve* after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Music Meditations
- We Are His People, the Sheep of His Flock Francesca LeRosa
- Christ Has No Body Now But Yours John Michael Talbot
- Whatsoever you do-Robert Kochis
- Be Thou my Vision-various- Enya is especially prayerful
- Servant song-Maranatha
Opening Prayer
Jesus, your good news of the love and forgiveness of God being poured out on people like me is both a comfort and a challenge. Help me to reflect your care and compassion to all those I meet. Help me to be disciple.
Companions for the Journey
From ‘First Impressions’ 2023, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:
Recently a woman described her work to me and brought this gospel to mind. She works for a charitable foundation that addresses the needs of homeless families, with special attention to poor children. As a baptized person she takes her vocation as a Christian very seriously. She said, “I never think of religion as something I do once a week at church – with a few prayers thrown in during the week for good measure. I realized years ago that my faith has to be the center of my life and influence every thing I do, every decision I make – that I had to look out at the world with the eyes of Jesus. That’s what my baptism means to me.”
My friend said she wanted to look out at the world with the “eyes of Jesus.”
I think of her because of what Jesus saw in today’s gospel. It begins: “At the sight of the crowds Jesus was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd.” The woman I described said she became very aware of the needs of the poor. She felt that things were stacked against them. When budget cuts were made they were the first to suffer; they were the bottom of the totem pole – especially the homeless and those who had no political clout. So, she took a position with a small agency, an advocacy group for homeless families. “Frankly,” she said, “I earn less money than I would have elsewhere; but I believe I have a call.” She works and advocates for homeless families, working to get yearly grants to serve them. She has to raise two million dollars a year. She has a board of 30 volunteers who must work on that project of fund raising with her.
“And that’s the rub,” she said, “those 30 people! They are very nice, but some drive me crazy! They are not always efficient and available. This last time, as we got down to the wire finishing off the paper work, I had the hardest time gathering their necessary signatures. A few left for vacation trips and hadn’t signed the proposal. I went chasing after them so we could meet the deadline and raise the crucial two million dollars we needed to serve our clients. We would collapse without the money and people would suffer. Some people could drive you crazy! The only thing that holds us together is our vision of the needs of others – those needy families. We have a project and we think alike on it. Thank God, otherwise there are days when I could strangle some of them!”
Jesus sees the “troubled and abandoned” crowds and he has a concern. He must have help to address their needs, So he calls together the Twelve – his first official disciples. He shares his vision with them; he invites them to see what he sees. They accept his invitation to follow him and to see with his eyes. But that doesn’t mean they would have gotten together socially – joined a bowling club together, or had each other over for a 4th of July barbecue. We know that from the list and brief descriptions Matthew gives of the first disciples.
Simon and Andrew were brothers. They probably got along, but what did their families think of their dropping their fishing nets to go off with the itinerant preacher? Not all families share our ideals. The woman I described said that her parents thought she could make more money working for a bank, or a brokerage house: after all, she has the skills necessary to lead a team and raise two million dollars.
James and John were also brothers. Mark says Jesus gave them the nickname, “sons of thunder” – Boanerges. It doesn’t take much imagination to deduce how they got that name! Then there was Matthew himself, a tax-collector, a traitor to the cause of Israel because he collected taxes for the Romans. Simon was of the Zealot party. Zealots were super-nationalists, burning with zeal for the liberation of Israel. Some were terrorists against the Romans. I wonder what it would be like to invite the tax collector and the Zealot over for tea!
There are moments in the gospel when the apostles’ diverging personalities flared and Jesus had to reign them in. How did he do that? By continually keeping their vision clear; reminding them of the purpose for which he invited them and by urging them not to follow their own interests and priorities. He said that if they wanted to follow him they would have to make personal sacrifices, put aside their differences and focus instead on the needs of others. “Pick up your cross daily.”
Jesus brings this unlikely group together, he and his vision are the binding elements that keep them from fragmenting. Little by little he helps them look out at the world around them – with his eyes. He knows who they are; how different they are. And even though he is not finished with them yet; even though they may feel inadequate to the task, without degrees in Philosophy and Theology, not religious experts – he sends them out. They have been learning to see with his eyes and to notice and tend to those who are sick, those considered unclean, the lepers of society; the dead in body or spirit; those possessed of other spirits, who are “not themselves,” because they are crazed and distracted. Those Jesus sends are to invite the very ones Jesus would have invited, so that they too will learn and receive what the disciples learned and received from Jesus.
Many of us here in church today probably aren’t part of the same social circles. We certainly aren’t all family members. Probably there are some here we’d wish would just go to another church! We are here, not because we are naturally drawn to each other, but because we were baptized. The same water was poured over us and the same words said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We have been called out, named the way the Twelve are named for us today. And like them, we too are sent. We are like that woman who works for the homeless. As she said, “Each of us has to look around us.” In some way, where we live, work, recreate and go to school, we are called to see with Jesus’ eyes, and act accordingly.
No one can tell us exactly where and when we are to respond to Jesus’ call. We will just have to look out and see and hear the way Jesus did. And through our baptism, that is what we are being prompted and empowered to do. Today we pray for each of us: “Help us see what you want of us, help us not settle on being just occasional Christians, but “full time Christians.” Give us sensitive sight, your eyes, for the world. We pray too for those recently baptized, that our example will help them have vision and sensitivity to those who need them.”
Further reading:
Weekly Memorization
Taken from the gospel for today’s session…
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Living the Good News
What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?
Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:
Reflection Questions
Meditations
A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:
From Sacred Space:
I travel in imagination with Jesus as he make his journeys. I ask him what gives him so much energy to serve the sick, many of whom must have been frightening to look at and to touch. He chats with me about compassion, and I ask that my small heart may to be as compassionate as him. I sense his compassion towards me, and it comforts me.
A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:
What are we to do with the mandate given to the Apostles, and by inheritance given to us? A good place to start is with the corporal works of Mercy: to feed the hungry to give drink to the thirsty to clothe the naked, to give shelter to travelers, to visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned, to bury the dead. (This can include being present to those who are grieving) Spend some time at the end of each day reflecting on when you did more than avoid sin; but reflecting on the positive good you created by reaching out to others.
Poetic Reflection:
Father Ed Ingebretsen, S.J., captures the spirt of the gospel:
“Lonely Christ”
Lonely Christ
I pray to you.
You are a puzzle to me
as those I love
always are.My soul is at odds
with the words.
What mad reach of mine
touches any thread of you?
Or what of mine, arms or eyes,
ever shares with people
where they may lie—
as they always do—
in a hard place!What of mine shall make good
their taking of a breath,
their rising, caring, feeding
their sleeping in fear—
what shall make good
their slight faith,
their enormous promises
made in iron
for a child, man, a woman—what of mine shall be with the people
as they caress a special grief
fondled again and again
In bludgeoned love?What do I bring
with which to clutch
the merest hint of your shadow?
Literary (sort of) Reflection:
Three very powerful movies tell the stories of those Jesuits and Trappists who, in times of oppression and danger, risked their lives—gave their lives, even, to help those who needed help and care: The Mission Silence Of Gods and Men
Closing Prayer
Adapted from Sacred Space 2923, a service of the Irish Jesuits:
Jesus, in this gospel account I see you engaging with vigilant eyes and ears to the cry of the suffering in your world. To them you were the compassionate one, bringing balm to the wounded places in their lives. Lord, the cries of the poor and broken-hearted are evident in the news beamed into my living room daily. Let me not forget that you summon me today, to be your eyes, your ears, and your hands of compassion to all whom I meet.
