Dear Friends,
The summertime lectionary readings offer us deep insights
into Jesus’ interaction with people and a compelling set of characteristics of
the true disciple of Christ. Pamper your spiritual self. See how this is true
in the Gospel passages for the 15th, 16th and 17th
Sundays of Ordinary Time (B Cycle, where
we are right now.)
Together, these three readings give us a primer in discipleship, for if we, as Christians, are
anything at all, we are disciples of Christ, who follow His generous, tender
example. Baptism was our initiating moment into discipleship, but we choose,
all our life, the discipleship to which we have been called.
Just as Jesus sent his disciples out (15th
Sunday), so, too, we can expect to be sent
to our back door neighbor or to a new colleague at work, to a fellow
parishioner or to someone who is sick, to people near and far, going with
others or alone. Disciples are, by definition, on mission.
We can also expect to live
without a great preoccupation for the world’s goods. Jesus tells his disciples to travel light. We are tempted
not only to accumulate, but also to support by our purchases goods made by international
companies that uphold racism and poverty.
The disciples in the Gospel took Jesus seriously as they
went out to minister. When they came home (16th Sunday) they were
weary, full of stories, anxious to debrief with Jesus, and most of all, to
rest.
For his part, Jesus knew that in the tempo of life and
service, his followers needed to be restored. Neither the biblical disciples,
nor we ourselves can go on endlessly.
Disciples who take God seriously can expect to rest.
Mark paints a chaotic picture of the scene as the disciples
returned. “People were coming and going in great numbers, and the disciples had
no opportunity even to eat.”(Mark 6.31) So Jesus and his followers went off in
a boat to a private place. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? But guess what? It
didn’t last. The fourth thing a disciple can expect is to be pursued into the wilderness.
We’ve been to the wilderness. Not necessarily places that
are physically forbidding, but the world around us, fraught with social and
political destructiveness. Sometimes the wilderness is in ourselves- the places
to which our inner journeys take us where we feel desolate, lonely, unloved or
frightened.
There, in the wilderness, the disciples thought they could
do no more. They were used up. But Jesus took over. He simply couldn’t resist acting
in love. And so, Jesus did what His disciples could not (17th
Sunday). He fed the hungry in the wilderness until they had their fill and
there were abundant leftovers. The fifth thing that disciples can expect is to participate in the imaginative
generosity of God .
Here’s our checklist for discipleship: sent without
pretention or hoarding, rested, pursued
into the wilderness, caught up in something more than we could ever imagine or
be or do on our own. Dare it all.
~Sister Joan Sobala
