Sunday, July 8, 2012

7/15/2012 – Sunday of 15th week of ordinary time – Mark 6:7-13


       We hear about Jesus sending out the disciples two by two as they bring the Gospel to the world.  Jesus is very strict and minimalist as to what he wants them to bring.  They can bring a walking stick with them and they may wear sandals, but they cannot bring food, money, or an extra set of clothing.  They are taking very few items with them, so Jesus tells them that they don’t even need a knapsack. 
         I used to travel a lot as a missionary, as most of you know.  When I was working with the Comboni Missionaries in the rainforest jungles of northern Ecuador in South America, I used to travel to a village every Friday afternoon from our mission site.  I would spend the entire weekend working in one of these small villages.  The journey would be 3 or 4 hours in a canoe in the hot equatorial sun.  I did not think I was taking very much with me by modern American standards for this weekend journey, but in light of Jesus’ commands in today’s Gospel, I was pretty high maintenance in what I brought with me.  Let’s see what I would have here:
1)   A large backpack to carry everything
2)   Bottles of water to drink
3)   A small bottle of iodine or bleach with which I would use for treating water
4)   A swimsuit, a towel, and soap for bathing in the river
5)   A Bible in Spanish that I would use in my communion services and Bible study classes. 
6)   A change of clothing.
7)   A sleeping bag, to keep the creatures away from me.
8)   A shortwave radio with which I could listen to the Voice of America or the BBC in English (you can see that this radio is all rusted out from the humid tropical weather).
9)   Normal hygiene items, like a tooth brush and tooth paste

      As I mentioned, I did not think I was taking a lot with me – I thought I was just taking the bare essentials that I would need for my weekend journey.  I don’t think Jesus’ idea was for the apostles to be martyrs or to starve to death on their journey or to practice bad hygiene.  Rather, I think Jesus’ instructions dealt with who and what we are to rely upon on our journey as disciples.  If we have a lot of stuff with us, we can become slaves to our possessions and rely on them to supply all of our needs.  Jesus wants us completely dependent on God, which is why he instructed the disciples to be such minimalists.  If you notice, I did not take any food with me.  I could have bought cans of food with me that I preferred.  However, relying on the people for food in the communities where I stayed and sharing a meal around the table with them – that could be very challenging at times, especially eating the jungle creatures that the people usually ate for lunch or supper.  However, it helped me grow closer to them, it pushed my boundaries and my levels of comfort, and it made me feel like a true missionary, that is for sure.
         We live in a modern world where our material possessions control us much more than we think.  One of the priests in our diocese was telling me recently that on a mission trip, he had some of the kids give up their iphones and ipods for an hour or two a day, how that was a huge sacrifice that he was so proud of.  And I asked him if he had ever thought of having them give them up for the entire mission trip.  To me, that is what would be a good sacrifice for them and would teach them a great lesson of what sacrificing for God is all about.  He told me that was completely unrealistic, that there was no way that the kids could go without that technology for an entire weekend mission trip.  
Does our faith mean so little to us that we are not willing to be inconvenienced, that we do not want to make any sacrifices?  What do we need to do to become more dependent upon God, to grow and develop during our journey of faith?  These are perhaps good questions we need to ask ourselves in light of today’s Gospel. 

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