9/25/2013 – Wednesday of 25th week in Ordinary Time – Luke 9:1-6

      Jesus sends his disciples out to bring his Good News to the world.  We know that Jesus does not want them to take very much along with them on the journey.  I have shared with all of you stories from the pilgrimage of St James that I made to Spain back in 2003 and in the spring of last year.  Both times I hiked about 325 miles carrying a large backpack on my back with all that I needed for the weeks that I was over there.   Some pilgrims try to have discussions about what it means to be a “real pilgrim.”  I recently saw a cartoon showing a pilgrim with this huge backpack on his back as he encountered St James himself on the pilgrimage.  St James had only a staff and a cape and gourd in which he carried his water.  The pilgrim looked at St James and said:  “You are not a real pilgrim.  A real pilgrim would carry a backpack.”  We in the modern world accumulate so many things.  It seems like no matter how much we have, we want more.   Those things often become what’s most important to us in life.  That’s the point of the Gospel today.  We need to travel lightly in light so that we don’t make the material things of this world our idols, that we don’t let them take the place of God as the center of our lives.