6 February 2020 - Thursday of 4th week in Ordinary Time - Mark 6:7-13

       We hear the familiar Gospel reading from Mark today of Jesus sending out his disciple to bring his Gospel to the world.  But this is not just something that happened long ago.  It happens in our own day as well, as all of us are called to go out to the world to be disciples of Christ.  Some of us are sent to be missionaries to a distant land.  Some of us spread the word as ordained clergy or professed members of a religious order.  But many disciples of Christ spread his Good News in the ordinary moments of their lives: at work, at school, in the neighborhood.  

        When I was in Loyola, Spain this past summer on the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, besides the presence of Ignatius of Loyola, the author of the spiritual exercises, the other main presence with us with Father Pedro Arrupe, a Jesuit priest who served as the Superior General of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983.  Like Ignatius, Arrupe was from the Basque country of Spain.  He was a Jesuit novice master in the city of Hiroshima in Japan when the atomic bomb fell in that city.  He used his training in medicine to serve as a first responder in that city in the aftermath.  Arrupe has said that the memory of that day when the atomic bomb fell was forever with him, especially the presence of the survivors, whom he felt whenever he celebrated mass for the rest of his life.  Arrupe has been called the second founder of the Jesuits.  He led his religious order in the implementation of the reforms after the Second Vatican Council, especially with regards to social justice and the preferential option for the poor. Not only did Arrupe see it as important for us in the Church to help people on a personal level, but also to strive to make structural changes that would eliminate those structural injustices. In 1981, Arrupe suffered a stroke that caused him to step down as superior general.  He lived in the infirmary until his death on February 5, 1991, dependent on others for simple tasks and unable to speak. His fellow Jesuits have often stated that Arrupe demonstrated in many ways the Jesuit value of finding God in all things. His example of discipleship speaks to us today.  May all of us in our own way be true disciples of Christ.