15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Am 7: 12-15;     Eph I: 3-14;     Mk 6: 7-13

 Going on holiday can be stressful - working out whether to go al all, the cost, what to take and wondering what we'll be coming back to. Strange, then, that Jesus tells His apostles to take nothing for their journey - no spare clothes, no spare cash, no mobiles! All He wanted was for them to continue His work: preaching repentance, driving out evil spirits, healing the sick. Worrying about anything else would be an unnecessary distraction. Amos the prophet received the same message: so Amaziah ordered him to leave Judah where there were already more than enough prophets. But Amos insists that his task is God-given, and he has to carry it out.

Why did Jesus act like that? Perhaps He wanted to give his disciples some focus, a sense of urgency, and teach them practical faith at the same time, reminding them that they weren't going on a jolly. They had to learn that God would work through them, poorly educated and seemingly inadequate as they were. They had nothing, yet they had everything they needed.

And so do we! While we have quite different lives with many responsibilities that we can't drop, we can still take something from this message. First of all, we all carry around baggage which can hold us back and make us less fruitful - maybe an old grudge, envy or resentment about someone else. Maybe we find someone or something difficult to forgive, or we're really scared about something; or perhaps over-attached to someone or something.

Part of the Gospel message of repentance is trying to put aside all this negative baggage in order to travel lighter and be more free so serve. Just like the apostles of old, we have our own modem demons to cast out - greed, envy, a sense of hopelessness or loneliness, the injustices suffered by so many because of their race, their colour or their creed. Demons aplenty, indeed!

Jesus aimed His mission at those who were alienated or separated, and His mission is ours. We're still called to the sick, the depressed, the dying and the bereaved, those who need us. Someone once said, "one person might read the Bible; while a hundred read you and me." The majority of people never opens a Bible to look for God there, but they will (or won't!) see Him in you and me. The Sacraments will help us leave behind all the things which hinder us and keep us back, in order to move forward in His service. We are God's co-workers in His redemptive plan, sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, just as those first apostles were. Now it's our tum to use His power working within us to bring Him to all those whom we meet on a daily basis.