The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2024)
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey
but a walking stick—
no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
—Mark 6:7-8
When a natural disaster is imminent, authorities will often call for an evacuation. We certainly saw these policies in effect with Hurricane Beryl and with the wildfires that are ravaging parts of the Western United States. These are high stakes situations and there isn’t time for thoughtful planning or meticulous packing. Those who must evacuate have to make split-second decisions about what they really need, what is truly essential.
The same dynamic is at work when we receive an emergency phone call in the middle of the night or been awakened by a smoke alarm. In these crisis moments, our response is the same as those who have to evacuate: we take only what we need, and we go quickly.
When Jesus sent out the “Twelve”—his closest collaborators—he was trying to stress to them that the work they should be doing as his followers was urgent and needed immediate attention. Moreover, he was entrusting to them his own mission of reconciliation and healing. There wasn’t time to make careful plans or to pack supplies for their journey. The time to act was now and they had important work to do: their mission couldn’t wait because there was nothing more important than proclaiming the Good News of God’s love and mercy.
“Try to be free with regard to material things. The Lord calls us to a Gospel lifestyle marked by sobriety, by a refusal to yield to the culture of consumerism. This means being concerned with the essentials and learning to do without all those unneeded extras which hem us in… Let us put Jesus first.”
-Pope Francis, Message for World Youth Day 2014; image: “Il les envoya deux à deux” by James Tissot (1886-1894)
This same urgency inspired Blessed Francis Jordan, the founder of my religious community, to instruct his Salvatorian sons and daughters:
Dearly beloved, teaching all nations, especially the children, to know the true God and him whom he has sent, Jesus Christ. I charge you in the sight of God and Jesus who will judge the living and dead by his coming and his kingdom: proclaim the word of God, be urgent in season, out of season… Go, and with perseverance speak all words of eternal life to the people… Overlook no useful opportunity to announce and teach the doctrine of God to all.
While Blessed Francis Jordan’s vision has inspired Salvatorians for well-over a century, the urgency and zeal we find in his words are not unique among the founders of religious communities. In fact, you will find a similar energy and appeal in the rules of nearly every religious family in the Church. The reason for this is because these holy founders and foundresses were inspired by the same urgency that is at the heart of this Sunday’s Gospel:
Go.
Proclaim.
Heal.
Reconcile.
Don’t be burdened by anything that isn’t essential for your mission, for my mission.
This passage also reminds us, however, that this mandate isn’t only for religious women and men or for the clergy. Rather, Jesus is asking this of each person who wants to be a true disciple.
Like the Prophet Amos in the First Reading and the Apostles in our Gospel, we are also called entrusted with the responsibility of tirelessly proclaiming the Good News of the presence of the Reign of God. This has always been the special responsibility of Christians and it is needed today as much as it has ever been before.
O God, who show the light of your truth
to those who go astray,
so that they may return to the right path,
give all who for the faith they profess
are accounted Christians
the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ
and to strive after all that does it honor.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
