In the Gospel passage for this Sunday, Jesus sends the disciples on a training mission so that they can experience the sense of being sent out before the fullness of their mission begins. Their journey highlights a number of the characteristics of a Christian disciple. We can also learn much about discipleship from the First and Second readings.
We see in the Gospel passage that we are to focus on God rather than on our gifts. Jesus says to the disciples "do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). God gives us many gifts as a part of our spiritual journey, both for our own use and to share with others. The temptation for us is to care more about the gifts than God, the giver of the gifts, thereby developing an exaggerated sense of self-importance, as if we were the source of the gifts ourselves, rather than God himself. Some truly gifted evangelizers have fallen from grace by giving in to that temptation. Our primary focus must always be God. We should acknowledge his gifts and thank him with deep gratitude, rather than allowing pride to take hold.
Discipleship also involves a single-minded focus on God. The specific instructions Jesus gives to the disciples as they are about to set out assumes the hospitality culture of ancient Middle Eastern society, which included a strong sense of providing for visitors, even strangers. In that cultural context, a traveler could assume that he would receive food and lodging from strangers at the end of a long day of journeying. Jesus tells the disciples to travel lightly and to accept whatever hospitality they receive. They should not be distracted by what to pack, what to buy, or what to eat.
Nor should they be distracted by encounters along the road. When Jesus speaks of not greeting anyone, he does not mean our American quick hello type of greeting. Greeting in the culture of the time involved a much more elaborate and lengthy interaction, which could take quite a long time, as is still the case in some cultures today. Nor are the disciples to worry about social honor or prestige, important considerations in their strongly hierarchical society, by maneuvering for staying at the home with the highest social standing. Instead, they are simply to stay with the first home that offers them hospitality.
All these measures were meant to keep the disciples focused single-mindedly on God in their missionary journey in their cultural context. Today, different cultural considerations would apply. For example, we would not be able to rely on the same hospitality culture in a contemporary American setting. But we are to have the same single-minded focus, whether we are actively proclaiming the Gospel or seeking to live out the Gospel in our everyday lives, day after day. Are we distracted, for example, by the Internet, by constant scrolling, by endless TV shows? Our distractions may be different, but we too must guard against them.
The disciples were also to leave judgment up to God. Mediterranean culture was deeply honor bound, with the expectation of revenge against any wrongs suffered, including any slights to one's honor. But Jesus tells the disciples that if they are not received in a town, they are to shake the dust of the town off their feet. By doing so, they disengage from further interactions. They do not seek revenge or retribution. They simply move on, leaving the judgment of the town up to God. We are to do likewise. Ours is not to seek vengeance against others. We should leave the judgment up to God.
Jesus also tells the disciples that they will be safe from serpents and scorpions, two deadly enemies in the desert climate of the geographical area. This promise, however, was specific to the early disciples. We see a similar power given to the disciples in the Gospel of Mark and we see in The Acts of the Apostles that St. Paul survives a poisonous snake bite miraculously. But the Catholic Church has never interpreted power over snakes and scorpions as a universal gift given to Christians, but only as a particular charism given to the early evangelists. In contrast, the snake handlers of Appalachia based their entire version of Christianity on the passages involving snakes, rather than looking at the larger New Testament picture of discipleship. The case of the snake handlers is a good illustration of why we need to think with the Church in our interpretation of the Bible so that we don't go astray, wandering off on a false road.
In the Letter to the Galatians, from where the Second Reading is taken this Sunday, St. Paul reinforces the centrality of Christ. The specific debate he is responding to is about whether or not Gentile believers would have to become culturally Jewish in order to follow Christ. Christianity did not start as a separate religion from Judaism but is the fulfillment of Judaism. As such, the Church discerned that the Mosaic Law of Judaism, symbolized by circumcision, no longer binds believers. Christians are to follow the teachings of Christ, which reiterate the central teachings of the Old Testament, but set aside the ancient law code.
In the Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul also stated that if a Gentile who has become a Christian now seeks to follow the old Mosaic Law, he will lose his relationship with Christ, because he is now trying to add something more to his faith than Christ, as if Christ was not sufficient. Today's Christians rarely try to follow the Mosaic Law as a way to augment their faith. But we have other temptations, such as adding practices from various religions popular in some quarters today. Are we tempted to take part in Buddhist meditation? Or to try Muslim prayers? Or Hindu practices? Or elements of nature religions? As St. Paul would say in no uncertain terms, any such forays into other religions would destroy our relationship with Christ.
In the passage from Galatians, St. Paul also speaks of boasting in the Cross. Embracing the Cross is central to being a Christian disciple. Uniting our suffering with the self-sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross is the key to giving meaning to our suffering in life.
The First Reading, taken from the Book of Isaiah, highlights our need to trust in divine providence. The prophet, speaking God's words, says: "as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you" (Isaiah 66:13). The specific situation is the punishment Jerusalem had to undergo for the people's infidelity to God. But now God promises to shower blessings on Jerusalem. Historically, the Catholic Church has interpreted such passages not as the blessing of the temporal, earthly City of Jerusalem, but as God's blessings being poured out in the New Jerusalem, which is Heaven itself, where Christ will gather together all believers for eternal life, in complete joy, peace, and fulfillment.
No matter how dark the times might seem today in our world, not matter how bleak our own prospects might be in our earthly life, we are to remember that our current circumstances are not the final word. Christ will restore the world and remake creation into a glorious new reality. Eternal blessedness awaits us if we follow Christ.
At the same time, we should also remember that we are not meant to be passively waiting for Christ. We are to do our share in proclaiming Christ to the world through our words, our deeds, and the way we live our lives. In the Gospel passage for this Sunday, Christ says about the disciples: "the laborer deserves his payment" (Luke 10:7). His statement assumes that we are laboring, not just waiting.
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The readings for the Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C, are:
Isaiah 66:10-14c
Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
Galatians 6:14-18
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Galilee by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2016.