Two by two apostles

Last week Saint Paul told us about the thorn in our flesh, a reminder of our fallen nature. This week in his letter to the Ephesians he tells us about our dignity: “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” There is always the danger of falling into one extreme or the other: to think that either we are hopeless or we are another god. Our Christian faith help us to keep the balance: we are inclined to evil, but God can help us to become holy. We are all called to holiness and if we don’t achieve it, it is because deep down we don’t want to, or we want to follow our own devices or desires.

Pope Leo the Great reminds us of this reality: “Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom. Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.” Through our Baptism we have become a new creation, we belong to God. He reminds us all the time: “You are mine, you belong to me.”

In today’s Gospel we see Jesus sending his apostles two by two, to preach the Gospel, heal the people and cast out devils. The same thing he has done with us. He has placed us in this world, appointed us apostles through our Baptism and sent us to share our faith with others. The Gospel of today is a reminder of our responsibility to bring others to Christ. It is a good moment today to ask ourselves how we are fulfilling this task: Do we think in our daily lives in these terms? Are we aware that through our example we are giving witness to our faith?

Jesus gave specific instructions to his apostles: “He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick.” Why is this? Because there is no time. We have to be on the move. We come from God and we are going back to God. We are pilgrims, travelers, we are passing by. When you look at Jesus in the Gospel, he is always moving from one place to the other. He never stays in one place for too long. He wants to reach as many people as possible, to share the good news with the crowds, with every person. The same should happen to us.

Nothing should separate us or distract us from our mission. We need to feel the sense of urgency the Gospel give us. We were born naked and we cannot take anything with us. Nothing should slow us down. We cannot go to heaven alone. We need to bring with us the people God has placed close to us. Let us pray to see how we can become better apostles, to discover the obstacles or the barriers that don’t let us see what God wants us to do now.

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