Things that weigh us down
A lamb may as well be a sheep if you have to carry it for the long road -
Is e caora an t-uan i bhfad
In this season of travelling and planning foreign trips – packing even for a journey of a weekend can be tricky. Who does the packing at home? Packing liquids and toiletries and saving money rather than paying out for baggage and hidden extras.
We all have stories to relate regarding packing for a journey. We might remember that there were things that are vital, and that we have forgotten. Things too we might have brought and wish we hadn’t, and the things that we always need.
What is today’s Gospel about for us? At first glance it is the address of Jesus to His disciples who are on the first Christian mission. There are detailed ‘terms and conditions’ that can be summed up in three simple words: ‘God will provide’.
What does that mean now today for us?
Even the smallest hand-held luggage becomes cumbersome and dead weight if you are held up, transferred, unduly delayed for a long period - or any such inconvenience in your travel - at airports as at this time of year.
You may even wonder: why did I pack that? – I never wore it/used it/needed it. It became a nuisance, even a hindrance or of no use whatsoever. Did you ever return home with something that you had packed and never even used? It was deadweight.
Jesus teaches us the same with material possessions on life’s missionary journey – material possessions and concerns and worries and anxieties which after all we cannot bring with us in any case.
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND FREEDOM FROM WORRY ARE THE TWO POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF JETTISONING THE BAGGAGE AND OUR CLUTTER. OUR CARES BECOME PRIMARILY FOCUSSED ON THE FACT THAT OUR JOURNEY IS NOT SO MUCH ABOUT WHAT WE CAN TAKE WITH US ALONG THE WAY, BUT WHO WE ENCOUNTER, WHAT WE HAVE TO SHARE WITH THEM and they with us AND WHO IT IS HAS SENT US IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE PURPOSE OF OUR JOURNEY THEREFORE IS ONE OF A DIVINE COMMISSION – THE JOURNEY IS IN ITSELF THE MEANS BY WHICH WE CARRY ON OUR LIFE’S WORK AND THE VERY MEANING OF WHY WE ARE HERE AT ALL – TO CARRY OUT A TASK, A MISSION, OUR JOINT VOCATION.
By focusing on what is in our carry-on luggage we are not only burdened but distracted, and hence not free. Our concerns weigh us down, concerns that are not as pressing as what God wants us to focus our attention in the first place.
Time spent distracted and consumed with earthly concerns alone means that we are doing the Lord a disservice BECAUSE time THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER UTILISED in proclaiming the Gospel is now lost forever.
We are ‘distracted’ and are caught up in worldly cares and concerns of our own, and hence sucked dry of resolve and our true purpose.
Hence religious take a vow of purpose which has the effect of ‘lightening the load’. God – through us laity – will take care of the rest.
Our chief concern must be God’s Kingdom and His righteousness evidenced in our own attitudes, speech and behavior, and ‘betraying’ as it were where our priorities should lie in the first place: simply to know love and serve God and to make Him further known, loved and served; to preach to others and to provide evidence in our behavior that ‘there is a difference that Jesus makes’.
This should be evident in our disposition and our concern for Christ-in-our-neighbour, rather than perilous, time-consuming and time-wasting on passing fancies which are not our chief care and pressing concern, and therefore we can thereby help to point out to others that these are not to be of ultimate - but relative - significance in all our lives.
WHAT IS SIGNIFICANT ALSO IS THAT WE DO NOT TRAVEL ALONE IN THIS TASK, AND IN THE CHURCH WE FIND THE MUTUAL SUPORT AND COMPLERMENTARITY AND UNITY OF PURPOSE DESPITE OUR DIFFERENT ROLES IN God’s plan for you and me.
The urgency of the message is stressed and effectively preached because the Lord Himself provides all the necessary but secondary requirements of the disciples.
In fact it is a challenge to the rest of us who are not at the coal-face to consider how we can be the providers for the Gospel-carriers (MISSIONARIES) to carry out their mission effectively and lighten their work-load through prayer and financial support, to provide for all the things that the disciples themaselves are to deprive themselves of, so that the Lord can work through us to be the providers and co-operators in God’s Mission Plan by being fellow providers with the Providence of God - and so ally ourselves in the spreading the Gospel Message as far as our domestic arrangement, duties, state in life and financial resources allow.
Our prayers and sacrifices are necessary and ‘duly noted’ by the Father of all – who will never leave us short-changed because we have been generous.
To what extent therefore am I aware or conscious of my responsibility to build up God’s Kingdom – even with the basic raw materials?
Just as missionaries are called to detachment so to more effectively attach themselves to what really matters – so that God’s concern for souls and that the Good News of salvation be offered to all, I must recall that the whole Church - all its members, including you and me – are similarly called to be disposed to the spreading of the Kingdom.
THEREFORE IT FOLLOWS THAT I TOO AM CHALLENGED, CALLED AND MUST CONSIDER IMPORTANT QUESTIONS LIKE - CAN I DO WITHOUT? WHAT THINGS CAN I DO WITHOUT to spread God’s message of love, hope, and the joy that comes of repentance?
To what extent do I trust God to provide, provided I have taken those immediately around me into consideration so that I may not be committing an injustice by depriving the disciple missionaries AND THE POOR– and those under their care too - of their basic resources and life’s basic necessities?
We are all part of the plan.
Detachment is therefore a Gospel necessity and a virtue so that my possessions are just that and that they do not possess me instead.
My voluntary deprivation of some material things means that others who have no choice in the matter in this materially inequitable/unequal can be provided for from my and our surplus.
We can teach others thereby the importance of trust in His Providence and that makes our mission our message and its content all the more credible and therefore make others receptive - they are convinced because we have conviction and integrity of purpose.
All this stems from the renewed sense of urgency we feel and the efficacy of a greater propagation of the Gospel message in the shortest possible time allocated before the coming of the Lord Himself in person ‘to judge the living and the dead’.
We are not called, therefore, to be ‘baggage handlers’ concerned with weight restrictions and dimensions and what is allowable or not. We are to jettison all excess baggage – it comes now with a price tag after all (!) – we are better off without it –and we more readily trim down to what we will definitely need for the journey. The Lord will provide. Let our concerns for others be aligned to His CONCERN – and our trust in His will. All else will follow in due course. It is a matter of first things first.
THESE WET DAYS CAN GIVE US AN OPPORTNUITY TO DE-CLUTTER WHAT WE HAVE NOT USED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS THAT ARE NOT USEFUL OR BEAUTIFUL. THERE IS NO BETTER ANTIDOTE TO BUYING THAN HAVING AND KNOWING THE PROSPECT OF MOVING HOUSE.
THERE IS A GREAT SENSE OF FREEDOM AND RELEASE IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT WE HAVE DE-CLUTTERED OURSELVES OF CLOTHES, GADGETS, ORNAMENTS, BOOKS AND ITEMS WE HAVE NOT USED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS. A SENSE OF SPACE, AND EVEN A MENTAL CONDITION OF RELIEF IN SPACE AND MOBILITY AND LESS TO WORRY ABOUT –RELIEF THINGS BOUGHT ON IMPULSE, BUT ALSO THINGS LIKE CLOTHES THAT NO LONGER FIT AND ARE THEREFORE ARE NO LONGER NEEDED.
THIS WEEK, DECLUTTER - GIVE TO CHARITY SHOPS, BUT DO NOT FILL IN THE SPACE THAT YOU ACQUIRE BY RESORTING TO OLD HABITS OF PURCHASING IRRESPONSIBLY – YOU WILL GET OVER IT SOON ENOUGH. AND YOU WILL BE FREER – TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN WHAT WE WANT AND WHAT WE TRULY NEED.
THE REAL PURPOSE OF THIS EMPHASIS ON BEING THUS ’LIGHT-WEIGHT’ IS THAT THE DISCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM ARE TO BE FREE OF FINANCIAL AND OTHER WORLDLY MATERIAL BURDENS AND CONSIDERATIONS IN ORDER TO RELIEVE OTHERS OF THEIR CRIPPLING SPIRITUAL BURDENS – ESPECIALLY IN THEIR CALL TO RELIEVE PEOPLE OF THE FOLLOWING
1. THE BURDENS OF SHAME, GUILT, AND COMPULSIONS ASSOCIATED WITH SIN
2. THE BURDENS OF EVIL AND OBSESSION WITH IT
3. THE BURDEN OF SICKNESS AND ITS ILL-EFFECTS
THESE ARE THE SIGNS THAT THE KINGDOM OF SATAN, TEMPORARILY ESTABLISHED BY THE COMMITTING OF ORGINAL SIN AND ITS EFFECTS, IS BEING OVERTHROWN BY THE REVERSAL FIRST OF ITS BITTER FRUITS (MORAL DEGENERATION, SICKNESS, AND DEATH), AND THEN ITS BEING UPROOTED ALTOGETHER BY CHRIST’S DEATH AND RESURRECTION
THE EFFECTS OF THE ORIGINAL SIN AFFECT EVERY GENERATION OF BELIEVERS AND THUS THE MISSIONARY CALL – OF REPENTANCE AND RENEWAL - AND THE CONDITIONS OF MISSIONARY DISCIPLEHIP - MUST BE TAKEN UP ANEW BY EVERY GENERATION OF THE CHURCH.
TO WHAT AM I BEING CALLED TODAY?
- GREATER TRUST IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD
- GREATER GENEROSITY TO THOSE IN NEED
- RELIEF OF SIN THROUGH REPENTANCE
- RELIEF OF CLUTTER IN MY LIFE - AND THEREFORE SIMPLICITY OF LIFE
- GOD WISHES to RELIEVE ME OF MY BURDENS AND TO TAKE PART IN THE GOSPEL MISSION OF RELIEVING OTHERS OF THEIRS
- GENEROSITY AND KINDNESS TO THE STRANGER IN OUR MIDST
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