Readings:
Am 7:12-15
Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
Eph 1:3-14 or 1:3-10
Mk 6:7-13
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven…
…Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
This week’s responsorial psalm is among the most beautiful, encouraging, and emboldening in the Scriptures. The psalmist poetically testifies to the kind of world that God intends and is bringing into existence.
God’s work is not finished. Creation continues, Repair continues, the Breath of Divine Life flows into and is entangled with the farthest horizons of the universe. And God invites each of us, by name, to become co-workers in this ongoing unfolding of God’s Creation.
This is a surprise depicted in today’s readings, albeit in different ways. The prophet Amos responds to the priest Amaziah’s condemnation of his ministry by testifying to God’s free calling of him for this work. The call was from the Lord and the work was for the well-being of the people. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians reminds us that we have been God’s beloved, and called by name to bear this belovedness, long before our bodies began to form in our mothers’ wombs. Our very bodies, now related in Christ, are our invitations from God.
But, invitations to what? Mark’s Gospel reminds us of the message inscribed on the invitation: to practice the “way” of Jesus. This means that we do what Jesus did: heal the sick, free the oppressed, cleanse impure spirits, and preach the good news of forgiveness and salvation from sinning and being sinned-against. And, like Jesus, we do it as part of a community of compassion.
Imagine how surprised the Twelve must have been when Jesus quickly instructs them to do all of this. They had witnessed Jesus bringing salvation, hope, and healing into situations that appeared to be impossible and god-forsaken: the torment of the Gerasene demoniac living alone among the tombs, the suffering of the bleeding woman who had been seeking a cure for her illness for twelve years, and the affliction of the pious and loving parents grieving the senseless death of their young daughter.
Now, Jesus tells them to go out in groups of two and do what he did! Has he lost his mind?
No, the Gospels attest that Jesus had not lost his mind. Rather, he saw something in his followers that they may not have intuited in themselves. Jesus had a deep and abiding faith in all of his disciples and especially in The Twelve. His reasoning is far from clear because the Twelve, in particular, demonstrated to Jesus repeatedly that they were not up to the task. Of course, the Gospels do allude to their successes in these journeys, as in today’s Gospel. Yet Mark’s Gospel, and the other Synoptics, frequently re-tell their failings and misunderstandings in detail and at length. And, unlike many of Jesus’ women followers, the Twelve even abandoned him in his hour of greatest need. Nevertheless, Jesus saw potential in them. He showed faith in them, and all of his disciples, that eventually they would grow into their calling. Later, at Pentecost, they were empowered to do just that. All of them, men and women, together, as a community.
So let’s remember that God has faith in us. Probably moreso than we have faith in God. Especially when we misunderstand, we fail, and we make mistakes, God remains faithful and often makes a way out of no way. God reminds us of our belovedness and our invitation to bear that belovedness to the world so that all may remember that they too are God’s beloved. Then, together, we learn to repent and build communities of justice and peace, healing and forgiveness. We practice the “way” of Jesus as we cooperate with God’s Spirit in the ongoing work of creation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven…
…Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.