Mark 6:7-13
Summoned! JEsus calls the Twelve to his side in order to send them forth. This is important. We are not called to be close to JEsus for our sake. We are called to draw close so that we might live for the sake of others.
I often speak to people who are yearning for the special encounter or experience with JEsus. They speak of wanting a unique "religious" experience to validate their faith, to validate their journey, to solidify their relationship with God. They believe that somehow this kind of experience will make their faith worthwhile for themselves.
But we are not in it for ourselves. We draw close so that we might bring others closer to God.
As a priest friend once spoke of: He mentioned that often times we have the gold medal mentality. We want to bring home the gold. We do not want to settle for silver or bronze. But in the life of faith we are expected to finish third every time.
The gold medal always goes to God. We are called to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, strength. Ultimately the victory we experience in the life of faith belongs to him and his power.
The silver is always meant for our neighbor. The second commandment is like it, to love our neighbor as our selves. To often we focus on ourselves first, especially since the development of self help psychology. But when we focus on our neighbor we find ourselves experiencing love toward ourselves. Love direct outward always comes back to ourselves.
No. We get Bronze. In getting bronze we finally get what it was all about in the first place.
We are destine for Bronze and only then can we truly get what we always wanted.
We are summoned to be for others: cast out demons, cure the sick, bring the good news.
And we are to take nothing for the journey: we need a walking stick but not a crutch to keep us from investing ourselves in the process of being transformed by the journey of faith we are on.
Summoned we are; sent forth we go. We preach repentance that is change by being changed ourselves along the way.
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