The Ministry of “Life to the Full”
by Fr. David M. Knight
July 14, 2024
Fifteenth Sunday of the Year
Lectionary 104
Am 7:12-15/Eph 1:3-14 or 1:3-10/Mk 6:7-13
Are you aware of being “called”? Do you think of yourself as “sent”? Do you feel that God has “chosen” you? Is your life a “vocation”? What are you sent to do? Life on this earth only makes sense as progress toward full knowledge and love of God. But the world is “filled with lights contrary to” God’s truth. That is why we need God to guide us, and we need to help guide one another. Our life is not just a quest; it is a mission. We are sent to bring the whole world together into this light; to establish “the peace and unity” of God’s reign on earth.
Words of love
In Amos 7:12-15 the prophet is attacked for announcing bad news for the king and people. Amos responds that he is sent by God: “The Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” What is from the Lord is never bad news. It may appear that way to us if we are shortsighted, but the role of the prophets is always to shine the light of truth on the events of the present in order to call people to repentance with hope.
What the prophets proclaim is always God’s love. When people are bringing disaster upon themselves by ignoring the “manufacturer’s instructions” in the way they are living their lives, the prophets make it clear that the consequences they are suffering or will suffer are not what God’s wants for them. God showed them the way of life; they are choosing the way of death. But the prophets go on to give hope. God’s love is faithful. God will never abandon his people. God will restore their well-being and happiness when they return to him and to the way of life he teaches. Prophets sent from God are always bearers of light and heralds of love.
Words made flesh
In Mark 6:7-13 Jesus has just been rejected in his hometown. The people of Nazareth could not believe God had sent or was speaking in someone they had grown up with: “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, among their own kin….” Now, as Jesus sends out his twelve chosen disciples as prophets, he warns them that some will reject them too. When that happens, they are not to call into question their call or their message; it is a judgment on the people who reject them:
If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.
What they should examine, however, is whether they themselves are living by the word they preach. Jesus gave them almost no instructions about what they were to say. But he went into minute detail about how they were to live. They were to “take nothing on their journey but a walking stick — no food, no traveling bag, not a coin in the purses in their belts.” They were to wear sandals and not to bring a change of shirt!
What makes ministry effective is the minister’s way of life. It should be such a radical embodiment of the values Jesus taught that it raises questions in people’s minds — questions that cannot be answered without an explanation of the Gospel. As Paul VI said, Christians should
radiate their faith in values that go beyond current values… Through this wordless witness they stir up irresistible questions in the hearts of those who see how they live: “Why are they like this? Why do they live in this way? What or who inspires them?” (See Evangelization in the Modern World, nos. 21, 41.)
Christian ministers should “radiate” the “light of truth” in such a way that people are challenged not to stay where they are, but to make progress toward greater understanding of the Good News. This is what Jesus did: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)
To be full of love
Ephesians 1:3-14 says it all! We are blessed with every spiritual blessing, chosen to be holy and full love, that all might praise the divine favor bestowed on us in the Beloved.
“In Christ” we have redemption, forgiveness, the riches of his grace lavished on us. God has given us the wisdom and insight to understand fully the mystery, his plan to be carried out in the fullness of time: to bring all things... into one under Christ’s headship.”
“In Christ” we were chosen to be the first to set our hope on Christ, so we might live for the praise of his glory.
What is the picture Paul is painting here? It is the picture of a community of Christians on fire with realization of the gift that has been given to us in Christ! People who understand, and understand that what they understand is a mystery, a truth beyond ordinary human knowledge, truth that “invites endless exploration.”
Paul is describing a Church of people who know they have been chosen by God to grow constantly deeper in understanding and love, and to draw others into this same experience of knowledge, love and praise.
The Church Paul presents to us is an excited community. They know God has a plan, and that they are called, sent and empowered to carry it out. God wants to gather all the people on earth into one family, one community of mutual understanding and love. He wants us to bring “peace on earth”—not just the absence of conflict but “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” that is found in the “communion of the Holy Spirit.” God wants us to bring about the “peace and unity of his kingdom” for which we pray during the “Sign of peace” at every Mass. God is doing this; but he is doing it through us.
To be a Christian is to be called and sent as an evangelizer, a prophet, a minister of love and grace. There is no such thing as a Christian without a call. Every one of us was anointed with oil at Baptism, with the chrism with which prophets, priests and kings were anointed in Old Testament times. We were anointed, consecrated and committed to carry out the triple mission and function of Jesus as “Priest, Prophet and King.” We heard this in the ritual of Baptism. This is our identity. This is our “job description.” This is what we are. It is what we are sent to do.
St. Paul was so aware of this call that he said, “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!” But all of us have been called just as truly as Paul was, each to “proclaim the Gospel” in our own way: through the way we live in family and at work, in school and social life. We are consecrated to the ministry of Jesus as priests, prophets and stewards of his kingship. All of us. And woe to the world if we do not carry out our mission night and day.
To do this we obviously have to grow — in our understanding of the truth, in our experience of the love we praise and proclaim. We have to pay attention to what we are saying and mean it when we pray “Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.”
Insight: Do I understand my religion as a call to ministry? When, where and to whom?
Initiative: Resolve to grow in the knowledge of God’s truth and the experience of his love
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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