Go out ... and tell the good news

Here is the reflection I shared with those who gathered with us at the feet of the Master this week: some thoughts inspired by the commission shared by Jesus with his disciples to go out and to proclaim the good news.

Endings and beginnings

Elementary and secondary students have now completed the school year.  Graduates are now setting their sights on new horizons, some teachers will begin new assignments next year, and some will no longer enter the hallowed halls of active education.  In each case, one part of life as it has been known will no longer be the same, and something new is being prepared.

In a sense, you might say that today’s gospel passage describes a graduation ceremony for Jesus’ followers.  They too had spent some time in the school of discipleship, and now it was time for them to set out on new adventures.  Like the teachers at this week’s graduation exercises, Jesus also needed to impart some advice to his students before they set out on the road that lay ahead.

It is significant that he chose to send them ahead of him in pairs (Lk 10:1).  He did not send them out alone, and neither should we ever think that we need to face the world alone.  This is the challenge of modern-day individualism – the belief that we can somehow blaze our own trails through life without having any regard for others.  The danger with this approach is that we can easily contribute to what Pope Francis refers to as a disposable society: considering other people as things that can be used and then set aside.  We see this far too often: when the elderly are consigned to homes where they are rarely visited, when children are used as bargaining chips between parents who can no longer live together in peace, and when the desire for things blinds us to the needs of others who are our brothers and sisters, companions who share our journey.

Jesus chooses disciples like us, he loves us deeply, he instructs our hearts so that we will be convinced of his love for us, and he sends us out into a world that seems to have changed so much even in recent decades that it is beginning to forget the wisdom of its past … and that would indeed be a sad situation.  Instead, we must courageously and joyfully set out along the way (cf Lk 10:3), finding occasions to tell others of the prosperity and wealth that is ours (cf Is 66:12) by faith, not a tangible wealth that fades with time but rather an enduring wealth that is found in the love of our God, love that is not unlike the love a mother has for her children (cf Is 66:13), love that can make the human heart rejoice and flourish (Is 66:14).

We have been sent out ahead of the Master, to prepare the way for him.  It is the gift of God’s love that every disciple must proclaim, a love that was perfectly demonstrated in the example Christ gave us by giving his life for us on the cross (Gal 6:14).  When we realize this truth, we begin to truly understand the power of love, and the fact that love calls us outside of ourselves.  Love turns our focus away from individualism and makes it possible for us to be aware of those who are the victims of a disposable society.  Love makes it possible for us to set out on new adventures, to travel the roads of life, carrying nothing with us that will weigh us down (cf Lk 10:4) but ready to encounter others, to share the mystery of our lives with them and to allow them to share their lives with us.  As we do, we will recognize the kingdom of God, and be able to tell others that it is in their midst (cf Lk 10:9).