Homily: Disciples on a Mission

By Fr. Eugene Lobo SJ –

Eleventh Sunday of the year, June 18, 2023
Exodus 19:2-6a, Romans 5:6-11, Matthew 9:36-10:8

God speaks to us in many ways, including through Scripture given us for reflection. The Sunday readings provide us with useful background and activities to better understand the upcoming word of God as applicable to daily life in a meaningful way. The readings call us to look for how God is working in our lives. In the gospel, we hear how Jesus cared for the people and sent his disciples to do the same. He sends his disciples out to do the same work as he did. He gives them the mission to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to bring peace and harmony to all. He gives them the power to heal and make them persons according to his heart.

In the first reading from the Book of Exodus we have the Lord covenant to make Israel a chosen treasure, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, people set apart. The people are called to sanctify themselves.  The Lord appears on Sinai amidst fire, smoke, and earthquakes. The reading tells us that Israelites came to the Desert of Sinai and camped in the desert in front of the mountain. The Lord called to Moses from the mountain and told him to tell people of the need of their fidelity to him.  They have witnessed his signs and he carried them out of Egypt, as if on eagle’s wings and has brought them to himself. If they keep the agreement, namely the covenant, they will be his own possession, chosen from all nations. Then they will be his kingdom of priests and a holy nation people belonging to him.

Paul, in our second reading, reminds the Romans of God’s love for them. For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Paul goes on to write that this proves God’s love for us. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8).  Here Paul is arguing against Christians who believed they had to keep old Jewish laws in order to be righteous before God. After all, we have to be convinced that God is more gracious and generous than they dare believe. Paul distinguishes the gracious God of our Lord Jesus Christ from that common notion of a god who will only give them what they deserve. Indeed, Paul had tried to placate such a god for a long time, until his conversion to Christ.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shares his mission to proclaim the kingdom of heaven with his disciples. The signs of the kingdom’s presence consist of the work that Jesus has already been doing: the sick are cured, lepers are cleansed, demons are driven out, and the dead are raised to life. The disciples are sent to continue doing the work that Jesus has begun. This is a moment of transition in Matthew’s Gospel. The focus has shifted from the ministry of Jesus to the work of the community that he has inaugurated. More than any other Gospel, Matthew’s Gospel elaborates on the work of the Church, which is to continue after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The Gospel reports that Jesus commissions twelve disciples. Many scholars believe that the twelve disciples symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel. It designates, therefore, continuity between Israel and the Church.  Jesus during his public life went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.

At this point Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. He tells them to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As they go, they are to proclaim the good news, the kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers, cast out demons is his command. They have received the gift without payment; hence must give without payment.

The Gospel of Matthew does not include the story of the calling of the Twelve perhaps because he assumed that this event was known to his readers. Here is the only time that the Twelve are called Apostles, which means “those who are sent.” Matthew wrote for a community that included many believers of Jewish background. The naming of the twelve apostles echoed the twelve tribes of Israel and established the new Israel. Because of the number of Jewish Christians in Matthew’s community, it is not surprising that he describes the mission of the apostles as “gathering the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Matthew used two images to indicate that discipleship always implies mission: people are like sheep without a shepherd and like a harvest that needs labourers to get the work done. Today’s reading offers three significant messages: Discipleship involves mission. Second, the disciples’ mission continues that of Jesus in preaching the coming of the Reign of God and healing the sick. And third, as Jesus calls and gifts us freely, the gifts we have received are likewise to be given freely.

In the Gospel Matthew is calling attention to the mission that the twelve disciples are being given. They are sent by Jesus to proclaim the kingdom of heaven in word and deed. As Jesus sent his disciples to continue his work and mission, so too the Church is sent by Jesus. The Church is his continuing presence on earth. Every member of the Church is sent by Jesus to contribute to this mission. This calling continues today. Jesus still calls, as he called the twelve, to continue the loving ministry of Jesus in the world. At baptism, we receive the water of God’s love and the oil of service, completed in confirmation, marriage and ordination. The needs of God’s people are as great today as then. In a world of addiction, suicide, confusion, poverty, injustice and many other big needs, Jesus still looks and sees people ‘like sheep without a shepherd’. He calls each of us, male and female, young and old into his service.

We are all called to be priests in Christ, the moment we are baptized in him. A priest is a mediator, an instrument. Jesus has equipped each of us to be divine instruments. Jesus wishes to make use of us to enlighten and to heal and to liberate and to cleanse. It is intrinsic to the love with which we the instruments of His merciful love and His light? Firstly, it expresses greater love for us. We are not consumers of Christ. We are friends of Christ. Jesus shows respect for and trust in His friends, and He elevates them by association to His work. We analogously do it in good parenting: associating children to the task as an expression of respect and trust in their capacity to grow versus doing the task for the children.

Secondly, so that the spiritual communion that is the Church be a tangible community.  We are sentient, flesh-and-blood beings who, moved by divine love, must develop tangible ties.  Such is the Church as Jesus desires it. “May they be one” Jesus prays, really one

But why did Christ need to send the Apostles out at all? Could He not have sent His angels to the people, or provided salvation to those who received the Apostles without human help? Indeed this would have been possible for God, but everything He does is out of love for us. We read at the start of the passage that “He was moved with compassion” (v 36), and this is why He emptied Himself, become man and suffered on the cross for our sake. He lifted up our human nature from our fallen state up to the heavens. Beyond this passage, and after His ascension, He left behind for us His Apostles who had lived with Him and who had seen His glory.

The great thing about God’s love is that it has specificity. God’s love is not so general that you cannot see it, God’s love for us is expressed in specific ways that we can see. So when Jesus was moved with pity for the crowds because they were like sheep without a shepherd he appointed twelve apostles and sent them out on mission to cure the sick.

One of the many specific ways in which Jesus shows his love for us is through the priesthood, the gift of priests to his Church. One of the distinguishing marks of the Catholic Church is that our bishops go all the way back to the apostles in a direct line of succession. They remind us that God has not forgotten us, that God bore us on eagle wings and brought us to himself. This also explains why we do not receive the Eucharist in the churches of other denominations because, as Pope John Paul II reminded us, they do not have the fullness of the Eucharistic mystery since they lack the sacrament of Holy Orders in which priests are ordained.

Once the train ticket inspector entered a crowded compartment and there he found an old worn out purse. He searched with money for the identity of the person and found nothing but the picture of Jesus in it. He asked the people there and one elderly person said that it was his. The inspector asked him to prove and he replied saying that it had the picture of Jesus. The inspector said that anyone could have it but could he explain.  The senior man said that it was a gift from his father and he kept his parent’s picture because they were great. As he grew up he placed his own photo thinking he was the handsome. Soon his girlfriend took that place, and later his wife, and finally his son. His parents, wife all passed away, his friends left him alone and his son went his own way. What was left for him was the only friend Jesus. He had little money but Jesus was his companion. Everyone in the compartment heard his tale with some tears. At the next train station the Inspector got down and went to the book shop asked for a picture of Jesus to be kept in his purse.