By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
14th Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 66: 10-14; Galatians 6: 14-18; Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20
The history of salvation is one long process by which the Almighty has continually tried to reveal to humanity, who God is and what human beings are in relationship to God! As the letter to the Hebrews declares it succinctly, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son”, the Son who personified Godhood, yet participated in the humanity to the full. One who was like us in everything except sin. He was a Man, a Man who was the Incarnate Son of God. And when he set about revealing God to us, he revealed in terms that no one else had done so far and no one else could do thenceforth.
That was the Man – He was the Lord, not the Messiah in the sense that the Jews of his time wanted, but the Lord of the Cross and the Lord of Consolation! He came to bring Consolation to the last, the lost and least… as Isaiah promises in the First Reading. He said, I came to call the sinners, ate with them, moved with them, worshiped with them and spoke to them of the boundless forgiving love of God and gave them an immense consolation. That was his mission, as Luke says ‘the consolation of Israel'(Luke 2:25).
But that was not all, he was also the Lord of the Cross! The mission of liberation, the act of salvation, the moment of consolation, he accomplished through the Cross! It is not just about the wood on which he hung pouring out his last drop of blood and water, but the whole life – a life filled with rejections and ridicules, contradictions and conflicts, plotters and traitors! That is the life he chose for himself, suffered but remained faithful to his mission – that of announcing the Reign of God!
That was his Message – the Reign of God! The message of hope and light to the humanity. While there is so much of crisis and cruelty, so much of selfishness and pride, so much of injustice and pain, the message of the Reign of God- assures happiness, serenity, fullness of life, justice and prosperity. All this on condition that we place God first and foremost. A situation where humanity adheres to God, listens to God’s will and strains itself to take God’s project forward. This Message is first to be Received by us, that is welcomed in our hearts and lived in our days.
Not just receiving, but the Message has to be Recounted, that is, passed on to the others. And that is what Jesus was particular about! When his disciples accepted his message, he did not stop with that he sent them forward, to go and to announce, to recount their story of having found the Messiah, their experience of having tasted the Reign in the person of Jesus Christ. That is that sign of truly and totally having received, to long to recount.
These are the Messengers – the medium and the message, those whom he sent were not just to announce in words but primarily through their lives. And that is why Jesus gave them so many directions as to how to conduct their lives; he forms them into his model of discipleship – characterised by Total Dependence on God and Utmost Respect for Human Liberty. The Church today carries out the same mode of evangelisation – total dependence on God and utmost respect for human liberty. The Messengers were first of all asked to be the Medium, that is they were to be worthy of the message that they carried.
Secondly, they were asked to be the message itself! As Jesus who came to reveal God and he was God himself, the messengers are today called to manifest Christ to the World and be another Christ themselves. Mere words and claims can never inspire any hope in the tattered world today, selfless actions and an authentic life alone can. This requires that thoughts and attitudes change and grow up, grow up to be like Christ: put on the mind of Christ, says the Apostle Paul.
We are the Messengers today who are first of all called to listen to the Message that Christ has for us, believe in that Message and transform ourselves! As transformed believers we are called to take that message to others through our own lives, founded on Christ; thus becoming the presence of Christ to the others, true to the name that we assume – Christ-ians.
In a world that is so filled with crises and cruelties, can our lives truly offer a message, a message of hope and love and peace? Can we free our minds from demands and expectations, fill our lives with gratitude and recognition, thus inspiring the world towards real joy and true peace!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.