THE WORD
Ezr 9: 5–9 / Lk 9: 1–6
Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.
IN OTHER WORDS
“They set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news.” The first three years of my priestly ministry were spent in the mountains of Mindoro as one of the priest-administrators of the Mangyan Mission of the Vicariate of Calapan. I was assigned in a unique parish because we did not have the “physical structure” of a church; instead, we had the people themselves as the church being a personal parish. We did not have a sort of “central church,” which the priest would go home to after visiting the barrios for masses. Our home was where the mission was. As a confrere said, “Mission is where the Lord is.”
Fr. Ewald Dinter, SVD (whom we call Amang Dinter) always reminded us that the real church resided in the villages where the people did the most ordinary things. So, we literally would run from one village to another, from a community of hundreds of church goers to a community of two or three gathered in His name. Since there were 125 regular villages to visit, we were usually welcomed into the family household, sharing their meals, stories and, usually on evenings, the exchange of wisdom through chants and prayers. Or, if we happened to stay for a longer period, we would usually pitch tent among them, join them in the farms and live according to their traditional lifestyle.
The Lukan narrative makes a strong emphasis on three major themes of the gospel: the journey motif, the universality of the Kingdom and the urgency of mission. Same is true with the agenda of Ezra in the first reading, who, after the rebuilding of the people coming from the Babylonian captivity, committed himself to the expansion of the mission to Jerusalem.
Like in Ezra’s case, mission is called to proclaim the good news and heal the people. Our saint for the day, Pius of Pietrelcina, is a unique and beautiful example of what it means to live out this gospel. Though he did not live an itinerant mission life owing to his poor health, certainly there were many people whom he touched by his availability for spiritual guidance. This turned out to be just as good as physically journeying and setting out to the villages, proclaiming the good news, and healing souls. Let us pray fervently so that many Christians will be willing to offer their lives and place themselves at the disposal of the mission.
- Antonio Gilberto S. Marqueses, SVD (Tagaytay City)
The Word in other words 2015
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
