July 10, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
After a disappointing and unproductive visit to his hometown, Nazareth, Jesus embarks on a new tactic in the Galilean ministry. He summons the twelve disciples whom he had chosen earlier “to be with him, to be sent out to preach, and to have authority over demons,” 3:14. These twelve were called either “the Twelve” or “the Apostles,” or a combination of the two titles. The instructions Jesus gave them at this point are called “the missionary instructions.” There are three versions of them — Mark, Matthew and Luke. We may assume the differences and even contradictions between the three versions are due to their adaptation to circumstances in the various churches where they later served as directives for Christian mission.
The equipment of these first Christian missionaries was minimal. In summary their equipment consisted of the clothes they were wearing and the sandals on their feet. Material and physical concerns were subordinated to their mission work. “No walking stick, no feed, no sack, no money, not even a second shirt.” A century ago, even in the United States, such a minimum of material comforts was still, if not the rule, at least the custom. A half century ago, religious Sisters who labored in our behalf had little more than the personal equipment Mark details in today’s gospel.
The instructions continue: “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave.” This precluded changing to more comfortable residences of wealthier patrons after the missionaries became acquainted with local situations. We know from the New Testament Letter of James how some Christian leaders fawned upon the wealthier members of their congregations, a practice that is not entirely unknown in our time. Nothing is said of the length of time they were to stay at a house. A Christian document, the Didache, that is, “the Teaching,” written not much later than the gospels, allows a stay of two days or three at the most. If the missionaries, called “prophets” in this document, stayed longer, they were treated as “false prophets,” that is, phonies and moochers.
When the missionaries were not welcomed in a locality, “Leave there and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” Why this quaint directive? This could have several meanings. First, there seems to have been a custom among pious Jews of shaking the dust off their feet when returning to the holy land after traveling through Gentile lands. This action was symbolic of leaving everything “unclean” behind them. Secondly, it is possible that shaking the dust off one’s feet was intended as a curse on those who rejected their message. Thus when Paul’s preaching was resisted at Corinth, “He shook out his clothing and said to his critics, ‘Your blood be upon your heads. I am innocent.’”
Paul’s reaction is based on Ezekiel 33. The prophet is warned that if he does not speak the word of the Lord to those to whom he is sent, the Lord will hold him responsible for the loss of those whom he was sent to help. Ezekiel uses the language of war. If the watchman (on the city wall) sees the sword coming upon the land, and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then those who do not pay heed to the warning, “Their blood will be on their own head.” It must have been with such thoughts in mind that Paul writes to his Corinthian Christians, “A curse on me if I do not preach the gospel,” 1 Corinthians 9:16. The Twelve, in obedience to the Lord who commissioned and sent them, “drove our many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”
About 740 B.C., Amos, a farmer and shepherd from Judea in the south of Palestine, is commissioned by the Lord to go north to the kingdom of Israel and preach to them. In danger of life and limb, he enters the temple of the kingdom in Bethel. The local high priest warns him to return home and prophesy in Judea. Amos protests that he is not in Bethel by choice but was sent by the Lord, who said, “Go, prophecy to my people Israel.” The Lord’s choice of Amos and his commissioning echo Jesus’ commissioning of the Twelve in today’s gospel.
This solemn introduction to Ephesians is basically a beatitude or blessing which is extended into a prolonged tribute or hymn of praise “to God the Father who has blessed us in Christ.” The hymn abounds in catechetical instruction. Some of the subjects for our instruction: our call as Christians to be holy, our adoption into God’s family, our redemption by the blood of Jesus, God’s forgiveness lavished upon us through Jesus, the purpose of our existence, the truth of the gospel, the promise of the Holy Spirit. These topics would be enough for any R.C.I.A. course, when the instructors are qualified.