ELECTED, CONSECRATED, AND SENT.
June 18, 2023.
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – A.
“The harvest is
abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send
out laborers for his harvest.” Mt 9:36
A British proverb says: “For one mission, there is one
leader.” And an Akan proverb adds: “You cannot send a goat to rescue a lamb
from a lion's attack.”
The Christian life is above all, a divine election. It is
like the call to follow Christ and be his disciples. No one does it for
himself, nor by himself. The Lord is the one who chooses, consecrates, and
sends. Among the Apostles of Christ, no one elected himself. Though we can read
from the Gospel of John that Philip and Andrew, the first two to follow Jesus,
joined him by themselves, and later on brought him their brother and friends,
Philip brought Nathaniel, and Andrew brought Peter, it was about Jesus to elect
them or not. Every election and mission are divine work God is the one who
chooses and entrusts a mission to those he has chosen.
In the first reading, through Moses, the Lord reminds his
people of his marvelous deeds for them, how he brought them out of Egypt and is
leading them to the Promised Land. The only thing he asks of them is obedience.
"If you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations
shall be my very own for all the earth is mine." As a counterpart of this
call for obedience, the Lord makes another promise to his people, and this is a
promise open to you and me as well: "I will count you a kingdom of
priests, a consecrated nation.” The Lord wants to consecrate us to himself.
Through our baptism, we were made a prophetic, royal, and sacerdotal flock. Our
lives should witness this divine election and mission.
The Gospel is also about election and mission. This Gospel
passage has two parts that easily link. Matthew speaks of the Savior's
compassion when he saw the crowd, a huge flock of many sick and thirsty people.
So, Jesus made a command regarding the situation. The harvest is plentiful, but
workers are few. The solution found by the Lord is a call to address a prayer
that God, the Master of the harvest, sends for laborers. This first observation
and recommendation of the Lord lead us to the second part of the Gospel, the
calling and sending of the Twelve. The Evangelist Matthew says that when Jesus
saw the crowd, he was moved with compassion. As a consequence, he summoned the
Twelve, elected them to be his Apostles, gave them authority, and then sent
them out on a mission to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.
In that mission, they will have to cure the sick and raise the dead. It is a
mission received from God with authority given by him. So, they do not have to
make it their business, nor an income generating project: "You received
without charge, give without charge."
One instruction quite strange is what the Lord tells the
Twelve: "Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any
Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." We
could ask why? The answer lies in the fact of the election. Israel was the
elected people of God. The coming of the Messiah was primarily for them. It is
only their refusal that will open the proclamation of the Gospel, the faith in
Jesus, and salvation to other nations. So, before this refusal, the priority is
the Jews. For, every mission is directed. It is primarily addressed to a
particular people and place. A missionary without direction and fixed
orientation goes to his loss and unfruitful mission.
Because of our Baptism in Christ, we all have a share in the
mission Jesus entrusted to the Twelve. Even more, we have become the "New
Israel", the people elected and consecrated by God for a new mission. We
have an apostolic task. The Catechism says: “The whole Church is apostolic, in
that she remains, through the successors of St. Peter and the other apostles,
in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that, she is "sent
out" into the whole world. All members of the Church share in this
mission, though in various ways. "The Christian vocation is, of its
nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well." Indeed, we call an
apostolate "every activity of the Mystical Body" that aims "to
spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth."” CCC 863
St. Paul, in his address to the Romans, in the second
reading reminds us of this election and mission. The Apostle of the Gentiles
states that our election comes from the selfless sacrifice of Christ. He gave
us through it the greatest proof of God's love. The sinless died for sinners to
make us God's people. Through his blood, he reconciled us to God. As Christ believers,
we are preserved in God. We are now the true sacerdotal people of the new
covenant. As a sacerdotal flock, our apostolate must be that of love.
The genuine expression of love is compassion. It is about
letting one's heart be moved with pity for others. Without compassion, there is
no apostolate. Even those working in a philanthropic way, the NGOs do so
because of compassion. Every humanitarian mission is an act of compassion. It
is about being able to see the need of others, make it ours, and try to answer
it. It is after being caught by compassion for the crowd who were troubled and
abandoned like sheep without shepherds that the Lord Jesus summoned the
disciples, elected among them the Twelve, and sent them on a mission.
Today as well, our world needs missionaries. It needs Apostles of compassion and love. Many people are disoriented, lost, abandoned, and marginalized. For them, we must let our hearts be moved with compassion and pity. We should be able to show them our love, by serving them. This is our sacerdotal mission. A mission that springs from our Baptism in Christ Jesus.
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