15th Sunday of the Year (B)

(Edited) Reflections (from) 15th Sunday of the Year (B), July 15, 2012

Liturgical readings

Amos 7:12-15
Psalm 85
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:7-13

"Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them."

God sent His Son Jesus for an itinerant mission. As the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus summoned the Twelve, and sent them for the same itinerant mission. In mission, obedience and poverty Jesus sent the Twelve to preach the Good News. Those three Christian ideals can be gleaned from this Sunday's gospel. Jesus practiced them first in His life as a poor, itinerant preacher. Leading by example, He summoned the Twelve to follow Him, and they obey in zeal and poverty. It is this same missionary spirit that enkindles every missionary in the Church to go forth into the world to proclaim the Good News of God's Kingdom.

The lay faithful are also called to share in this mission. We are called to sanctify the secular realities we find ourselves in. How can we do it? By practicing a regimen of kindness with others at work, and in the streets while commuting to, and from work. Sanctification of one's secular environments is the main mission that all baptized can do in the same manner as Christ and the Twelve apostles. To sanctify means to start with our own sanctification - through sacrifices and healing experiences. This purifying process makes Christ more real and present in ourselves. The source of sanctification, and the strength to sanctify the realities around us have their rootedness in Jesus - our reason for the mission. Christ is the Life of the mission. And the mission of everyone in the Church is to share this Life.

The Christ that we share with others we receive in the Sacraments through the Church. It can be done also by joining parish-based lay ministries. These are concrete roads to make Christ known to others. But as much in classic spirituality teaches, whether it be parish-based or in the secular environments of work, prayer is always primary. Everything else is corollary. The roots of sharing God's Kingdom is one's connection to Christ in prayer. Only if we do so will all actions bear fruit in the Spirit: humility, understanding, patience, hope, and charity. This rootedness in Christ in prayer and the Sacraments is the simplest path to join the Church in mission, obedience and poverty.