Sent in poverty
In his prayer of penance, Ezra focuses his attention more on the goodness of God and his constant forgiveness notwithstanding the infidelities of his people, rather than on people’s sinfulness. Sin should make us turn to God in humility rather than make us withdraw within ourselves. We are what we are by what the Bible calls God’s mercy, this is, not only compassion and forgiveness, but also tenderness, pity, clemency, goodness, fidelity. It also demands that people must have that attitude towards others that God shows towards them.
Luke, more than the other evangelists, stresses the poverty of the apostle and thus spiritualizes the mission of the herald of the Gospel. Still, he has to take people in the concrete. They are to be healed from illness, which expresses the power of evil over sinful humanity; for the Bible considers sickness a consequence of sin through this link: that the spiritual illness of sin leads to physical illness. The apostle, then, must go to the whole person in a spirit of poverty. All he has to offer is the Good News, and nothing may obscure it.
Reading: Ezra 9:5-9
At the evening sacrifice I picked myself up from my utter devastation, and in my ripped clothes and cape fell to my knees and stretched out my hands to God, my God. And I prayed:
“My dear God, I’m so totally ashamed, I can’t bear to face you. O my God—our iniquities are piled up so high that we can’t see out; our guilt touches the skies. We’ve been stuck in a muck of guilt since the time of our ancestors until right now; we and our kings and priests, because of our sins, have been turned over to foreign kings, to killing, to captivity, to looting, and to public shame—just as you see us now.
“Now for a brief time God, our God, has allowed us, this battered band, to get a firm foothold in his holy place so that our God may brighten our eyes and lighten our burdens as we serve out this hard sentence. We were slaves; yet even as slaves, our God didn’t abandon us. He has put us in the good graces of the kings of Persia and given us the heart to build The Temple of our God, restore its ruins, and construct a defensive wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
Gospel: Luke 9:1-6
Jesus now called the Twelve and gave them authority and power to deal with all the demons and cure diseases. He commissioned them to preach the news of God’s kingdom and heal the sick. He said, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment. And no luxury inns—get a modest place and be content there until you leave. If you’re not welcomed, leave town. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and move on.”
Commissioned, they left. They traveled from town to town telling the latest news of God, the Message, and curing people everywhere they went.
Prayer
Lord, our God,
your mercy extends to everyone.
Let your missionary Church go out to all
without any self-imposed, useless baggage
that obscures the pure message of the Gospel
but with great humility before the good will
and the hospitality of people.
May, thus, our receptivity to people
make them in turn receptive to the Good News
of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
