Readings: Amos 6:7-13; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13

So they set off…

Dear friends in Christ Jesus, the readings for this Sunday remind us of our calling to be an apostle. Through the grace of Baptism, we all have been called to be an apostle of Christ; an apostle, the one who carries a message. We are called to carry this message, the “Good News” of the love of God, which we have experienced in our lives. “The ‘Love’ that we have experienced in our lives.” The Love.

Dear friends the challenge for us today is not so much to experience this Love, but to share this Love with others. It is a challenge for us today to stand up for this Love, it is a challenge for us to proclaim this Love, the Love of God that we have experienced in our lives. That is why Jesus, in today’s Gospel, instructs his disciples to take minimum things (possessions!!!) with them and focus more on spreading the message than worrying about things. I feel it is a freeing experience, when we get rid of our excess possessions and focus on our calling to be an apostle, to be a messenger, to be the one who spreads God’s Love.

Having said that, I also tend to believe that it is not my choice that made me an apostle, rather, God chose me, through my baptism, to be God’s messenger. When I look at this in this outlook I feel overwhelmed for the trust God has in me. God trusts me. As Jesus trusted his disciples, God trusts me and gives me the mission. The first reading speaks about it very clearly through the example of prophet Amos, when he was opposed by the people of Israel. He says very clearly, “I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” It is God who took me, it is Jesus who sent me, and it is God who trusted me.St Paul puts it very beautifully in today’s second reading where he says, “Before the world was made, he (God) chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his (God’s) presence.”

How rich and meaningful are these lines from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in the first chapter itself! God has chosen us, dear friends, to bear witness to God’s Love here in this place. It does not mean that we need to leave everything and go to the other parts of the world to spread the Good News, but here and now. In my work place as a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, an accountant, and any other profession that we are engaged in, we are called to witness. This witness need not be mere words, as St Francis of Assisi told his followers, “preach the good news and if necessary use words”.

That is the calling for us today dear friends. We are called to be the witnesses to the Love of God; that is the Good News, “God Loves Us.” And when we do it we are called to be free of our material possessions and God provides for our needs. Let us then pray that may our life become a true witness to the Love of God, may we experience this Love in our lives every day and share it with others. We pray for this grace in our Eucharistic celebrations this week and set off as the Apostles of Jesus did. Amen.