XV Sunday of Ordinary Time

Readings:
Am 7:12-15
Eph 1:3-10
Mk 6:7-13

Thoughts for your consideration:

Our environment conditions us. This was one of the best piece of advise that I received as a student, and one that I have taken quite seriously in my involvement with organizations that seek justice in oppressed communities. The environment will dictate my awareness and most of my blind spots. This, I have found out, is an inevitable reality of all human nature. What is more, it plays a great role in the direction that groups of people will take, whether these are families or corporations.

As members of a Religious Congregation in North America, our dreams, visions and mission were concretized, partly, in the institutions that we created. The fruit of our hard labor paid off as we raised great buildings that have served the Body of Christ for many generations. Now, we find ourselves closing some of these places, the same places that once where an icon of our identity, service and legacy.

Although it is natural for us to grow such attachments to the buildings and the dreams that they once represented, the Gospel’s message presents us an alternative. Jesus’ instruction to the Twelve, to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick, no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic, is more than a recommendation to remain frugal or to carry on their work in simplicity. Rather, Jesus invited them to keep their imaginations open, and therefore to keep their ministry creative, always evolving. The Twelve had the freedom to move and adapt rapidly, yet their mission, their authority over unclean spirits was not changed, for we hear how “the Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them”. Although institutions are necessary to carry out our work, the freedom to dream new dreams and visions that will enable our mission to be relevant to our times is also necessary not only for our survival as a group but as a matter of justice.

This ability to envision ourselves differently will depend on the places, environments, where we find our selves. Jesus instructed the Twelve to enter a house and stay there until they were to leave. I’m sure that the disciples, as guests, where able to ask questions on the in’s and out’s the town in order to be more effective in the work that was entrusted to them.  Hence, they were able to adapt to the new and evolving situations in the different places where they ministered.

As a person that ministers within an institution, I must continually ask whether the institution is able to respond to the present reality in an integral way with minimal blind spots, or if the blind spots are too great for the development of ministerial work that is effective and just. This can be a difficult and frustrating process, yet it can help us to carry out the mission in a more dignified manner. The process can be frustrating because we can find harsh truths such as, the case where the non-profit organization that seeks justice in the community has a great disparity from the race of its employees and the race of the community that its seeks to organize; or when the NGO that seeks to create change, recreates old systems of oppression because it welcomes the oppressed person’s humanity but it is not willing to embrace his or her personhood; or, when the organization ends up chasing funds rather than the fulfillment of its mission, or, worse, when a  “do-gooder” is placed in a community and within a short time of being there, he or she becomes the unofficial spokesperson for that group. Our Christian Mission, whether personal or communal, must begin by understanding the location from which we seek God’s Will in order to continue the mission entrusted to us of driving out demons rather than creating new ones.

One Response to “XV Sunday of Ordinary Time”

1. pdamiancp says:

   July 8, 2009 at 10:07 pm

   Hugo,

   Thanks for the reflection. I am more and more wondering about what needs to be let go of so we can go where God sends us and do what we are called to do. Sometimes I want to get radical and get rid of everything, and then sometimes I want to be cautious and go slow. Flexibility requires trust in God, and that is what Jesus invited His disciples to do.

   Phil