Last week, the Gospel passage gave us details of the calling of Matthew. This Sunday, the Gospel tells us that Jesus selected the Twelve, amongst whom is the same Matthew from last week’s Gospel. To understand this week’s Gospel, we must read it in the context of the other two readings. In the first reading, God shows his love for the Israelites by choosing them to be his very own people on condition that they hold fast to him. The 2nd Reading shows how loving God is because Christ died for us even though we were still sinners. And finally, the context for the naming of the Twelve is the masses of people whom Christ saw as harassed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd. He was filled with compassion for these people and for that he asked that the disciples pray that God may send more labourers to the harvest field.The theme that runs through the three readings is simply that God takes the initiatives on our behalf. He formed a covenant with the People of Israel. He lovingly died for sinners. Finally, Christ (1) sees the crowd, (2) summons the Twelve and (3) sends them out to minister to the people on His behalf.
At one level, the call of the Twelve can be interpreted as the call to the vocation of the priesthood because exorcism and curing of diseases belong properly to the ministry of the ordained priesthood. However, at another level, it is less restrictive than what we think. What we observe is that Christ takes the initiative to make us partake in His compassionate love for humanity.
In this enterprise or venture, the choice of the Twelve is an incentive for us to respond to Christ’s call. They were called not because of who they were. The Twelve were ordinary people. Some were fishermen. Two were hot-headed. One of them would betray him, one denied him and one doubted him. Despite their obvious weaknesses, still Christ called them. He did so not because they were clever or capable but because He believed that they could bring His compassion to the world. And through baptism, the ministry of the Twelve becomes ours. No one here is exempted from this ministry.
Every Christian is called because the world needs to hear the good news that they are loved and that they can be loved. Every day, we are bombarded with bad news. Each time I attend a meeting, I come away heavy because of challenges that need to be looked into and solutions that must be found. I suspect that this must be the same for each one of you who has to struggle with work, with home or with school. Now this is even more acute as we struggle to come to terms with inflation and the mounting cost of living. Battle-scarred, we need the assurance that Christ our Lord is concerned for us. He is there for us and He cares for us.
But, for many of us, Christ’s compassion and his redeeming love is not palpably present. Thus, the harvest is great and the labourers are called to make present Christ’s compassion in the Daily struggles of life. Christ said to 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. And proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is near. In other words, Christ’s counsel is meaningful when we consider that charity begins at home.
Where you are, not where you should be but where you are, people are to hear the Good News, people are to experience our help and encounter the compassion of Christ. Today is Father’s Day. The restaurants are laughing their way to the bank. We are told to remember our fathers. Last month we were told to remember our mothers. The point is, it is better to be remembered ordinarily rather to be feted extraordinarily once a year. People need to know that they are loved, not because they can perform, not because they can function but simply because they are loved by God.
Christ’s counsel not to go to pagan territory was not an absolute prohibition. It was a conditional prohibition simply because to announce the Good News everywhere does not really make sense if we cannot first announce it where we are. The call remains. The truth is, we can’t do everything. But, the fact is, we can do something.
