THE JOY THAT DOES NOT DISAPPOINT

 

Reflection starting from Is 66: 10-14; Gal 6: 14-18; Lk 10: 1-12

     What summarizes the message of these texts is the certainty that we are not only on a mission but that we are also a mission on this earth. It is not our merit but pure gratuitousness of the one who called and sent us for our salvation and that of others. To be a missionary is to be called to joy and it is conditioned by fidelity to the faithful God. “He wants to mould the heart of his Son in us” and for this he wants us to be available and generous.

    Using motherly language, Isaiah makes an invitation to joy because of what the Lord is about to accomplish in the life of his people. The constant presence of God among his people overcomes moments of discomfort and disappointment by opening up spaces for hope and joy even if everything seems lost. Like this people, we too are asked to have tireless trust in the Lord's action because the One who promises is always faithful.

    The second reading presents a great controversy: some Judeo-Christians, who still remained tied to their Jewish traditions, wanted to force the pagans to be circumcised like them. For this reason, Paul says that if we consider thus we make the cross of Christ useless. Through the cross Christ conquered death and the old world was also crucified! We are new creatures. It is our turn            to live as resurrected ones, abandoning the old attitudes, the old mentality, everything that contradicts our new condition.

    The Gospel passage speaks us that Jesus in addition to the apostles calls and sends another 72 people to evangelize. This number, in the Old Testament was a symbol of the totality of nations and indicates the universality of the mission, that is, evangelization is not only the task of priests and sisters (nuns) but involves everyone. Jesus sends them two by two, placing community experience and relationship at the center of their activity. Mission is a commitment that one cannot carry on alone. We need community support for the success of our mission.

    The disciples must be people of prayer as a founding experience, that is, as the basis that maintains the edifice of their existence. They must be aware that the harvest has his owner, that is a good and generous Father, who knows the needs of his children before they ask him for anything. Using the word harvest, Jesus mentions the importance of recognising the values of every place where we arrive because the Holy Spirit has preceded us with the seeds of the eternal Word. So, you don't go out of a garden towards a desert, but from one garden to another.

    God doesn't need our prayer; it is we who need to pray because when we pray we grow in the awareness of being much loved children and disciples; we become what we already are by vocation. The disciples are like lambs in the midst of wolves, because they are called to embody the logic of the true Lamb, the One who takes away the sins of the world because he is able to give his own life for his friends. It is in this logic - of love, of self-giving - that their life finds its true meaning.

    Among the concerns of Jesus there is also the problem of material things in which we trust so much for the realization of some activities. Jesus asks us for prudence, sobriety, detachment from these false securities which at times overshadow Providence, that is, they tend to occupy the place in our life that belongs to God. Confident abandonment to Providence must be the distinctive  of the true disciple -missionary and becomes a prophetic announcement of God's love and care for his children. Living in superabundance jeopardizes the credibility of the message we carry by being an obstacle to the faith of others.

     The disciples returned full of joy because they have been successful in the mission, especially towards the demons who have submitted to them because of the name of Jesus. But the master calls attention to this kind of joy that can delude us. True joy does not come from success for a work done or for becoming famous and popular in this world. The glory of this world is always fleeting. True joy consists in being welcomed by the Father as beloved children and participating in the mission of the Son, sharing his own life. May we be conformed to life of the one who we are called to announce with our life and also with our words.

Fr Ndega