15th Sunday of Ordinary Times

Most of us have been sent on an errand. A mother sends her child to the store to buy some groceries. A teacher sends a student home with a message. persons doing errands are sent by someone; they do not go in their own name. It is the message of the sender that must be delivered. The carrier need not know the details of the message or its consequences. The carrier must have the commitment necessary to get the message delivered, even if it costs.

In today’s readings, we are confronted with God’s mysterious call to us and how we should respond. We hear how God sent Amos to Israel in the north to preach repentance, and how Jesus sends out his Apostles on mission and warns them that their message will not always be well received. They are to bring the good news of Jesus to others. Jesus gives them the necessary authority to speak in his name. He instructs them to travel light. All they need is the message. their creaturely needs will be cared for by the hospitality of those who receive the message. He sends them in pairs for mutual support and to “sacramentalize” the love which they are preaching.

Through baptism, we too, like the Apostles, Paul and Amos are mandated to be messengers of the good news. The same criteria apply. We are authorized by Jesus: We are to travel in pairs; to travel light. We can expect hospitality from those who accept Christ’s message. This is the mission to which you are called for which you are preparing. Above all, we are called to holiness, and we can’t get holy unless we pray. Does prayer have a place in your life even in the face of suffering or life’s stressful challenges? The holy man of Dublin in Ireland, Matt Talbot, was so conscious of God’s will and Our lady’s Powerful intercession that he wrote in one of his many books, “ Three things I cannot escape: “The eye of God, the voice of conscience, the stroke of death.” In another book he wrote, “Oh, Virgin, three things I beg of you: The grace of God, the presence of God, the Benediction of God.”