Bible
Study: Isaiah 66, 10 to 14. Galatians 6, 14 to 18 and
Luke 10, 1 to 12 and 17 to 20.
(WARNING:
This is a very long homily but please don’t stop till you get to the end.)
Our Gospel passage this
morning is very long and there are so many dimensions to the story of Jesus
sending out the seventy, so many themes contained therein and so many lessons
to learn but then, there is just one line, one small detail that holds the key,
one line that carries the message and opens everything up for our
understanding. And that line reads: “The seventy returned with Joy.”
Take note, the Gospel does
not say, some of them returned with joy, it said, all seventy, every single
person who went on that mission came back rejoicing. None of them was left out
in the distribution of joy and they were all happy to return with the Good News
of what God used them to accomplish.
This simply shows that it is
not possible for any man to be involved in God’s work and still be sad and
miserable. If you have been a Christian for so long and you still lack joy in
your spirit, then there must be something wrong somewhere. How? Can you compare
the joy of the seventy who went on a seemingly impossible mission to the rich
young man who came to Jesus to ask how he could inherit eternal life? Recall
that this young man went away from Jesus very sorrowful!
Some of us like this rich
man are not happy Christians today because we too have come to follow Jesus
because we want to possess eternal life, we have lived very good lives, kept
all the commandments since the days of youth but we lack one thing. DETACHMENT!
Note that while sending them
on this mission Jesus gave the seventy very strict warnings and when you look
at these warnings closely, you will discover why I called it an impossible
mission.
One, Jesus said: “Go your
way.” This means, be focused on the mission and nothing else, mind your way,
life is not a competition, don’t go comparing yourself with others, don’t go
counting achievements or asking who is the greatest!
Two, “I am sending you out…”
meaning remember you are sent, the mission is not yours. Don’t try to be a
Messiah, the one to provide everything for the people, just be obedient to your
mission and allow the owner of the work do the rest. Jesus himself was going to
visit those same places later on.
Three, “… like lambs in the
midst of wolves,” You are lambs, you are different, you are not like the people
of the world, don’t relax, be on your guard against the attacks of Satan and
his agents; these are the wolves, they may appear stronger and even common
sense tells you they can devour you but rely on faith instead.
Four, carry no purse. Meaning:
you will not have anything to do with money. You cannot make money in this
mission and let not your desire to put something in your purse tempt you so
leave the purse behind. Forget about your bank account. Focus only on heaven
and winning souls.
Five, carry no bag. Meaning:
no personal belongings and no way to receive gifts. No change of clothes.
Ordinarily, this means embracing poverty in its highest form. No bag can also
mean, don’t try to build a house. Don’t store anything.
Six, carry no sandals
(perhaps, except the very one under your feet.) Of course in our contemporary
language, this warning would simply mean: “Don’t even own a car.”
Seven, salute no one on the
road, meaning this is not a social engagement. Do not aim for popularity or
political success. Don’t go trying to make friends with big men and big women.
Don’t bring yourself down before anyone and do not water down the message.
Now, are you getting to see
the full picture? How many of us today will be willing to even step out of our
house if Jesus were to call us today for an assignment with these seven
warnings? Honestly, to be very honest with you, even as a priest, I ask myself:
“am I willing to abide by any of these warnings?”
And guess what, the very
summary of all these warnings is simply the very words Jesus spoke to the rich
young man: “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” And we are told: “At
that saying, his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful.” Mark 10, 21 to
22.
Dear friends, the simple
reason why the seventy were so filled with joy and the reason why this same joy
is lacking among Christians today is that the seventy left everything behind,
they stopped worrying about what they would eat, what they would wear, how much
money they were going to make, houses, cars, popularity and all these many
things which God himself knows we need yet he said seek first his kingdom.
Matthew 6, 32 to 33.
We lack joy today because we
set our priorities on things which only Gentiles are supposed to be seeking
after and we blame God for not giving them to us as much as we want or when we
want them. We blame God for not answering our prayers when in fact, those
prayers ought not to have been made in the first place.
I am fully convinced that
this unspeakable joy of the seventy came as a surprise to them. When they were
going out, it was like an adventure to them, they must have asked themselves,
“How am I going to survive? No purse, no bag, no sandals, no nothing! How am I
going to be able to face Satan who appears (take note of the word “appears”)
stronger than me? They must have concluded that Jesus was sending them out to
commit suicide. But they obeyed. They followed the warnings. And they came back
shocked as to how they not only made it, they were so successful that even the
dreaded demons, the so-called wolves bowed to the lambs.
Their great power was in
their ability to detach themselves. And this is the reason why Jesus at the
beginning of his ministry rejected wealth, fame and success during his
temptations for forty days and forty nights. He was so detached that he
willingly gave up his very life on the cross. His death seemed like a failure
to the world but it became the victory over the world.
We Christians are called to
become failures, our mission is to become foolish, unimportant, unknown, poor
nonentities. This is what St. Paul means when he said in our second reading
this morning: “Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.”
Galatians 6, 14. When Jesus says we should deny ourselves, take up our crosses,
if we must follow him, he wasn’t joking! He was giving us the secret to true
joy and power over these satanic forces that seem to crumble us today.
Jesus never told us after
his death, we shall live in prosperity, he never said we shall have an
abundance of wealth, private jets, government appointments, expensive shoes and
all what not. No. Stop allowing that lie to remain in your head. Even if these
things come to us, we should not see them as the essence of life or the
evidence of God’s blessings. They are not. They are not because they are the
very things Jesus invites us to let go of. And really, isn’t it funny that much
of our unhappiness in life stems from the fact that we don’t have these things
or we don’t have enough of them?. What a contradiction!
When we are supposed to be
focused on the Kingdom of God and the eternal life which is the content of what
these seventy men preached, we are here talking about prosperity on earth. If
our minds were really on God’s kingdom, we would not even be worried about so
many things here on earth, it will be like a heavy burden is lifted up from our
shoulders.
My dear, as you read this,
this message is for you. Do you really want to be happy? Do you want to, (adapting
the words of Isaiah in our first reading this morning), suck and be satisfied
with consoling breasts? Do you want to drink real milk deeply with delight? Do you
desire to be comforted and fondled like a new born baby in its mother’s arms?
Are you tired of seeking for happiness where you keep receiving frustrations
over and over again? Aren’t you tired of seeking from the world that which is
only momentary, fleeting and is in such short supply?
Why not turn to God today!
Why not let go? Yes, just let go of your tight grip to these things which Jesus
told these seventy not to carry. Let go of having to define your life according
to your possessions, your accomplishments or your money. The seventy were
surprised to return with so much joy. It is still a mystery and in fact a
divine irony how letting go of the very things we think are responsible for our
happiness become our ticket to true joy. How do you tell me that I should be
focused on eternity, or that not trying to make more money or not aspiring to
buy another car or build another house will make me happy? How do you tell a fish not to swim? I don’t
understand. No one can understand but that is just the truth!
At the end, Jesus says do
not just rejoice because you have found true joy, do not rejoice because you
have been able to let go of your grip to material things, do not rejoice
because you have just discovered the secret to overpowering Satan and all his
agents, rejoice because your name is written in heaven. Rejoice because you
will not suffer twice, rejoice because you will not suffer on earth for say
eighty, ninety years (how many?) and still suffer forever in hell. Rejoice
because as you suffer under the weight of the cross now, you are going to enjoy
real happiness in heaven.
Let us Pray:
O God, who in the abasement
of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy,
for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. Amen.
Good
evening. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy
Sunday.
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