14th Week in Ordinary Time : Thursday 13th July 2023

It is hard to believe that the first missionaries of the Gospel, untutored except in the Torah, following rudimentary instructions could possibly have been the beginning of what we call the Church. Today, the Church is a complex institution, hierarchical in structure and governance. We begin to wonder where the Gospel is present, in its pristine simplicity, as Francis of Assisi accepted it, as Jesus instructed His disciples, the first missionaries. Priests and Religious must re-discover the essential charism of proclaiming the Good News, being sent, and being an apostle!

The image Jesus gives us is one of total freedom of lifestyle… no attachments of any kind to anything/place/possessions. Instead, we are called to total dependence and even to the point of being needy, i.e. go as receivers and not as confident men and women having all the answers to all humanity’s problems. We are called to be totally vulnerable to circumstances, ready to be rejected. We are called to be mobile, free to go to the people without creating structures that prevent people from approaching us freely.

A great simplicity of lifestyle, and our Holy Father, Pope Francis, seems to capture the transparency of the Gospel message in all his moves.

Lord, teach us to be meek and humble in heart and word.