Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On this Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are reminded of the mission of the Church, which is to announce conversion. This is the mission of all the baptized, to announce conversion, a change of heart or mentality. To preach conversion and to be an evangelizer is done not so much with our words but with the testimony of our lives.
To announce the gospel, we need three things: to be a witness, to be sent and to give one’s life. These three things are the necessary conditions for all evangelizers. All the baptized are called to announce this to the world. We can see in the gospel that the Twelve are sent as witnesses and are invited to give their lives. The Lord invites us to bring these three things and nothing else when we go out, except a walking stick, which is the cross. And a sign of God’s power.
The staff or walking stick is what Moses used to open the Red Sea, to separate the waters, he also turned it into a snake and many other things. The staff if always a sign of God’s power before unbelievers. The staff is the cross, the wisdom of God that the world considers foolishness.
The Lord invites us to carry the cross and one other thing which is very important: to wear sandals. St. Paul says that when we put on our shoes it shows our zeal to proclaim the gospel. Sandals represents a love for the people, a zeal to announce the love of God for all men and women. This is why at the end of the gospel it says that if you are not welcomed or when you are scorned, you should shake the dust from your sandals. It means that the contempt that they showed you does not destroy your zeal. You continue to announce the gospel and you don’t feel bad or disappointed. You go ahead and their reaction means nothing.
The third thing the Lord invites us to bring is a tunic, but only one. The walking stick is the cross, the sandals represent the zeal to proclaim the gospel and the tunic symbolizes baptism. Let us go to baptize with these signs that are the characteristics of every evangelizer. We are sent by our baptism wearing our tunic, to be a witness. The sandals represent our zeal to announce the gospel and to give our life. The staff or the cross that the Lord gives us makes us witnesses, to give our lives for this wonderful mission.
The Lord calls us to be other Christs that others will see in us. We cannot do this on our efforts, but we go with the certainty of God’s love and sent by our baptism. This is a marvelous mission that makes us more and more happy and convinced that the Lord is helping us to become true Christians and to go out in pairs.
It is beautiful to go two by two because we go with Christ. Every time we go to the Eucharist, and we receive the Lord, we go out to do the mission, as the priest says at the end of the Mass: go in peace or go and announce the gospel. We don’t go alone but in pairs. We go two by two but one in the Lord and he goes with us. With Christ we go to the mission, we go two by two to the university, to work, or to school. We always go in pairs when we go with Jesus Christ.
The Lord is received in the sacraments, in the Eucharist, in penance, in the preaching and in the Word so that we may go with Him. We never go alone because the mission has to be done by Christ and we go only as bearers of his love.