Download FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
June 11, 2014
Wednesday of Week Ten of Ordinary Time
St. Barnabas, Apostle
From the Word of the Day
“Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second
tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep.”
(Matt 10: 9-10)
How should we live this Word
These injunctions of Jesus are examples and must not be taken literally as is demonstrated by the variations
present in the synoptic Gospels of Mark and Luke. What counts is the spirit that underlies all, that of
apostolic simplicity and evangelical poverty. Jesus’ words to His disciples, in a particular historical time and
that preserve the typical local color of Palestine, must be adapted to the changed and diverse concrete
circumstances in which the Gospel is historically immersed along the centuries.
However, the basic demand that shines forth cannot be discolored by anyone but must be conserved in all its
original and genuine meaning, and must be the motive for serious examination of conscience for us and for
the missionaries of all times. As we can see, Jesus makes a list of all the things that the disciples can and
should do without: ‘do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey or a second
tunic, or sandals, or walking stick’. It is the evangelical poverty of bare essentials. The mission cannot be
weighed down by anything; only that which serves to go and nothing else! Jesus is not asking anything that
is impossible or inhuman. The Teacher affirms: ‘The laborer deserves his keep’. The Christian community
should furnish its missionaries with what is necessary for their maintenance.
There is a constant in Jesus’ words – radical trust in the Word. Jesus wants His disciples to understand that
the Gospel and conversion are not a propaganda doctrine and they are not a product to sell, putting into play
mechanisms of money and power. The only power of the apostle is the WORD. Thus, it does not refer
primarily to an ascetical or moral message, but a theological one. God will take special care of His
missionaries, because the mission is not a work of human power, but exclusively of the Word.
Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will ponder on what is not essential in my life and ask Jesus to
help me divest myself of the superfluous.
I will say with St. Francis of Assisi, “This I want, this I ask, and this I yearn to do with my whole
heart”.
The voice of the Poor Man of Assisi
Francis, hearing that Christ’s disciples must not possess gold or silver, nor sack, nor
bread, nor stick for the road, immediately exulted in the Holy Spirit, and exclaimed,
‘This I want. This I ask. This I yearn to do with my whole heart’.
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E-mail: [email protected] - Blog: livingscripture.wordpress.com
San Biagio House of Prayer www.sanbiagio.org [email protected]
Fr. Fernando Bergamelli, SDB