15th Sunday - B

My brothers and sisters,
From 1994 to 1999 I worked as a missionary in one of a remote parish in Madagascar Africa. There was no electricity, no telephone, no TV. The people were very poor. Once there was a young boy asked me of what we eat in Indonesia, I said that we eat rice like them, and three times a day. O je .. like in heavens, he said. He thought that it was wonderful to have rice meal three times a day, because they only eat rice once a day for dinner and for breakfast and lunch they eat manioc or cassava … and during dry season, even they don’t have rice to eat about three or four months. They used to suffer starving. That’s why every year our Missionaries of the Holy Family from Switzerland and France send two containers full of food, medicines, used clothes and other equipment for agriculture and carpentry and also some spare parts for automobile.
This is good for helping the poor, but not well for evangelization. Why? When the Government charged taxation for the importation of clothes, the Church could not help the poor by giving them free clothes anymore … and one day I met an old man saying to me, “Father, it’s difficult now to be a Catholic.” “Why?” surprising I asked him. He said. “Now we don’t get used clothes anymore.” Looking at his clothe I understood. I knew that he had no other clothe to change … but is it because of the clothe you want to be catholic? I asked this only in my mind. I could not answer him.
Then I remembered of what Jesus said in today gospel when He sent His disciples with no food, no sack and no container also of course, no money and no clothe except the clothe they used on their body. They can bring a stick in case they would be tired. With these restrictions, Jesus hoped that His disciples would not rely themselves on other things except on Jesus himself. Jesus wants that the proclaiming of the gospel would not be veiled by many other things. Jesus wants that when His disciples heal the sick and drive out demons, they do this only in Jesus’ name, only by the power of Jesus, and not by any other things. Jesus wants that many people will have faith in Him and will not be attracted by any other thing, not also by the appearance of the disciples.
Now for you here, I’m sure that you don’t have the same motivation as those in Madagascar and also in Indonesia. In 1960s there was a mockery appellation from the Indonesian Muslim for new converts to the Catholicism when they talked about: Wheat and Milk Catholics. This is because of the missionaries from Dutch distributed wheat and milk to promote the people’s health. And the Muslims were afraid and thought that it was a way to attract people to be Catholic. It was good such a critic that we realized then we became catholic, not because of wheat and milk, but we had faith in Jesus; and our charity work is not to covert people to Catholicism, but only because of love for others. Do you have such a love for others?
As St. Paul said in the second reading, God has chosen us in Christ to be holy and without blameless before him. God Has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. Can you imagine this … every spiritual blessing in heavens that you have? I tell you the secret of this blessing. We only can see that blessing if we become a blessing for others. A blessing is not something in a refrigerator that we can keep for ourselves. A blessing is something on a stove, ready to be served and must be served. A blessing is something at work, active and aimed to others. So as the twelve disciples, we also are sent by Jesus to proclaim the gospel … by distributing and sharing the blessing that we have. How? I don’t know how you can do that. But I do that according to my vocation as a priest: to serve you, to pray for you, to be with you. And you, you have to find for yourselves what is suitable for you to do, to make the blessing real in your family, in your neighborhood, in society.
In the first reading, the prophet Amos did his part to share the blessing he received as a prophet by reminding the King of Judah to repentance. And this made Amaziah, the priest and advisor of the King angry, because Amaziah always supported the King even when the King committed sins. Because of his faithfully mission, Amos suffered many persecutions from the Amaziah. We know that Jesus has the same experience. To share blessing until the extreme sense means to offer our lives for others. Jesus gave all His blessing by dying on the cross. Also the twelve disciples gave their lives so that we can inherit the blessing from Jesus. A mother suffered when she bore a child, with this she shares a life, a blessing to a new creature. So where is your blessing? Don’t be afraid to show them. By giving blessing for others, you will be blessed more and more. Let us be a blessing for others and may all the earth then be blessed. Amen