Reflecting on our mission to co-labor with Christ
July 6—Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Isaiah 66:10-14c; Psalm 66, R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.; Galatians 6:14-18; Gospel – Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20
Our first Sunday after so many weeks that we go back to ordinary time Sunday readings. As my late spiritual director would always say, it is a graced season to discover God’s extraordinary grace in the ordinary moments of our life.
This time around, it is quite appropriate that we have a missioning Gospel. There are some qualities of Christian mission to reflect on: One is the communal and collaborative nature of mission and ministry. Two, is the clarity of the why and how of the mission. Three, is real reward of mission.
The Gospel opens with the Lord appointing a community of seventy-two and then he sent them out in teams.
As I was completing my master’s degree as part of my preparation for my first assignment as an ordained priest, we were asked what field of learning we wanted to focus on. They asked this to match us to the right school and principal for our internship program.
I asked to look at collaboration and formation, since I felt even then, thirty-plus years ago, that the future of our apostolates, our church ministries, was very much dependent on lay collaboration.
Formation was very important for the lay collaboration to be rooted and grounded in the charism of the community; at that time, the Jesuit or Ignatian charism.
Collaboration is communal. Perhaps we can consider it as an early form of synodality. The very call of Jesus is a call to collaboration, to follow Him and share in His mission—to co-labor with Him.
Thus, the call is to be part of the community, and the sending out is in teams.
Of course, as a Jesuit, we were also formed to work on an assignment alone. Thus, we were—back then when I was a Jesuit—often seen as a “lone wolf.”
But there was a beautiful grace behind this. While we, at times, lived and work “solo,” we are still a community, very deeply united—a union of minds and hearts.
St. Ignatius of Loyola had a very strong Trinitarian devotion, so a union like that of the Trinity that missioned the Son, and what lay at the center of this mission was the establishment of the Kingdom of God, community.
Then we have the clarity of the “why” and the “how.” The “what” is clear: to proclaim the good news to the poor.
In this Gospel the “why” gives a sense of urgency: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so, ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (cf. Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20) It was urgent then, and it is urgent now.
Then the Lord goes on to give a detailed description of the “how.” The message was: He called us to share in His mission, He will sustain us in the mission, and He will bring the mission to completion.
We were given the responsibility to co-labor with Him, and we were also given the authority and the tools. We were empowered to share in the mission and be an instrument in bringing the mission to completion.
Lastly, the third quality of mission in this Sunday’s Gospel: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
Yes, we must work hard at the vineyard of the Lord here on earth. As St. Ignatius of Loyola said, we must give ourselves totally to the work—totus ad laborem.
Servant of God, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ put it somewhat poetically: “We have eternity in which to rest.” “Tiene usted la eternidad para descansar.”
The early missionaries of the church and the great missionaries across time and cultures did not look to the success of their work. They did not plan for failure, but they were also not inordinately driven by the desire for success. Their great inspiration was the joy that their “names are written in heaven.”
As St. Thomas Aquinas supposedly said after stopping writing in the middle of his work on what would have been his greatest work, his final magnum opus: “I have encountered Christ and nothing else matters.”
It is St. Augustine’s exclamation, “My heart is restless until it rests in you alone.”
In St. Ignatius’ prayer, “I return all to You, everything that I have and am that You may use me as You wish. Give me only Your love and Your grace, these make me rich, I ask for nothing more.”
This is mission’s completion and greatest reward.
