I FOUND it easy to interpret the Gospel last Sunday and to see its connection to the First Reading from the Book of Amos. It speaks about true discipleship, a typical theme in the Gospel of Mark.
Albeit it is easy to interpret, but the Gospel mandate on discipleship is hard to live by.
First, there is that call to commitment. Being “summoned” to leadership and being given authority is a good feeling. This means that the people on the top see our gifts and trust our capabilities. And the high positions and titles sound good. But any title or high position entails real commitment to live the Gospel.
We’ve seen many leaders fail in their commitment to serve their constituents selflessly as in the case of some politicians who promised to lift people out of poverty and corruption but ended up enriching themselves, their family members and friends with ill-gotten wealth.
Second, Jesus asked his disciples not to do ministry alone but to work together in twos. Again working in twos or threes or fours sounds good. It takes away one’s fears and hesitations, but we’ve all tested it: to work with others, to listen to one another, to resolve conflicts in a group, to work as a team, and to bring unity in work place, church, government or community are hard and very challenging to do. These take courage, strength and wisdom.
Third, Jesus instructed the Twelve “to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” This means total trust in God that he will provide everything that we need in the ministry. Again, this is easy to say, but to put it into practice is a different thing. How many of us, leaders and parents, stress out in trying to do a “perfect” job, in pleasing all, and in responding to every need? How many of us have put work as a priority to the extent of not taking care of one’s health? Instead of leaving the rest to God and allowing him to do his work, we live in fears, freak out over details and end up getting sick. We’ll just have to learn the hard lesson over and over again to trust God that he will do the rest; after all we’re just his instruments.
The good news is that we can change and try again. We’ll just have to serve with a different perspective, one that fits a parable that Jesus taught:
“This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
It is the perspective that God is in control after all. We do our best and God takes care of the rest.
It’s the same perspective of Blessed Oscar Romero in his famous lines:
“We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.”
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
