Mt 10: 7-15
As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it.
If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Instructions to the Apostles
500 years ago, Iñigo of Loyola was in Manresa, Spain trying to live Jesus’ challenging instructions from today’s Gospel. Iñigo (later called Ignatius) had given away his mule and nice clothes and left his sword at the altar in Montserrat a few months before. Wearing sackcloth, he lived by begging and stayed at whatever hostel, monastery or house was willing to have him. He was eager to talk about God although he was only a beginner at proclaiming the Kingdom. Some saw him as a holy man, others likely had their doubts.
His time in Manresa was an intense 11 months of consolations, desolations, false consolations, scrupulosity, serious illness and, eventually, great enlightenment. Iñigo learned much about trusting God during this time. The Gospel today gives some difficult marching orders to Jesus’ followers, including us. They might feel impossible to consider without being on our own journeys of deepening trust in God.
—Allain Andry is the Charlotte regional coordinator for Contemplative Leaders in Action, an Ignatian spirituality and leadership program for young adults that is a program of the Office of Ignatian Spirituality. He is also a spiritual director at St. Peter Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC, the Jesuit parish in the Diocese of Charlotte.
Prayer
Be a Gardener. Dig a ditch. Toil and sweat. And turn the earth upside down. And seek the deepness. And water plants in time. Continue this labor. And make sweet floods to run, and noble and abundant fruits to spring. Take this food and drink, and carry it to God as your true worship.
—Julian of Norwich