15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Responding to the Call to Discipleship

“Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.’ So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them” (Mark 6:7-13).

The disciples had heard Jesus preach; they had seen him perform miracles. They had also seen him rejected. Now it was their turn to go out and do what they had seen him do.

The mission Jesus gave to his disciples is the same mission given to us every Sunday when we are dismissed (sent forth) from Mass. Jesus received that mission from the Father and set out to fulfill it after his baptism by John. At our sacramental baptism, each of us was anointed “priest, prophet, and king.” By our baptism, we are summoned and given the challenge to be bearers of the Good News and to preach repentance.

We may not be traveling to nearby towns or distant shores in missionary work. Perhaps our own mission area is our family, our workplace, our school, or our neighborhood. We have the opportunity to respond to the summons, to our baptismal call, on a daily basis.

Have you ever had the sense of being “called” by God to do something? How did you respond?

Adapted from PrayerTime: Faith-Sharing Reflections on the Sunday Gospels, available at the RENEW International store