CHOSEN
July 14, 2024: A Reflection on the Gospel for the 15th Sunday in OT, Yr B
Mark 6:7-13
In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ. (Ephesians 1:7)
The readings today speak of being chosen, of being entrusted with a mission in this world to bring forth in our lives the union of God with his creatures. We were chosen in Christ before the world existed to live this union – sometimes called holiness. Our reason for being lies in bringing forth in our daily lives, the fulness of God’s love. And this fulness is spelled out in the Gospel. We have a blueprint, if you will.
The holiness that each of us has been called to is a response to the incarnational love of Jesus, dwelling in ourselves, each person, in all creation. It is not something this is superimposed on our human nature but one that springs from the core of our being which God fills and gives life at every moment. We reach that center in the quiet of our hearts and minds, of simply relaxing into the God who fills us in an awareness of presence and peace.
In today’s gospel, Jesus summoned the Apostles and chose them to go forth two by two to spread the Good News, to heal the sick, to be there for one another in care and compassion. He told his Apostles to bring nothing for the journey but a walking stick and to wear sandals. Everything else they truly needed would be provided at the right time. Jesus called them to be empty, as he was ‘empty’: “Jesus did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped; he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant…” It is the emptiness of all that impedes hearing the voice of God in ourselves and other. It is being emptiness that brings about being filled with God.
We are all chosen in Christ to be full of God in the love and service of one another that makes us truly alive. Our gifts differ in how this love and service is lived out, except that it is always the self-emptying love of Christ which is poured out upon the world to the praise of His glory.