Sunday Reflections

St. Patrick was born in Kilpatrick, Scotland, around the year 402.  His family was wealthy, but at the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland.  For six years he was a shepherd, until he escaped by walking about 200 miles to take a ship to England.  There he began studies for the priesthood and became a distinguished priest and then bishop.  At the age of forty-six he returned to Ireland with a group of missionaries.  St. Patrick, first of all, sought out the man who bought him as a slave and gave him money to cover the price of ransom.  The ‘silver lining’ of his captivity there was that he knew the Celtic language, and understood the pagan Druid religion, which dominated the population.  These would serve him well in his evangelization of the Druids, even converting some of the royal household.  But his ministry, and that of his companions, was not without difficulties.  They were arrested sixteen times, and on one occasion he was condemned to death.

I thought of St. Patrick when I first read the gospel of this weekend.  This week Jesus sends out his disciples in pairs to preach repentance, and to heal.  Once again, He prepares them for difficulties and hardships.  He knows that they, like Him, will experience rejection in preaching the Good News.  For many it will not be Good News because it calls them to a change of heart, a change of life.  He tells them to “shake the dust off their feet” in those places where their message is not received.  The vocation of a prophet, or in this case, an apostle, is a difficult one and often means rejection and persecution.  

Jesus tells His disciples to “take nothing for the journey”, depending totally on the grace of God.  He is sending them out poor and dependent, that they might return spiritually rich and spiritually confident.  Indeed, the reading tells us that they healed many people “anointing them with oil”, and freed many people from evil spirits.  They completed their mission that Jesus had given them. 

Today, in our time and place we are called to be another St. Patrick, who brings the Good News and salvation to others.  Like those disciples, sent out by Jesus, we face challenges as we try to be faithful to God’s call.  Yet we are consoled and encouraged that all we need “for the journey” is ours in Jesus Christ.