We need one another

15th Sunday Ordinary of Time – Year B

Sensible shoes. That was the running joke growing up when fewer religious women were wearing habits. You could tell the sisters by their sensible shoes. There’s a bit of theological truth to that. If the message of the Gospel is to go forth to the ends of the earth, you’d better have the right pair of shoes for the job.

What we pack and surround ourselves with for doing the mission of preaching the Gospel says a lot about what we think we are being called to do. There’s an apocryphal story about Pope Francis’s early days. He visits the Vatican office of evangelization and is greeted by the cardinal there, who sits behind a massive ornate oak desk. After some pleasantries, the cardinal asks the Holy Father what he can do for him in the work of evangelization. “First, Your Eminence,” the Pope says, “sell the desk.”

To do the mission of Christ, we don’t need much baggage, gear, or training. We need one another and a place of community along the journey. We need vulnerability so we can rely of the goodness of strangers and they can minister through their own sharing.

We need perseverance. We need not to expect anything in return—not praise, not acceptance, not even the dust from the place. We need to shake off rejection and keep going. And of course, we need sensible shoes.

This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”

Image credit: Photo by Kylie Lugo on Unsplash.

Read more reflections on the Sunday readings here:

• Restraint and Generosity
• Going Further
• Can we be salt and light?
• Who is advocating for those in need?
• Bonded to Christ’s Mission