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Pope Francis often invites the faithful to discernment, and even gives simple questions for reflection, to help us go deeper into a Gospel reading.
This is the typical framework he uses in order to reflect on the Sunday Gospel with the faithful, before leading the midday Angelus.
Today, the Pope said this (emphases ours):
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Today the Gospel tells us about Jesus who sends His disciples on the mission (cf. Mk 6:7-13). He sends them “two by two,” and recommends something important: to take with them only what is necessary.
Let us pause a moment on this image: the disciples are sent together, and must take with them only what is necessary.
We do not proclaim the Gospel alone, no: it is proclaimed together, as a community, and to do this it is important to know how to preserve sobriety: to know how to be sober in the use of things, sharing resources, capacities and gifts, and doing without the superfluous.
Why? In order to be free: the superfluous enslaves you, and also so that we all have what we need to live in a dignified way and to contribute actively to the mission; and then to be sober in thoughts, to be sober in feelings, abandoning our preconceived ideas and abandoning the inflexibility that, like pointless baggage, weigh us down and hinder the journey, fostering discussion and listening instead, and thus making witness more effective.
Let us think, for example, of what happens in our families and our communities: When we are content with what is necessary, even with little, with God’s help we are able to go forward and get along, sharing what there is, everyone renouncing something and supporting each other (cf. Acts 4:32-35). And this is already a missionary proclamation, before and even more than words, because it embodies the beauty of Jesus’ message in the tangibility of life.
Indeed, a family or a community that lives in this way creates around it an environment rich in love, in which it is easier to open oneself to faith and the newness of the Gospel, and from which one starts out better, one starts out more serene.
If, on the other hand, everyone goes his or her way, if only material things count – which are never enough – if one does not listen, if individualism and envy prevail – envy is something lethal, a poison! – individualism and envy prevail, the air becomes heavy, life becomes difficult, and encounters become an occasion of restlessness, sadness, and discouragement, rather than an occasion of joy (cf. Mt. 19:22).
Dear brothers and sisters, communion and sobriety are important values for our Christian life: Communion, harmony among us, and sobriety are important values, indispensable values for a Church to be missionary at all levels.
We can ask ourselves, then:
Do I taste the pleasure of proclaiming the Gospel, of bringing, where I live, the joy and light that come from an encounter with the Lord?
And in order to do this, do I commit myself to walking together with others, sharing ideas and skills with them, with an open mind and with a generous heart?
And finally: do I know how to cultivate a lifestyle that is sober, a lifestyle that is attentive to the needs of my brothers and sisters? They are questions that it is good to ask ourselves.
May Mary, Queen of Apostles, help us to be true missionary disciples, in communion and sobriety of life. In communion, in harmony among us and in the sobriety of life.
