Who is Jesus Christ for us? An older woman called Jesus her mate. A priest once said, ’When the chips are down, there’s only Jesus and me. He’s my rock.’

If we are going to be witness to the love of Christ, this is who we might hope to be for those we meet – mate, rock, friend, hope – and come to recognise Christ in their lives.

Is this what we’re sent out to do?  Is it what we were initiated into at our baptism? In the gospel, Jesus sees the crowd and is moved with compassion by their plight. He certainly doesn’t ridicule them or turn away from them but is alive to their suffering. This is the rich harvest for which labourers are required, and it’s this work which is at the heart of his mission. 

He then summons twelve of the disciples and empowers them to join him in his work of presence and healing. Those who are entrusted with this mission are sent out as apostles. Perhaps we think that’s not me and, if we consider the roll call of their names, we might notice they’re quite a mixed lot, just like any parish community, and leave it at that.

But what if we’re all entrusted with this mission too, sent out after Mass to present to others what we have received.

When Jesus sends them out, he instructs them to go to the Jewish community alone; though this is a beginning, because at the end of Matthew’s Gospel he commissions the disciples to go out and proclaim his liberating presence to all nations. And the sign of this, of God’s kingdom being close at hand, is the works that Jesus is doing, which now they are empowered to do.

We also are to be the agents of healing and service, helping those who are entombed to live; inviting into relationship those who are sidelined and cast out for whatever reason; disabling those voices which confine us, and enabling us all to live in a loving relationship with one another and God. These simple gifts are given to us by Jesus, so we might give them away to anyone who is in need. What we have been given freely, we are to give freely in turn; it’s not a transaction, it is gift. 

In the first reading the Israelites, if they hold fast to the covenant with God, are to be ‘a kingdom of priests, a consecrated people,’ ensuring God’s ongoing love of and relationship with us. It’s what they are entrusted to do, their mission.

In the second reading, Paul writes of God’s great love for us. Now that our relationship with God is restored, ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ,’ God is with us, whatever happens.

To be the bearers of this love in a fractured world, this is our mission.

Damian Coleridge

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