A Reflection for the Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs
Find today’s readings here.
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick
–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
He said to them,
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.”
So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (Mark 6:7-13)
“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Though today’s reading is from Mark, I am reminded of this line from the Gospel of Matthew. It is a rather famous one, placed in the middle of the Parable of the Talents, to point out that we are never out of God’s sight – and that how we treat the bottom rung of our society is how we treat God. The Kingdom of God and our temporal world are inextricably linked; the Kingdom of God is constantly at hand in our day to day lives and although we understand the infinite mercy of God, we are not exempt from the consequences of our own actions.
In today’s Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus tasks the apostles with beginning their ministry. This is the first instance of Jesus’ wider outreach, an important step in the formation of the church and the Christian missionary duty. However, Jesus tells the apostles that they should bring no belongings, no money and no food, and to wear only what is the bare minimum needed for travel. They will appear to all others not merely as strangers preaching something they have never heard before, but as impoverished vagabonds. The apostles will not look respectable or romantic or rosy, and their lifestyle will not seem in any way desirable. The Word will arrive ungilded. They will look like the least among their society and others’ treatment of them will reflect that, and will thus reflect how they treat the Lord.
How often, in our modern world, do we experience closeness with the least among us? True closeness, I mean. Not the closeness of sympathy. We may donate all the livelong day, but it is very difficult to understand the reality of poverty, homelessness, war, strife, extreme climate conditions and more. Many of us are fortunate. We live in a world that might seem merely okay, but by the standards of Christ’s time, everyone who we consider to be “middle class” is living like kings.
Awareness of one’s place within the class hierarchy is important for understanding the Gospel. There has never been a completely egalitarian society in the history of the world, nor has there ever been ample incentive for the creation of such a structure. Those with the most resources do not need help. In fact, very often, those with the most – regardless of active maliciousness – are complicit in the exploitation of and oppression of those at the bottom of society. Jesus understood this, which is why a number of his closest disciples, like the former tax collector Matthew, were from a class apart from the hoi polloi – reformed in consciousness toward helping those who had less than them.
Think of all the migrants who enter the United States looking for a better life, only to be paid considerably less than minimum wage to work in fields for hours on end. Much of the reason why food is generally affordable is due to the unspoken agreement that we need these workers, yet much of the rhetoric nowadays centers around how they should be kicked out. Or think about those facing persecution in their homelands, refugees from war-torn lands or those under the thumb of imperialist masters – we should welcome them with open arms, but they are treated instead like pariahs. Or even those who are here now, the unhoused people who people ignore on the streets and are reduced to begging for scraps. These are our countrymen, those who have lost everything, and we trample over them every day.
None of these will ever be perfect people. If we judge them based entirely on whether or not we will feel good helping them, then we are complicit in their suffering. There is no such thing as a perfect victim, someone who obeys all laws or acts according to ways which we deem respectable, who we will not feel bad about aiding. Suffering is always suffering regardless of who experiences it, and Jesus has tasked us with treating them all like we would treat him. In these trying times, when it seems that we have turned on those that have the least, we should help them to rise up, regain their dignity and fight back against those grand forces of greed and commerce that were keeping them on the ground to begin with. The Kingdom of God is at hand on this earth and our struggle is to ensure that all have equal access to it.
