11th
SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Romans 5:6-11
Matthew 9:36-10:8
“You received it as a gift,
give it
freely, as a gift.”
The call of Matthew - which was the theme of last Sunday's gospel – is a good start to meditate on vocation. Today's gospel brings us to the same theme: the call of the twelve. And today, we further discover the richness of our Christian understanding on vocation as a gift. But as it is presented to us by the evangelist, vocation as a gift can be viewed in three angles: first, as a gift to the world; second, as a gift given freely by the Lord; third, as a gift to those freely called and chosen by the Lord.
1. No one does anything without a purpose. If this principle is true to intellectual creatures, much more it is true too to the most intelligent God. It contradicts God’s omniscience that he does something just for nothing. But what is so striking in God's attitude towards us mortals is his concern over our needs and the needs of the world. Thus, most often, he performs his creative and redemptive acts from the point of view of man.
This seems so clear today. The gospel opens with these words: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Here, we notice at once God’s concern for man. And this concern is not only a head-level but also a heart-level one. Even at mere sight, Jesus becomes super sensitive to the needs of his people. He is moved with compassion. He realizes how pitiful the people would be without someone to listen to them in their problems, without someone to guard and assure them in their fears, without someone to comfort them in their anxieties, without someone to lead them when astray, without someone to help them rise up again if ever and whenever they fall.
To be like sheep without a shepherd must be most fitting a description. Certainly Christ perfectly knows that they are more likely to be scattered individuals than a united people, more likely a crowd than a church. The world, therefore, needs a servant-leader. Of course, the word cannot demand for it as a matter of right, nor God should grant it as a matter of duty. A sheep can still be sheep even without a shepherd, and people can still be people even without a servant-leader. But Christ’s compassion cannot just let the situation go. His love cannot afford to see his people live like orphans. Thus, the vocation to the life of a servant-leader is first and foremost a manifestation of how God loves and cares for his people. It is given so gratuitously. It is not even merited by the people and the world who need it, but a pure gift to the world and humanity.
2. "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore,
to send out workers into his harvest.”
- - - Vocation, as a gift to the worlld, is a gift from God. And as he comes
from God, it is basically a fruit of prayer. Jesus himself encourages the
people to pray for vocations. In this sense, vocation becomes the meeting point
of man's humility and God’s generosity. Vocation, as a precious gift from God,
is a call to follow the footsteps of Christ. This consists basically of two
aspects: one, it is a call to discipleship; two, it is a call to apostleship.
Vocation is a call to learn. This is fundamentally the
meaning of discipleship (discere = to learn). When people come to follow
Christ, most of them are tailing after him in order to learn. True, they have
other concerns like having their ailments cured. But what absorbs them to listening
to Christ was their enthusiasm to learn what the Master was teaching them.
Jesus was certainly offering something noble and captivating. And more so, he
is teaching with authority, unlike the teachers of the Law (cf Mt
Vocation is also a call to be sent. This now
distinguishes discipleship from apostleship.
This also distinguishes the twelve from the rest. Many are called to learn, but only twelve are chosen to be sent; only
twelve become Christ's apostles. The apostles are sent in order to preach what
they learn: the good news of salvation. The building of
3. With this, God calls and chooses. And since it is
a gift of his own, it comes exclusively from his own prerogative to call and
choose whom he wants to labor in his vineyard, whom he wants to be his heralds,
whom he wants to be the servant-leaders of
his flock. In today's gospel, the evangelist enumerates the names of those
first lucky individuals whom Christ himself has chosen: "These are the
names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his
brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and
Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alpheus and
Thaddeus; Simon the zealot and Judas who betrayed him.”
The twelve represent different kinds of people. Although most of them were fishermen, there were some others who were farmers. Tradition has it that James and the “brothers” (meaning, cousins) of Jesus (Jude Thaddeus and Simon) were also farmers. Not all of them were poor. Matthew was rich and Judas Iscariot must have been a moneyed person, too. There was one of them who were a political extremist: Simon the zealot. In short, the apostles of Jesus are made up of various personalities. But God’s calling transcends beyond this. He gives his gift without discrimination. The vocation of John the Beloved is the same vocation he gives to Judas the traitor. Only, Judas gives it up at the final stage of his life.
Again, even as we look closely at these twelve, nothing in them makes them worthy to such a sacred call. Aside from being financially low and politically insignificant, they are neither morally better than the rest. In fact, we are reminded of how weak they would become. When the hour of severest came, practically all but one fled away. Certainly, there were others who also tried to follow Christ so closely and perhaps also aspired to be chosen. In many other ways, they could have been good too or even better than Judas. But God's appointing hand did not fall upon them. It fell upon the twelve. Indeed, the twelve were just that lucky. But if they became so fortunate, this is because and only because of God’s own liking. It is for this reason, then, that Christ expects them to live out their vocation selflessly as possible: "You received it as a gift; give it freely as a gift!"