Homily for September 25, 2019

As we have seen in today’s Gospel passage, as Jesus sent out His Apostles on mission, He told them to travel light. He wanted them to depend on the hospitality of those to whom they would preach the Gospel. Instead of being self-reliant, He wanted them to be reliant on others, to trust in the LORD, who would actively help them through the kindness of strangers.

Most of us like to be independent, and to some extent we need to be. But we are never really totally self-sufficient. In our early lives we were dependent on our parents and others; when we come towards the end of life, we will again need others to care for us. In between these two periods of total dependence, we still depend on others for those things that we do not have within ourselves, and others rely on us for what they do not have. So, we are really interdependent.

The LORD wants us to welcome the generous service of others and to offer what we have as well. Each of us has much to give and much to receive. The LORD, who uses us to serve others, also wants us to avail of others’ help and to recognize the presence and work of the LORD in this mutual reliance upon one another. +