He began to send them out two by two

7 FEBRUARY (Mk 6,7-13)

The announcement of the Gospel is true testimony to give God on historical facts and real events. The disciples of Jesus are the witnesses of the history of God among his people. A particular history because made by the God Incarnate, by the Only Son of the Father with the human body, human flesh and truly human life. Being their announcement a true witness, the law of legal testimony applies to it.

These shall be norms for you and all your descendants, wherever you live, for rendering judgment. “Whenever someone kills another, the evidence of witnesses is required for the execution of the murderer. The evidence of a single witness is not sufficient for putting a person to death.(Num 35,29-30).

“If there is found among you, in any one of the communities which the Lord, your God, gives you, a man or a woman who does evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, and transgresses his covenant, by serving other gods, or by worshiping the sun or the moon or any of the host of the sky, against my command; and if, on being informed of it, you find by careful investigation that it is true and an established fact that this abomination has been committed in Israel: you shall bring the man (or woman) who has done the evil deed out to your city gates and stone him to death. The testimony of two or three witnesses is required for putting a person to death; no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. At the execution, the witnesses are to be the first to raise their hands against him; afterward all the people are to join in. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.(Dt 17,2-7).

“Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the Lord swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (Dt 30,15-20).

In addition to this legal ground of the testimony, there is another one based on charity, on reciprocal help and on mutual support. The only person is exposed to all danger. He is with no defense, comfort, help and relief. In two everyone is life for the other.

Two are better than one: they get a good wage for their labor. If the one falls, the other will lift up his companion. Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up. So also, if two sleep together, they keep each other warm. How can one alone keep warm? Where a lone man may be overcome, two together can resist. A three-ply cord is not easily broken. (Eccl 4,9-12).

The law of communion and witness must always be observed in the gift of the Gospel. Life is given through the rules of life. This is true wisdom.

He 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. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

The missionary of the Gospel must go into the world covered only with the power of Christ Jesus, with his very faith and his great charity and compassion for souls. He must be the presence of Jesus in the midst of the world. Without this supernatural force, the Gospel is unlikely to be given. The missionary himself will never be able to live it and his action will be failing in everything. It will be fruitless.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints clothe us with power from on high.