Let the dead bury their dead

3 OCTOBER (Lk 9,57-62)

Jesus asks his disciples an absolute freedom from things, people, needs, wants, urges, vices and sins. Between the disciple and the mission there should be no obstacle, hindrance, wall, either spiritual or material. Freedom must be from his very life. He does not have to care any more, either of life and or of death.
Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words – go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. (Mt 10,5-23).

Today, Jesus asks full freedom from every comfort and even necessity for our body. He demands total detachment from feelings, friendships, spiritual and moral obligations. He wants the instant availability, immediate for the sequel. A minute lost in all these human things is taken away to the salvation of a soul. This is lost for a greeting.

As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” (To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The Gospel asks every one of its full-time missionaries for the full, total, and whole gift, without reservation of his own life. This gift is very similar to death. As in death all relations fail, are extinguished, no longer exist, so it is for the missionary of the Gospel. All the needs for his body must die as well as those for the human community, starting from his own family. Do not let what Jesus is asking today make it look exaggerated. The very nature of the mission requires it.

If the missionary of the Gospel is called to go to distant and remote lands, if the mission entails long and uncomfortable journeys, if during its course there is a shortage of food, if a thousand other hardships face the missionary; all must be overcome in the name the mission. The Gospel also calls for martyrdom, the offering of the personal lives up to the blood. That is why the missionary must no longer be interested either to live or to die. Life and death are the same thing for him. If he lives, he lives for the mission. If he dies, he dies for the mission. The mission is his all.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints teach us this freedom.