To Free Slaves

Embracing the missionary transformation of the Church

07/10/2020

Matthew 10:16-23 Jesus said to his Apostles: “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of men, 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.”

If there’s one message Pope Francis has hammered home since becoming Holy Father, it is the “missionary transformation” of the Church. That is, it’s not just Jesuits, Franciscans and Mother Teresa’s sisters who should scour the earth to spread the gospel. This missionary mandate is the basic marching orders of every baptized Christian. If we’re missing the missionary spirit, then we’re really missing the Christian spirit.

We find a telling analogy for Christianity in the program called Alcoholics Anonymous. Many alcoholics have discovered the best way to be freed from the grip of addiction is to follow the 12 steps of A.A. The 12th and last step reads: “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.” In other words, the last step of A.A. (carry this message to alcoholics) is every bit as important as the first step, just like in Christianity, being a missionary disciple is every bit as important as baptism. Both A.A. and Christianity are paths to true freedom, so we read in Gal. 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” And once we’ve tasted true freedom why wouldn’t we share that freedom with those who are still slaves? That is the underlying motivation of every missionary disciple: to free slaves.

Today’s gospel is taken right from the middle of Matthew 10, Jesus famous second speech or discourse, called the “Missionary Discourse.” Jesus, too, like Pope Francis, is intensely concerned to put missionary discipleship at the heart and center of the gospel. He says: “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and as simple as doves.” In other words, not everyone is going to welcome your message of freedom and liberation, like many alcoholics do not readily welcome the prospect of abandoning their favorite drink. Indeed, they will often turn on their own family and friends to find happiness at the bottom of a bottle.

So, Jesus goes on to add alarmingly: “Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.” By the way, do you know of any families that have been torn apart by alcoholism: parents turning against children and vice versa, because people preferred slavery to their vices rather than smell the sweet air of freedom and recovery? In an almost identical way, we often prefer the slavery of our sins to the sweet yolk of the freedom of Christ. Gal. 5:1 continues: For freedom Christ has set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yolk of slavery.” A.A. is a battle to free slaves, and so is Christianity.

Of course, the first person who has to hear the message of freedom of the gospel is the man in the mirror, that is, me. And we have to hear this call to freedom every day. That is, we have to be missionary disciples to ourselves, to experience the sweet freedom from slavery to sin in our own addictions and vices, before we can carry the Good News to others. The 12th step of A.A. is the last step, not the first step. Only after we are healed can we begin to heal others, or as we used to hear on airplanes before take-off: “Secure the oxygen mask on yourself before putting the mask on others, like small children.” We must inhale freedom before we can exhale freedom. Similarly, it says in Luke 4:23, “Physician heal thyself.” Before ministering to others, therefore, we must be missionaries to the strange land of our own souls.

No other prayer sums up the missionary mandate, in my opinion, than John Henry Newman’s prayer called “Trust in God.” It is as eloquent and effective as the 12 Steps, and almost as sublime and spiritual as the Missionary Discourse of Mt. 10, and it is a little long. The cardinal-saint wrote: “God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me, which he has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep his commandments.

“Therefore, I will trust him, whatever I am. I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness my sickness may serve him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what he is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, he knows what he is about.” In other words, what “God is about” is to free slaves.

Praised be Jesus Christ!