Freely Receive, Freely Give!

 (Homily for the 11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A)

     The readings of this Sunday present to our consideration the fact that God is not mute, but He speaks; He does not command, but He promises; He does not merely ask, but wants to give; He does not impose, but He invites: He chooses and elects. And that requires man to listen, to respond to His appeal, involving his own freedom and responsibility. The common thread that runs through the three readings of this Sunday is the divine election. The first reading presents a God who chooses a people among other peoples of the earth and constituted a special and privileged rapport with them. He made them his ally. The second reading goes further; it reveals the fundamental motive of this divine election, that is the gratuitous love of God, who reconciled us with himself when we were still sinners, through the Death of Christ. Meanwhile, the Gospel passage reveals the finality of this election and gratuitous love, the finality of God’s election is mission. As such, the people of God or the Christian community are called to become instruments of election of other peoples. Thus, having received freely, we are invited to give freely.

     In the first reading (Ex. 19:2-6a) we are presented with a message of election. Therein Moses played an intermediary role between God and the Israelites in receiving the commandment and the covenant. Moses went up and down the Mountain in patience and obedience. God established a Covenant on Mount Sinai with the people of Israel that just came out of Egypt. In that context, all the experience of exodus from Egypt was presented by God as an election. He brought his chosen people like a bird on its wings to freedom. Therein, God promised to count them as a kingdom of priests and a consecrated nation. These words were proclaimed to the chosen people in the Old Testament, but the Good News is that in the New Testament the same words are proclaimed and addressed to us. In the first letter of St. Peter, we are called “a holy priesthood” (1Pt. 2:5) and again “you are a chosen race, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a people to be a personal possession to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1Pt. 2:9). In the book of Revelation too, he “made us a Kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father” (Rev. 1:6) and again he “made them a line of kings and priests for God, to rule the world” (Rev. 5:10). And the responsorial Psalm of today puts those words again in our mouth thus: “we are his people, the sheep of his flock” (Ps. 100:3). The covenant that God established with the chosen people in the Old Testament was ratified through the sacrifice of Christ, and that is what we celebrate each time we gather around the Eucharistic altar.

     In the long journey of relations between men and God, a new phase begins on Sinai: God's choice and constitution of a people. “You will be my people among all peoples.” With Jesus Christ, a new people of God is constituted in history, whose foundations are the Twelve: Jesus called his twelve disciples. In Egypt the different tribes descended from Jacob did not form a single people under the leadership of Yahweh. It is only on Sinai that God takes the initiative, and makes of the twelve tribes one people owned by him through the covenant in the blood of the lamb. In continuity with the people of Israel, Jesus constitutes a new people, electing twelve disciples to represent the twelve tribes of Israel and as the basis of the new Christian people. Neither the people of Israel, nor the Church, the new people of God, are constituted by themselves; if they exist, it is because God made them exist. Nevertheless, without these men who came out of Egypt or without the Twelve, God could not have made a people of his own. Men are needed to form the people and to fulfill their raison d'être in history.

     The second reading (Rm. 5:6-11) reminds us that this election did not come by out of our own making or out of our merit. Even in the Old Testament, while reflecting on the election of the chosen people Moses said: “Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of all peoples – for indeed you were the smallest of all- but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors…” (Deut. 7:7-8). Similarly, St. Paul reminded the Christians at that time and he is equally reminding us, that it is not out of our own merit that God has chosen us, rather he chose us out of his love. The prove that God loves us is that “when we were still sinners, at the appointed time, Christ died for us” (Rm. 5:6). As such, our election, call and belongingness to the Church ought to be a motive of responsibility and gratitude. In the words of the apostle: “who made you so important? What have you got that was not given to you? And if it was given to you, why are you boasting as though it were your own” (1Cor. 4:7).

     Indeed, the hit track of this passage of St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans is the fact that God out of his unconditional love chose the Jewish people, and later the Church as well. However, the fact that we are God’s chosen people does not make us to disregard others and close up in ourselves, instead today’s Gospel passage gives us a right existential approach revealed in the following words: “You received without charge, give without charge”.

     The passage of today’s Gospel (Mt. 9:36-10:8) presents the historicity of the mission of the disciples and thus the mission of the Church, as an apostolic Church, as such, a Church that is “sent out” to proclaim the message of salvation and to bring liberation to men and women. At the heart of the mandate of the Church is the last phrase of the Gospel passage: “You received without charge, give without charge”. Then the question could be, what is it, that has been received without charge? All you have received, all that you are. All we have and are gifts from above, they come from God to us and from us to the brothers and sisters. And then the second question is, freely give or give without charge, how? And here comes the overriding theme or word of today’s liturgy: Mission.

     Jesus chose twelve apostles and sent them on mission. With that gesture, Jesus demonstrated that once God chooses a person, he does so in order to send them to others. He sends them to the crowd like the one presented by Matthew at the beginning of this passage, a crowd like sheep without shepherd. He sends them therefore, to go and shepherd his flock. However, this is not a mission reserved only for priests and missionaries, but by extension to all of us Christians: “People should think of us as Christ’s servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God” (1Cor. 4:1).

     Drawing the issue further, in this Gospel passage, we have the official presentation of the Apostolic College: “The names of the twelve apostles are: first Simon, called Peter...” There is a clear hint here to the primacy of Peter in the apostolic college. It does not actually say: “First Peter, second Andrew, third James...”, as if it were a simple serial number. Peter is said first in the strong sense that he is in charge of the others; he is their spokesman, who represents them. Later on, Jesus will specify, in the same gospel of Matthew, the meaning of that "first," when he will say: “You are Peter and on this stone I will build my church...”.

     Furthermore, I would like to dwell more on the reason that motivated Jesus to choose the twelve and send them. We see it in the passage thus: “When Jesus saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were tired and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd.” Compassion goes hand in hand with seeing, it occurs when I see your passion (suffering), when I see your passion that is compassion. It is a seeing that is connected to the heart, for he who truly sees in this context, feels. Do we have eyes that see? What do we see in others, their passion or their mistakes and inadequacies? How is our look or gaze on others? That of Jesus is compassionate and merciful. Christ has eyes that see the helplessness, needs and passion of others. The Good News is that He still sees us in our misery and brokenness, for we too many a times are like sheep without shepherd. Indeed, the high point is that Jesus saw the crowds, he sees. And upon seeing them he felt compassion for them: this led him to choose the twelve and send them to preach, heal, liberate. This indeed, is a wonderful indication. It means that the Church does not exist for itself; it exists for others, for the world, for people, especially for the afflicted and oppressed. Little wonder, the Vatican Council II dedicated an entire document, the Gaudium et Spes, to highlight this being "for the world" of the Church. The document began with the following words: “The joys and hopes, the sorrows and anguish of today’s men, of the poor above all, and of all those who suffer, are also the joys and hopes, sorrows and anguishes of Christ’s disciples, and there is nothing genuinely human that does not echo in the their hearts" (GS. n.1).

     Above all else, however, we are reminded today that God’s invitation is free, it is the expression of His will to fellowship with man, to make him a partner in the work of salvation; He asks those who welcome Him the same gratuity for which every offer is not an imposition, but a free and liberating gift. Only in this way can we reach the extreme offering of self, in the image of Christ who, while we were still sinners, gave up his life for us. How many of us today are willing to put Jesus’ requirement into practice: “Freely you have received, freely you give”? Let us therefore, ask our Eucharistic Jesus to give us the vigor of faith and the love so that we will be enabled to give freely what we have received freely. Amen!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)