He said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” [Mark 1:38]
Jesus Praying at a lonely place
In Part I of this article, we looked at the importance of prayer in the midst of a busy schedule and the freedom to shake loose from the temptation to build and hold on to a power base. Prayer, we saw, was a key part of Jesus’ blueprint for this kind of power-base-less ministry.
That stunning revelation in this Gospel story has rendered it very disturbing for us. Jesus is here telling his disciples not to allow themselves to be tied down to one locality, especially when they have some very wrong ideas for wanting to do so. In our annual reflections with a local conference of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, we put some ideas out for some honest soul-searching.
You see, Jesus refused to just sit tight at a selected centre of power, a centre of government so to speak, and let the people come to pay him homage. Instead, he became an itinerant preacher and he called his disciples to do the same. He knew that his disciples would be tempted to sit back, relax, and enjoy the power and the privileges and the fame that came with their new found status through association with him. It would be too easy to do that, if only he allowed them to settle down in one place and build their power base.
- We once had an invitation from a young parish priest from Sabah who said to us, “My friends, the next time you are in Sabah, come and stay with me in my kingdom.” We did not know whether to laugh or to cry; to bless his heart for his kindness because he really intended to be kind to us, or to condemn him in public for being so anti-Christ. In the event, we opted for prudence over condemnation, smiled and prayed silently, “God almighty, have mercy on us all!”
Back to Capernaum, clearly, the Lord had a different agenda for the disciple. He wanted them to go out and preach the kingdom of God, which involved hardship and tough living conditions. He did not want them to give in to the temptations of a rich and easy life at a stationary power base.
- Members in every lay apostolate must always ask themselves: Are we not called to go out and serve, to be itinerant, to give up on power brokerage, to live “dangerously” and humbly, and to suffer the risk of uncertainty and even rejection of which the Lord who called us knew only too well because he had had more than a fair share of it in his own time?
Reflecting on this episode in Jesus’ life, the question that stays with us is: How do we become authentic ministers [servants, diakonoi] of him who called us to our respective apostolates?
In point of fact, when Jesus began his public ministry, he did so in Capernaum. Matthew 4:12-13 speaks of the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, and tells us that it was after John had been arrested that Jesus left Nazareth, withdrew to Galilee, and settled down in Capernaum.
When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali – to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned. [Matthew 4:12-16]
In the way Jesus called the first disciples, their setting, their response and so on, we get useful pointers for our own ministry within our own setting. The first thing that struck us was that Jesus’ ministry began neither in the sophisticated wheeling and dealing big cities nor at the highly intellectual corridors of the world’s prestigious universities. He began at the back waters of civilization, so to speak, in the most ignorant, crass, and pagan areas of the territories of Zebulun and Naphtali, where Galilee was. Matthew described that region as a land of darkness, and to that region Jesus the light of all nations, came to minister – in fact, to begin his ministry.
In this regard, we also notice that as each and every one of the first disciples was called, they just dropped whatever they were doing and followed Jesus. They gave up their previous lives and surrendered themselves to Jesus in the ministry that He called them to.
- Now, what about me? How do I live out my ministry in this Vincentian apostolate to which Jesus has called me? Do I only have one foot in ministry and the other foot somewhere else?
- I shudder to think what the Lord must be thinking about someone like me who has in name taken up ministry, while in actual fact am dragging my feet most of the 365 days in a year.
Look, friends, no one is forcing you to care. After all, your membership in SSVP is that of a voluntary member of a voluntary charitable welfare organization. Still, there are realities that confront us daily:
- There will be times when you are tempted to quit, so you can be free from this boring, non-lucrative, low-profiled, seemingly non-productive charitable work.
- You can, in fact, choose to take your leave any time, walk off and spend your time doing something which in worldly terms is more financially profitable. Then, you can have the spending power to chase after the big house and the nice cars and all the other good things in life that our money culture says you should buy.
- You can also choose, for example, to spend your time in some activities which are socially more pleasurable instead of “wasting time” doing works of charity.
- You can choose, in other words, to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from God’s story and God’s wishes for you and his people.
But we need to encourage each other not to give in to all that. Why?
- Not just because we have an obligation to those who are less fortunate – which we do;
- Nor because we have a debt to God and all those who helped you get here – which you do;
- But because you have an obligation to yourself. How is that so?
- Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition and a lack of Christian vision.
- Because, through service, you will find both meaning and purpose to life which a wholly self-serving existence cannot possibly provide.
- Because, through service, you can touch the hearts and minds of your adoptee families whose lives you help change. And this, we believe, is our highest calling.
- And so because, through service, you gain access to a vision that is larger than yourself, realize your true potential as a child of God, and discover the role you’ll play in God’s story of salvation.
- And, finally, it is because our salvation may ultimately rest on not how well we have done for ourselves and our family, but how well we have also cared for others. In other words, our individual salvation depends on collective salvation.
The Gospel story we have been looking at here is a message and a missiology. Patricia Sánchez in her reflections sees that disciples are missionaries and fishers. As missionaries, they can be more effective when they are willing to be mobile. This willingness to be mobile requires leaving the comfort of the institution to venture into those public and private places where people live their lives. As fishers, the good news they bring becomes more attractive when it is paired with the good example of the bearers. Fishermen, as itinerant preachers, do not keep regular hours. To be sure, as Sanchez puts it, fish do not make appointments, so those who gather them must be prepared to accommodate their “schedules.” Without doubt, those engaged in pastoral work who allow themselves to be available and easily accessible can deepen the bond between themselves and the people they aim to serve.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, July 2012. All rights reserved.
You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to us at jeffangiegoh@gmail.com. You can also be dialogue partners in this Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry by sending us questions for discussion.