We might ask, what does this passage mean to me today?
If we ask someone about his or her profession, “Are you an
accountant? or “Are you a sales representative for this drug company? They
would easily reply, “Yes, I am.” They would have no trouble explaining what
they do in the day-to-day life of their profession.
A problem arises, however, when we asks someone, “Are you a
disciple of Jesus?” Although disciple is an extremely common word in the Bible, many
Catholics do not have a clear idea of what it means to be a disciple. We are
not used to someone asking us if we are a disciple. With hesitation we might
say, “Yes, I am a disciple of Jesus.”
If an unchurched person, asked us to explain what a disciple
is, perhaps we would say that being a disciple is not like a profession, but it is a volunteer activity, which involves
joining a group with a minimum commitment of one hour per week, and occasional volunteer
work.
The problem is, this is not at all what a disciple is in the
Bible. The word disciple (Gr. mathētēs) comes from the verb ‘to learn.’[i] I'll warn you though, that this gives
entirely the wrong impression when we think of this today. Disciple is not a
special religious or Jewish word. Greek philosophers also had disciples. A disciple
was a follower of a master, or in the Jewish world a rabbi.
Unlike the
way we conduct modern education, discipleship was much more of an apprenticeship.
Disciples did received the master’s teaching and passed it down to later disciples.
The teaching was most often oral. While this teaching was essential, the most
important part of the process was to follow
or imitate the master to see how this teaching was lived in the walk or life of the master.
For Jewish rabbis,
the disciple was expected to demonstrate shimmush, “attending upon
and coming under the influence of” the teacher.[ii] They
were required to imitate the halakhah (or the walk of the rabbi).
The walk of the rabbi demonstrated the application of the Law to life.
Therefore,
I urge you, be imitators of me. For this reason I am sending you Timothy, who
is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord; he will remind you of my ways in
Christ [Jesus], just as I teach them everywhere in every church (1 Cor. 4:16-17).
Paul is able
to say I want you to imitate Jesus by imitating me—so I am sending you Timothy.
Because of the notion of discipleship, one is able to imitate Paul by imitating
Timothy. As St. Paul’s disciple, Timothy is a perfect living embodiment of Paul.
Being a disciple
is not an added extra for some Christians, all Christians are disciples.
Pope Francis has reminded us, all Christians
are missionary disciples. “In virtue
of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary
disciples (cf. Mt 28:19)” (Evangelii Gaudium 120).
While we do not need to imitate the specific cultural
details in our Gospel passage, Jesus words still apply to each one of us today. Jesus’
urgent appeal in our Gospel is directed to each one of us, “The harvest is
abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out
laborers for his harvest” (Luke 10:2).
Today, some Catholics have tried to adjust Jesus' mandate to preach the Gospel, by quoting a saying falsely attributed to St. Francis, “Preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.” St. Francis never said this, and when we look at the life of Francis, he definitely preach the Gospel also using words.
Perhaps our intuition is correct, however, that many unchurched people do not read the Gospels,
but instead read the life of Christians. If Christians are hypocritical and poor
examples of what a disciple is, then the message of the Gospel is undermined. At the same time, clearly the
Gospel is more than merely being nice.
Loving people and demonstrating the Gospel with our life is
crucial, but it is not enough. If we are disciples, we must also proclaim the saving
truth of the Gospel in its fullness. The Gospel message must be an invitation to surrender your life to Jesus and follow him.
Each one of us need to make a personal decision to follow Jesus. We have a duty to invite others to do this.
For those of us baptized as children, St. Pope John Paul II reminds us that each of us also needs to say ‘Yes’ to Jesus Christ. We must surrender to the Word of God and endeavor to know the profound meaning of this Word better and better (Catechesi tradendae 20). Infused by the Holy Spirit, we are lead to exercise faith and repentance, and to surrender to God’s will and to enjoy personal relationship with him.
Pope Paul VI reminds us that the evangelical message must have the “capacity of piercing the conscience of each individual, of implanting itself in his heart as though he were the only person being addressed, with all his most individual and personal qualities, and evoke an entirely personal adherence and commitment” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 45).
With this in
mind, Pope Francis makes the following impassioned plea,
I invite all Christians, everywhere,
at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at
least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this
unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for
him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”
(EG, 3).
What would happen in our families and parish if each one of us responded to Jesus' call personally and then shared this joyful hope both with our life and with our words?
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