In the gospel of today, Christ sends out to the world his disciples, giving them the authority to proclaim the good news to all creation. While we will normally expect many requirements for such an important mission, just as a student or teacher would require at the beginning of the academic year, Christ commands his disciples to take nothing with them for the journey except a staff. Our reflection will be centered on giving answers to this question: Why does Christ instruct his disciples to take nothing for the journey except a staff? Reflecting upon this question, two answers come to mind: first of all, the mission is not primarily ours. Secondly, it is a call to faith or total dependency in Christ. The journey of evangelization is difficult and challenging. We will explain these two answers in the following lines below. The Mission of Evangelization primarily belongs to not us but to Christ: What we need disciples of Christ for the mission of evangelization does not come from our own provision.

The mission of evangelization belongs primarily to Christ. We are simply cooperators in Christs mission. From his loving will, he chose us before the foundation of the world and blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. As disciples of Christ, we must always bear in our consciousness that evangelization is not about the talents we have, but of who God is and what he can do through us in humanity.

A call to faith or total dependency in Christ is necessary for evangelization: Christ is aware of the trials and temptations that await those who speak the good news (cfr. Sirach 2:1). The call to take nothing with us for the journey signifies the necessity of total trust and faith in God, in order to create the proper space for him to act in our lives and in the lives of others (cfr. Proverbs 3:16).

Through our baptism, God commissions us each day to go out and do the same things he did. He invites each and every one of us to be open to the power received in our Baptism to preach the good news of the reign of the kingdom, heal the sick, give sight to the and liberate the captives. Let us pray for the grace to be totally dependent and open to the action of God through us in the societies where we find ourselves so that his will may be done here on earth. Amen.

BY NJUNGBA CHRYSANTHUS, PIARIST RELIGIOUS,