Trust that God walks with us

From Safari,

Several years ago, while on sabbatical in Australia, I joined 11 other people from across the world and a guide to spend 3 days in the Outback. We hiked around Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) and in Kings Canyon. We were each given a swag (Australian for sleeping bag) and were restricted to bringing only a standard backpack for our personal items. During the daytime hours non-biting black flies surrounded us by the hundreds. Several of us had bug head nets. The locals who go without protective gear, joke the flies help clean the nostrils and ears. While eating lunch it seemed impossible not to consume a few bugs. One evening as a post dinner treat our guide lightly roasted some witchetty grubs for our culinary delight. (He had freshly gathered them in the afternoon.) In case you are wondering, the grubs tasted like a soggy french fry. This memory came to mind as I read again the Gospel of Mark, that the disciples were sent out two by two, taking only a walking stick and sandals --- no food, no sack, no money in their belts. The instructions seem insane.

Perhaps the simplicity Jesus urged on his disciples was intended to help them to focus on the needs of others and the task at hand rather than on their own needs or creature comforts. Could it be that Jesus intended his disciples to live like the people to whom they were being sent? They were not to export or impose their own culture.

Regardless the disciples were to entrust themselves to God. To believe that God would provide for their needs by moving the hearts of those to whom they are being sent to offer a kind welcome. What might today’s gospel mean for us? Certainly it is to trust God walks with us always on our pilgrimage of life. In the words of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd there is nothing I lack.”

Dick Folger offers this insight, “Jesus’ “no bag” instruction sounds very wise if we’re flying. But perhaps Jesus is speaking of a heavier kind of baggage that we need to leave behind if we are going to follow him. That heavy bag is fear. It is packed with images of being unqualified, fears of not being able to perform, of not knowing what to say or do, fear of being rejected and the ultimate, humiliating image of failure.”

What do you need to leave behind to follow Jesus? And while you ponder, enjoy a grub or two.

Fr. Ron