Fr Agustinus Sutiono O.Carm

I notice some good practices that Catholic schools in Indonesia, Peru, the United States and the United Kingdom include in their curriculum an opportunity for the Secondary School or High School students to take several days of mission or also known as a live in programme. The reason for it is good. Not only to practice some trained virtues such as the main values or spirituality of the school, but also to learn a real life that everyone of us has to face while living far away from the family. Some skills and good characters are expected to grow such as hospitality, responsibility, respect to other people, social skill to communicate with others, tolerance, hard working, colaboration, outward looking, solidarity and emphathy. Before leaving for this mission, the schools provide trainings, guidance and instructions to make sure that everything will go well. Those students really learn the reality of life.

After a some periode of discipleship, Jesus summoned the twelve disciples and sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. For this mission, Jesus gave them not only instructions regarding how to carry out the Works but also equiped them with power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. This is to say that without the power that came from Jesus there would be no healing and no liberation from the evil spirits. This curing and restoring power is to mark the eficacy of the Kingdom of God. The truth of its presence is justified by the reality that the evil spirits were defeated, illness will never become a source of fear and anxieties, and death has no power. The message embodied in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is so important that the disciples have to be clear with its importance.

The instruction given by Jesus to his disciples helps them concéntrate on their mission and on the message that they had to proclaim. They were instructed to take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. All these stuffs might bring a sense of convenience and security, but they had nothing to do with the proclamation of God’s Kingdom. Being preoccupied to these things means that our concern to proclaim the message of the mission is biased. The second instruction concerns with the place to stay. The principle given was that whatever house they entered, they were to stay there and leave from there. Again, a place to stay has nothing to do with the zeal to proclaim the message carried out. The last instruction taught about facing the possible rejection. Jesus said: “And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” A messenger was supposed not to be said if he found any rejection. Now, we know for sure that the Kingdom of God is not about having worldy amenities, financial security, enough or abundant food, long life on this earth, and staying in a nice house. It is about: living fully under the surrendrence to the will of God, acting under His guidance and relying on the providence of God.

Fr Agustinus Sutiono O.Carm

Long time ago, there was a famous common knowledge among the religious priests, differenciated from the diocesan priest, that once someone decided to join with religious life whether as a priest or religious, they have to forget his family and their concern, change their original name and take up a new religious name. Managing to ignore the family and its situation was considered a virtue. If happened that his or her family visited him, it would be commented as a weak personality or seen suspiciously as seeking for a help. Now, the situation is much better, more human and just. There is no term such as an ex of the family member. The family remains as a family, not only for the related religious but also counted as family for the whole brotherhood of his religious congregation. This personal experience and view came up into my mind at any time I read the passage of the gospel today.

Jesus left the house for the sake of proclaiming the Kingdom of God and explaining its righteousness. Fort this work, he was known to become a new emerging teacher who gained so much fame for his powerful teaching and the wonders that he performed as the signs of the truth of the message he brought. That might become a pride for his family to have Jesus as member of the family, and the family could participated in his greatness. The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. There was no mention at all about the motivation. In other places in the Gospel, we find that his family showed a big concern to Jesus as a member of the family, wanted to save him and to pick him up. However, Jesus needed to make an important point to respond the report that his mother and his brothers were standing outside and they wished to see him. He said to them in reply: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

Of course, Jesus did not want to deny his family and at the same time he did not want to confuse himself with the focus of his mission. However, there is something to fix. He made it clear that as the Son of God, those whom he considered to become his brothers and mother were those who were in the same spirit with him, that is, those who surrendered themselves to the will of God, heard his voice and acted on it. With those expression, Jesus praised Mary his sanguinal mother as a mother in spirit too. So, every claim of sanguinal closeness in relation to Jesus is not important at all. The true closeness and relation to Jesus is determined by whether we do the will of God or not, not by how frequent we pray or come to the mass, but by whether we do the will of God or not. And this is the will of God, that we believe in Jesus Christ. The only proof that we believe in Jesus is when we embed his thoughts, characters, concerns and words to our concrete daily life. So, good and calm reasoning, not anger, is the best way to deal with misunderstanding or unconsidered accusation. By those saying, Jesus opens widely to everyone to build a close relationship with Him in a spiritual way.

Fr Agustinus Sutiono O.Carm

Both the first Reading and the gospel offer practical advices. The first Reading provides advices not to postpone any act of kindness when the opportunity and the moment to do so come to us, including to give to someone the good on which he has a claim when it is in our power to do it for him. We are advised not to plot evil against our neighbor, against one who lives at peace with us, not to quarrel with a man without cause or with one who has done no harm to us, and not to envy to and imitate the ways of the lawless person. The perverse, the wicked and the arrogant person are an abomination in God’s eyes. However, to the upright God offers his friendship and to the humble he shows kindness. The call to be merciful, kind, good, upright, and to be humble is a call to become a person functioning as an enkindled lamp. These are good deeds before God.

Jesus in the Gospel of Luke today put forth the idea of a lighting lamp. Jesus said: “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light”. We can understand these words if we connect them with the parable of the seed sown by a farmer which preceded.

It was said that some seed fell along the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns and some other seed fell on good soil. The seed represent the words of God. Different types of soil represent different hearts of men and their actual conditions when they receive the words of God. The soil that exists along the path are every heart who hears the words of God, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. The rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The soil filled with thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. The good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. The problema here is not in the quality of the seed, but on the main preoccupation of the heart. It affects the way a person hears, perceives and understands them. We are called to grow well and yield.

To yield fruits out of the seed sown means to realise concrete actions and deeds which flow from a mind, thought and will that are guided and influenced by the words of God. The Word of God is light, as said: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”. Jesus is the Word of God. He said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Those who receive Jesus, listen to him, have faith in him and follow his teachings and examples of life have the light in their being. They too become the light of the world. He said: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”. Faith without works is dead. It is like a lamp unable to function. Thus, to yield deeds out of the words of God is like to function well is a lamp. Good works and good deeds inspired by the words of God function as a shining light. They can be used to explain so many things. God knows what is in the heart.

Fr. Agustinus Sutiono O.Carm

Both Saints Matthew and and Luke used the name Matthew for the tax collector who received Jesus’s call. Saint Mark called this person Levi. In reality, bot names, Matthew and Levi, are two names for the same person. Due to the city he was born in and his profession as a Roman Tax collector he needed dual citizenship. For this reason “Matthew” is his Greek and business name, also the name used when dealing with Gentiles, and “Levi” is his Jewish name given from his parentage. Levi was the Hebrew name. As a tax collector, Matthew worked for Greek-speaking Romans. He gathered taxes from Hebrew-speaking Jews. For this reason, the Jews stigmatised or treated Matthew as a traitor as well as a sinner. Both labels means that he was excommunicated, excluded and made a stranger in his own home because of his job. That was a cruelty introduced and brought by nationalism and religión upon humanity.

Jesus came not to scatter people into groups or social class. Instead, he reconciled groups into one flock using the spirit of brotherhood. In his sight, all, including us, are children of God the Father and are brothers to each others. The fact that Jesus called Matthew and made him as one of his twelve disciples told us a lot about the heart of Jesus, the heart of God, not the heart of man. The heart of man tends to judge and exclude anyone else who is different. The heart of God calls everyone to gather. By calling him as part of the twelve, Jesus restored him from social punishment and exclusion, reconciled him to his sonship to God, healed him from being socially stereotyped and forgave him from his failings and sins as a tax collector. That call to discipleship to Jesus Christ speaks loudly about the importance of returning to our right before God as human person.

To judge and to punish other people for becoming a sinful person under the criteria of religious laws is definitely not our right. It is the prerogative right of God. We are supposed not to take it away from God. It is better to ask ourselves: “Who are we that we judge others?” than to scrutinise and condemn others on behalf of our own false piety and religious view. The question addressed to the disciples of Jesus by the Pharisees: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” was an example of that judgement, exclusion and punishment. It seems that it was not enough for the Pharisees to judge and punish their fellow human being. They also wanted to direct and dominate God that God complied to their criteria of piety. However, the truth and wisdom of God was declared clearly: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Thank you Lord for welcoming us, sinners and including us into your mercy and into the dischipleship to your Son, Jesus Christ.