Send Me

July 12, 2008
Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!” Isaiah 6:7-8

Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31

Piety

Let us pray: Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will. Amen.

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/071208.shtml

“Here I am. Send me.” This is our covenant. If we are there for Jesus, he will be there for us. As we promise him that we are here to help, he promises us that he is here to support us as well. But wait, there’s more. Despite our sins, he is there to cleanse us for the mission ahead. In return, for this purification, the Lord seeks our help in his work.

“Do not be afraid.” Jesus is there to guard us and protect us. With that, the Lord will get us ready for the work ahead. In Isaiah’s case, he was purified when the angel used the embers to touched Isaiah’s tongue in ritual purification to make him ready for his work. With the disciples, Jesus, the suffering yet prudent servant, cleansed his disciples by washing their feet.

In the Gospels of Matthew and John, both teach of the relationship between the slave and the master.

No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. Matthew 10:24

Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. John 13:16

The two Gospels differ in what immediately precedes this teaching. In Matthew, we see Jesus commissioning the disciples to go out into the world to love and serve the people.
In John’s account of Jesus teaching about the relationship between the slave and the master, it is immediately preceded by the washing of the feet and a similar commissioning.

You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. John 13: 13-15

Action

What purification do you need before taking on the work Jesus has set before you? From what do we need to be purified?

As we go to serve the lost sheep of Virginia or Texas or New Jersey or Latin America or Africa or even our own home, what must we do to get ready?