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And he sent them out two by two.
As you might remember a group of us just returned
yesterday from the Tijuana mission trip
where for the week we were building three homes.
We all got back safe and sound, and it was wonderful.
There were some amazing moments on this week of mission
that it is hard to identify any one
that was particularly more potent than the other.
But there were some that were definitely powerful.
Like the blessing of the homes when we gave them the keys.
The tears in their eyes as they received this gift of a home
that they previously did not have.
Or the moment when we were all working together
and this house goes up and suddenly it is done.
The teamwork!
Or how carefully our kitchen crew prepared all the food
so we would be nourished on time.
And then the many different immersion trips,
we were taking to different places like the border.
There is a place called Friendship Park
and the border goes right into the sea.
The wall goes right into the sea!
It is rather shocking to see.
You look at this line and you ask,
“What is a wall doing into the ocean?”
It just does not make sense.
And there are two of them, not just one,
two walls to make sure no one can get over the first.
But there was one place that we visited
that was particularly powerful.
It was a clinic for TB and AIDS
and they have 160 residents there.
These are the people who are most rejected by their society
and this group of people ministered to them.
It is an incredibly powerful place of love,
of a sanctuary of love; really, really powerful.
One of the moments for me that probably was most powerful
was one of the residents who had been deported from America,
he spoke perfect English.
He had been in America most of his life
from one year old and was deported.
Then he got TB and ended up in this location
after spending time on the streets.
We had this exchange, this dialogue.
He made a statement by sharing this story
from Robert Green, the American author.
It is from the book called the “40 Rules of of Power,” I believe.
But anyway, this is what he shared and it was really powerful.
There were two men who were walking along
and one was carrying a bag that was rather heavy.
And the other asked him, “What is in your bag?”
He opened up his bag and he showed him a solid gold bar.
And the guy looks at it and says,
“A gold bar. Like, like, like, wow.
That is like, that is everything.”
Then he said, “Well, do you want it?”
The younger man says, “Of course I want it.”
So the older man gives him the gold bar
and he takes the bar, puts it in his bag,
and then walks off and leaves him.
A year later, they meet and the older guy asks, “How are you doing?”
He says, “Great. I want to give you this bar of gold back.”
He said, “But I thought you wanted it.
I thought you wanted to keep it.”
The younger man says, “Oh, I do wanna keep it,
but I want more what you have
in being able to give it away to me.
That is what I want more.
So I want to give it back to you
because I want that more than having the bar of gold.”
Then the man at the TB clinic turns to us and he looks at us and says,
“As much as I love being here,
I am being loved and being surrounded by all the residents here.
I want what you guys have more.
That you have come down from America,
left everything you have done in America
and come down just to visit us and to love us.”
We were silenced by his words.
We did not know what to say
because we had only just come to visit, come to say hello.
But for him, that made all the difference,
the the power of presence, the power of being present to them.
And he wanted that more than anything else in the world.
And we did not even realize we had it, the gift of presence.
That is what this ministry is and has always been about.
Yes we build homes.
Yes, we changed their lives and our lives,
but fundamentally it is a ministry of presence to people
who often feel forgotten in the world,
who think that nobody notices or sees them or wants them.
We not only go down there and are present to them and
build homes, but we visit with the families
and we visit with them on their side of the border.
And we were sent two by two!
Jesus sent out the apostles, the twelve.
In Mark's gospel, it depicts as just the twelve.
But in the other gospels he sends out all his disciples.
Of course, that is what we see.
He sends all of us out to share the good news of the gospel with others.
How we do that is incredibly important,
but more important is that we do something to spread the good news.
It is wonderful to have you all here and we have people online.
I thank you all for joining us.
It is great that you join online, but it is not enough to sit at home or here,
and especially we who come to receive from the table.
We have to convert that into some form of action,
some form of presence, some form of ministry
that is a witness to what we have heard here today,
what we have participated in.
We need, as Jesus said, to bring the love of Christ to all.
What does that look like for us?
I understand not everyone could go to Tijuana and build homes.
I get that, but how can we all play a role?
For some of us it is something as simple as
being present to our spouse in our home.
Whether they are well or whether they are sick,
to being fully present to them and bringing the joy of the gospel
right into your own home.
Or with your children and your family.
Not hassle them because they are not here,
but to bring the joy of the gospel,
the message that Christ gives us,
that life eternal is real and that we are called to participate in that
by loving one another today.
Now that is the joy of the gospel.
For some others it will be something a little bit more.
Something a little bit more radical than just inside our home.
Maybe we need to take the time to visit with that neighbor
or that relative with whom we have not spent time with
that relative who we maybe even struggle with.
And it is our turn to pick up the call phone or go and visit them
and may and be present to them in the midst of their suffering.
Or, or maybe it is something more radical.
We have to go to the periphery.
Those who are not included.
Maybe that is the immigrant, maybe that is the homeless,
maybe it is a member of the LBGTQ community,
which who we do not see or they do not feel welcomed here,
that we called to bring that message of the gospel to them.
One of joy, one of love, one of compassion to give it away
because you see what we receive here is God's gift of love to us.
We can not just hold onto it.
We must be willing to give it away.
We must be willing to give it away.
You see, that is what that man in the story
had the freedom to give away what he had received.
See, there are things that hold us back and we have to ask ourselves,
“What is it that is holding us back?
What is it that is weighing us down?”
That and the freedom we comes with giving away,
like the disciples sent out to take nothing with them for the journey.
Sometimes it is wealth. Yes it is.
But sometimes it is power. It is prestige.
Maybe it is a title, maybe it is a position.
Maybe it is our position in our family or our community.
But we give that away so that we are free to give away
the love that we have received at the table.
You see, that is what the disciples were so free to do.
And they themselves were a little bit amazed.
They came back surprised that they were able to heal
and to bring this message and cast demons
that meant to spread the gospel.
So let’s not be surprised when we give ourselves away
that the the Lord is present in those ministry.
The power of presence in the small moments,
the power of presence in the larger moments.
Whatever it is that we do,
let us commit to doing some one thing this week
that will spread the gospel news.
We are gonna make that promise to Benjamin and William
in just a couple of seconds when we baptize them.
We promise to be there for them,
not only their parents and their godparents,
we all promise be witnesses to them to show the way.
That is what we are called to do.
We will all be sent out two by two to bring the message.
So today, at the end of mass, we will do that.
We will send you out and ask you to
bring the good news to others by our lives;
by showing it in our lives.
So let us choose one or two moments
and together we will spread the good news two by two
as far as the world will take us.
And he sent them out two by two.
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