Travel Lightly

Mark 6: 7-13

I finally figured out why Jesus told the Twelve to travel so
lightly. If they don't have much, then the street person will ignore
them, for the Twelve have nothing to give. The rich will not try to
hobnob with the Twelve because it improves no social status. This
leaves the Twelve to preach repentance and to heal with oil, that is,
do sacraments.

This is what priests are supposed to do, but we get all caught up in
social service work and social events. If we looked not much
different than a beggar, would beggars have anything to do with us?
It is because we do have much accumulated, "our stuff", that people
perceive us as able to fix social inequalities. It is because we
like to have a good social standing, that we tend to seek a social
status with those we perceive as "already there." We shy away from
saying anything that would offend. We don't challenge, much less
preach repentance, or "change your life." I wonder if our call is to
be discomforting, before we can be comforting. If so, I suspect we
will be shaking a lot of dust from our feet, and the invitations will
be few.