The WORD in other words (2009) by Fr. Gerry Perocho, SVD – Catholic Trade Manila
Thursday 14th Week in Ordinary Time
My second mission assignment after ordination was in Zamboanga Sibugay Province. It was a new mission territory offered to the SVD Southern Province by the Bishop of the Prelature of Ipil. I volunteered to go there to experience pastoral work in the parish.
Coming from my previous mission assignment, I brought with me all personal belongings I accumulated in my three years stint in the seminary in Davao, only to find out that some of those things were not needed in the parish. I had to bring them home. It was a waste of time and money. Likewise, in going to the BEC chapels in the interior, seaside and mountain-top Christian communities, I usually brought with me aside from my Mass kit, personal belongings such as extra shirt, bottled water, blankets, mosquito nets and other important, things all in one big pack bag.
All these made my travel heavy and slow. But most of the times, those things I brought with me were not used because the communities provided me with things I needed, far exceeding my expectations. These experiences made me realize my own stupidity, hardheadedness, and lack of trust in the Divine Providence through the people I encountered and worked with. Those extra personal belongings I brought with me in my travels were symbolic of the inner baggage I brought with me: my mental, emotional, and spiritual baggage. I failed to capitalize on Christ’s assurance that in his vineyard a laborer deserves his keep.
Jesus in today’s Gospel tells his disciples, and likewise to us today, to travel light and focus our attention on His message so that everything else will fall into place. Christ’s and the Church’s great message of reconciliation and forgiveness is a good news to our troubled, and angry world. The Gospel directs us to look at Christ as a model of reconciliation and forgiveness so we can move beyond the human models of armistices, peace treaties, and reparations.
For many of us bound by guilt, the question is not whether God will forgive us but whether we are willing to forgive ourselves by accepting His gift of reconciliation. We can always come home to Him whose arms are always waiting to receive us. Let’s look up to Jesus, for he is the model of a loving forgiveness that heals and makes us whole.
