Thursday of the
Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(I Kings 2:1-4.10-12; Mark 6:7-13)
St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers as a response to
a missionary necessity. Many people,
especially in southern France, were attracted to Catharism, a sect that taught
the dualism of matter and spirit. What
is spiritual, the Catharists believed, is necessarily good and what is material
is evil. Eating and drinking were a problem. Even sex between married partners was to be
avoided. Truth and goodness were to be
embraced. For all the abuse that people
make of material things we can see how Catharist ideas would have some common appeal.
Monks galloping on horses from well-endowed estates had
little success in checking the Catharist distortion. Their near betrayal of poverty seemed only to
confirm what the dualists were teaching.
Dominic had a different tact in mind.
He would form a group of men who would beg for the food they ate. They would go on foot – two by two -- to
preach the gospel. Actually much of
Dominic’s program is based on today’s passage.
Jesus sends his disciples out with the same lack of resources – “no
food, no sack, no money in their belts.”
However, they have spiritual power to cast out demons and to cure the
sick. Their effects, as we shall read in
Saturday’s mass, are considerable.
These stories challenge us to re-examine our lives. They bid us to ask if our possessions might
not send a counter-message to what we treasure most. More than that, they urge us to reconsider our
goals. Do we just want to become
wealthy? Or do we find satisfaction in sharing
the gospel?
