Thinking about this Sunday's gospel take a moment to think about those times in your life when you have felt harried and dejected, we have all had them. Times when you feel besieged with no one to help you, to shepherd you along. As an older child there were problems of illness at home; eventually a social worker got involved. We got on and he believed in me and gave me a feeling of belief in myself. Many years later I managed to track him down to thank him and tell him something of what I had done with my life. He was delighted to hear from me and told me that he always wondered what had happened to me. Just one example of shepherds in my life. Most of us will have experienced this in some way, good people – women and men – who see us, care for us, and put us on the right path. Who was yours? Thank God for them today.

Just look around you in the world, we can see the world’s harried and dejected on the faces of so many people. One translation for harried and dejected is “torn and thrown down”. Just a stone’s throw from the street of the presbytery, every day on my walks here and there, I see and experience people who have taken drugs or alcohol, some sit still wrap in their intoxication, some shout and swear, at each other or to no one, perhaps just shouting their despair into the wind. Jesus sees this through our eyes. Jesus wants to respond.

Today in the gospel we hear of the commission of Jesus to his disciples. Prior to this passage Matthew tells his listeners about mission of Jesus in Jesus’ words and His actions. Today we hear of how this is extended to His disciples, their ministry – casting out unclean spirits and curing diseases and sickness – is parallel to, and derived from, the ministry of Jesus. This authority given to His disciples was not merely a set of actions, but at the time, and still are, seen as signs of the arrival of the God's Kingdom.

In Sunday's gospel the 12 are named. What are the criteria for the selection of the 12? We know something about them, Matthew, the ex-Roman collaborator, Simon, the religious zealot, Peter, who later denies even knowing Jesus, and Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, and the others. The group shows the breadth and scope of the appeal of Jesus. At first glance it’s not a world beating, or world converting, team. In one leap they move from disciples – literally “follower”, to apostles – one who is "sent". Jesus sharing His ministry with his friends must have both pleased and excited them, but also disturbed them too. They were a long way from receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and perhaps they were confused, scared, and a bit frightened as they were probably uncertain about what to do let alone just how to do it.

Through our baptism we too are named, literally by Jesus in the person of the priest or deacon. All of us are called to discipleship, all of us are called to “shepherdship”. All of us are in different ways are tasked to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. What does this proclamation look like? Maybe it’s the tin of beans for the foodbank, maybe it’s returning the smile of the stranger in the street, maybe it’s just a hello to the person slumped in the doorway.

Perhaps Mother Theresa put it best, “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body.

With every blessing and the assurance of my daily prayers for your needs and intentions.

Fr Chris