Memorial of Saint Benedict, abbot
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus continues his instructions to the Twelve before sending them out on mission. And while several of Jesus’s directives require some translation in order to understand how they might apply to us today—most Christians are not itinerant missionaries like the apostles, for instance—one instruction does apply directly to each of us: Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
The disciples of Jesus’s day received the attention, care, teaching, presence, and example of Jesus freely, as pure gift. But if they truly received this gift of Jesus, if they even partially grasped the infinite value of the Gospel, then they would know that this Good News demands a response. The gift of the Gospel demands a change of life, and it demands to be shared freely with others. It demands a return-gift, offered not directly to God per se, but to God through others.
We, too, have received this gift of the Good News freely, without any strings attached. God has given us—and continues to give us—his very self in Jesus Christ and in the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. And this infinite gift of God, offered to us in prayer, in the sacraments, and in many other ways, calls us to be and act like God, to make a free gift of ourselves in love for others, starting with family, friends, and neighbors, and extending to the whole world. Such is the Christian call; such is the worship in Spirit and in truth that we can offer to God.
Today, then, let us call to mind the manifold gift of God’s self to us, noticing a few concrete ways that we receive him. And let us resolve, in one or two concrete ways, to offer ourselves back to God through our love for our brothers and sisters.