In today’s Gospel Jesus sends his apostles out on a mission. The Greek word apostolos means one who is sent. Jesus sends out these apostles to continue and expand his mission. To become an apostle, one has to spend time with Jesus and learn from him about God and the ways of God. What the apostles have learned so far is that Jesus goes out to all, but especially the leper, the outcast, and the sinner. Jesus’ way of calling people to conversion, to turning to God, is not through threats of eternal damnation but through words of compassion and love. Jesus wants people to be touched and overwhelmed by the love of God. Jesus teaches that love, not fear, brings about true conversion.
Jesus sends these first apostles into the world; a world that will both accept and reject them, a world that can be both kind and cruel. Jesus warns them: “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” Jesus embodied this approach in his words and deeds. He challenged people to put God’s will before their own will but he also turned the other cheek and forgave when people rejected him and condemned him.
Jesus sends us out today as apostles. Through our baptism we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue and expand Jesus’ mission. Like the first apostles Jesus calls us to be as “wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.” Jesus sends us out to all, to saints and sinners, but especially to the poor and the outcast. Jesus sends us out into the world not to judge and condemn but to help people experience the love of God and to know that God walks with them on the journey of our life.
We are not to be naive but as shrewd as serpents. Still, we must be as simple or as gentle as doves. Jesus sends us out into our world where we face pressing issues such as gun control, abortion, war, polarization, and the lack of integrity in some of our religious and political leaders. Jesus instructs us to allow the Spirit of our Father to speak through us. Jesus calls us to be as “shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.”