Instructions and focus

In today’s Gospel we hear once more Christ’s commission to those who are to spread the Gospel.

His instructions are brief, but challenging: calling us to a simplicity of life that is much more than the mere lack of physical things. Our Lord’s instructions urge us to avoid becoming distracted as we spread His word.

Physical things and wealth can be good things in themselves, but they quite often come at the price of distraction, as the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us

For what profit comes to a man
from all the toil and anxiety of heart
with which he has labored under the sun?
All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation;
even at night his mind is not at rest.
This also is vanity.
Ecclesiastes 2:22-23

Material things can distract us from what our true responsibilities are, but not only material things.

Most of us want to be liked and when we experience rejection, it bothers us. Sometimes it can totally knock us off track and we spend time thinking, “What should I do? What did I do wrong? How can I make things better?”

These are the kinds of distractions our Lord tells us to leave behind when he says, “As for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.”

We should learn from the past and repent when we have sinned, but we dare not dwell on the past at the expense of the work that is before us.

We must not be distracted. We must remember our prime responsibilities. We must focus on Christ and his truth.