Isaiah 2:1-5 / Ephesians 3:2-12 / Mark 16:15-20
Having something that is multi-purpose seems like a good idea.
Multi-purpose sounds more versatile than single-purpose, and also more economical too.
For example, having a multi-purpose cooker would mean that the kitchen can be cleared of all those pots and pans that are used for various types of cooking.
Because a typical multi-purpose cooker is able to boil, simmer, bake, fry, grill, roast, stew, steam and whatever we can think of.
That would be a chef’s dream kitchen appliance and every homemaker would desire for it.
But before rushing off to get one, let us remember that multi-purpose may also mean that it may be a “jack-of-all-trades, but master-of-none”.
We are more familiar with the old-fashioned pot and pan and we know what we could do with it and we can be quite certain of how the food will turn out.
With a multi-purpose cooker, there are multiple settings for various types of cooking.
But use the wrong setting for the cooking and the fire-engine might come over and the firemen looking at your cooking, or whatever remains of it.
Anyway, as the Church celebrates Mission Sunday, the Church may also seem to be like a multi-purpose cooker, and like the settings, there are so many aspects of the Church’s mission in the world.
There are missionaries sent out to foreign lands, the Church is involved in social work and charities, building schools and hospitals, and a variety of activities that are under the term “mission of the church”.
Yes, these are expressions or signs of the Church’s presence and mission in the world.
The Church is following the command of Jesus to go out to the whole world and to proclaim the Good News to all creation.
Then Jesus talks about the signs that will be associated with believers. They will cast out devils, they will have the gift of tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison, they will lay their hands on the sick who will recover.
These are certainly very spectacular and wonderful signs of the mission of the Church.
But we may have to admit that it is like reading the description on the box of a multi-purpose cooker and we are impressed by what it can do.
Being impressed is one thing. To be able to get the cooker to cook what we want is another matter.
Just like how the pictures in the recipe book don’t look like anything we cook.
So, what is the relevance in what Jesus said in the gospel? Are those signs still associated with the Church now?
A man asked a priest, “How can we perform those miraculous signs that Jesus talked about in the gospel?”
The priest replied, “If you teach a person to read the gospel, you have opened the eyes of the blind. If you teach a person to help the poor and needy, you have healed the paralyzed. If you help a person to go to Church, you’re healed the crippled. If you lead someone to repentance, you have raised the dead. Now go and perform these miracles.”
The world needs to see these miracles, these signs, and Jesus has commissioned us to do it.
And we can do it when we practice love and forgiveness.
With the simplicity and humility of love, the Lord of love will work with us and show us these wonderful signs.
With forgiveness, we will cleanse ourselves, and the world, of the poison of sin and bring about the joy of salvation.
Our mission is to help others learn the ways of God and walk in His paths of love and forgiveness. a
That is the vision of Isaiah, son of Amos, in the 1st reading. Let that also be our vision.