WITH FEW THINGS
What could have happened to separate us so much from that initial project of Jesus? Where has the job of the Master gone? Who keeps listening today to his recommendations?
Few Gospel stories describe to us better Jesus’ original intention than this one that presents Jesus to us as he sends out his disciples two by two, without knapsacks, money or extra tunic.
It’s enough to have a friend, a walking staff, and some sandals to delve into the paths of life, announcing to everyone the change that we need in order to discover the ultimate secret of life and the path to true liberation.
Let’s not lightly distort Jesus’ assignment. Let’s not think that it’s about a naïve utopia, proper maybe to a semi-nomad society long gone, but impossible in a world like ours.
There’s something here that we can’t escape. The Gospel is announced by those who know how to live simply. Free men and women who know the joy of walking through life without feeling themselves slaves of things. It’s not the powerful, the economists, the technocrats, the great strategists of politics who are going to build a more human world.
This society needs to discover that we must return to a simple and restrained life. It’s not enough to increase production and reach a greater level of living. It’s not sufficient to always gain more, buy more and more things, enjoy greater well-being.
This society needs as never before the impact of men and women who know how to live with few things. Believers capable of showing that happiness isn’t in accumulating goods. Followers of Jesus who remind us that we aren’t rich when we possess many things, but when we know how to enjoy them simply and share them generously. Whoever lives a simple life and a generous solidarity is the one who better preaches the conversion that our society most needs.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
