Am 7: 12-15;   Eph 1: 3-14;   Mk 6: 7-13

One of my favorite movies is a survival film made in the year 2000 titled, Castaway, starring Tom Hanks. In this movie, the FedEx airplane Tom travels on crashes into the South Pacific Ocean during a thunder storm and Tom finds himself on a small, uninhabited island where for four years he attempts to survive. One thing I liked about the film was how little Tom Hanks needed to stay alive.

Have you ever wondered what it might be like if you had to survive such an ordeal? For instance, imagine you’re on a large at sea that suddenly begins to sink. Your only chance to survive is by a small boat or raft — a raft you may have to lash together from broken boards from the sinking ship. You launch your tiny craft into the sea, but first you gather whatever you can salvage from the mother ship — a bottle of water perhaps; a knife; a length of rope; a blanket or tarp. And then you set off on your little raft in search of safety and home.

In a way, each of us has been placed on a survival raft as we go through life seeking safety, security and home. We want to be at peace in an often stormy world. As Christians, we seek the only safe and secure home we shall find, which is our faith in Jesus Christ.

But faith in Christ is not enough. What we take on our little raft to survive is critical to our journey.

Our culture tells us we need to take lots of possessions, power and prestige. Each day we are bombarded with messages that tell us we are not enough as we are and that we need more things. I recall a bumper sticker I’ve not seen for a while that read: “The one who dies with the most toys wins!”

This reminds me of the ancient Egyptian kings whose tombs were loaded with symbols of their power, possessions and prestige. It was the belief of religious Egyptians of the time that when people died they would take a journey to another world where they would lead a new life. They believed they would need all the things they used while they were alive. They also believed they had to preserve their bodies so they could use them in the afterlife. That’s why the bodies of kings and wealthy individuals, who could afford a tomb, were mummified. The poor, who could afford neither a tomb nor mummification were buried in the hot, desert sand.

One of the freeing things about our Christian belief is that we don’t take anything with us except, perhaps, what we’ve given away.

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus sends his twelve apostles out two by two. He instructs them to take nothing on their journey but a tunic, a walking stick and sandals. These are the only survival items they are to possess. But why does Jesus want the Twelve to take so little with them? Maybe the reason has something to do with their mission. The Twelve are sent to have authority over unclean spirits, to heal the sick and to preach repentance. To accomplish this mission, Jesus knows they will need to remain strong in their faith.

Jesus also knows that dependence on material things can make us anxious, and anxiety over not having enough gets in the way of faith. He says as much in other parts of the gospels, such as in Matthew, Chapter 6, when he assures us: “…Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.” 26-29

Jesus concludes that we should first seek the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness and all that we need will follow.

What we finally discover in life, if we live long enough, and have enough experience with suffering, is that we need very little.

When I visit nursing homes I’m reminded of how little is actually needed to survive. Mostly elderly folks who live in nursing homes live with no privacy in small rooms they might share with one or two others. They have few possessions in their rooms: maybe a picture or two of loved ones, or a child’s drawing taped to a wall, a few items of clothing and some books. Some of them no longer have their minds because of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. When I have offered a Mass at a nursing home, usually only a few say the responses during Mass or pray the Lord’s Prayer. Most of them have no idea of what I preach about in my homily. Of course, that condition exists outside of nursing homes!

What the ones who can remember have that remains in their little life-raft are memories of good times with loved ones. They have the love of family and friends along with someone to care for them in their need.

Some also steer their little raft with a rudder called faith. And some hoist a little sail on their raft called prayer. And some get food for their journey called the Eucharist. And some have a compass in their rooms they read from time to time called the Bible.

In 1968, the famous German theologian, Johannes Metz, wrote a classic work on Christian spirituality called Poverty of Spirit. It’s a small booklet, only 52 pages. In a way, this booklet is a survival manual for living in this world today. I recommend you read it. Poverty of spirit means to depend on God alone for our happiness, and not on anything else in this world. Jesus puts it this way: “How blessed (or happy) are the poor in spirit, the reign of God is theirs.” MT 5:3

In his book, Metz points out that what we need most in life is God’s grace. God’s grace is simply God’s love that can fill our emptiness with radiant hope and joy. And when we are filled with God’s grace, at the same time, we are emptied of the false anxiety and fear that we don’t have enough.

In this regard, St. Paul wrote, “The Lord said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’ ” 2 Cor 12:9 In other words, when we experience God’s grace, we discover that we are sufficient—nothing is missing.

Poverty of spirit allows us to stand impoverished and empty before God. It is only then that God can transform our poverty into grace and place us in the kind of poverty Jesus experienced that kept him close to his Father in heaven and the people he served.

Metz goes on to write, “Only through poverty of spirit do we draw near to God; only through it does God draw near to us. Poverty of spirit is the meeting point of heaven and earth… the point where infinite mystery meets concrete existence.” p. 21

Poverty of spirit is an essential experience for survival in the spiritual life. It should be a goal in our spiritual life for which we pray each day. Poverty of spirit happens when we surrender our anxiety and fear to God and trust that God will provide.

With an attitude of poverty of spirit we know what is essential, what are the most important items to take on our journey to return to home, to that place where we are safe and secure.

And so, what items do you place in your little raft to get you safely home on your journey? As Jesus advised the Twelve, so also does he advise us, to take just a few things, so that anxiety over what we have or don’t have will not keep us from the experience of God’s grace.

To take with us an attitude of poverty of spirit means to stop depending on this world to make us happy. Instead, we are to depend on God alone. To depend on God alone requires self-abandonment, which means to abandon our constant ego complaint that we need more to be happy and, instead, seek to transcend the private self to be untied with God and all of God’s creation.

We find self-abandonment as we pray and sense God fill our spirit with grace. We find self-abandonment as we worship, and that’s why we feel something is not quite right within us when we miss a weekend Mass.

In our Christian life-raft survival bag we also take along trust that Jesus will never abandon us no matter what we have done or failed to do. We take along assurance that we are enough, that we are sufficient as we are. That we have everything we need right now in this moment to be complete, to be fulfilled, to be happy. Nothing is missing.

And, finally we take along something for our neighbor — a first aid kit called “Love” that includes bandages labeled, “Acts of Kindness,” which we apply to the wounds of others. We take along an antiseptic called “mercy” for people we know that are having a rough time.

These are a few survival items we need as we sail our little raft over the sea of life. We can be assured that with such survival gear, we shall safely reach the final shore at that island Jesus called, “Paradise,” where anxiety and fear do not exist, where there is no more suffering and no more need for that little raft filled with faith that kept us afloat and very much alive.

For your homework this week, I invite you to make two lists:

The first list is a list of all the things you think you need for you to be happy.

The second list is what God thinks you need to be happy.

After you make the two lists, compare them. You will be surprised at how long is the first list and how short is the second.

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