Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B

“Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two.” Mk. 6:7

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

This profound and unnerving question is posed by Mary Oliver in one of her most edifying poems. It’s a question that immediately challenges each of us to ponder carefully and thoughtfully and prayerfully.

Perhaps it is even more pertinent at this time in our country when you consider the title of a recent book written by a professor of psychology at San Diego University, namely:

“iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.”

In it, the author, Jean M. Twenge, writes that “Nearly all teens, as well as most adults, have been profoundly affected by the increasing predominance of electronic devices in our lives. Many … teens spend much more time today with screens and much less time with their peers face-to-face than did earlier generations.”

Dr. Twenge then quotes these facts:

The number of 17–and 18-year-olds who get together with their friends every day, for example, dropped by more than 40 percent between 2000 and 2016.

Teens are sleeping less, with sleep deprivation spiking after 2010.

Clinical-level depression, self-harm behavior (such as cutting), the number of suicide attempts and suicide rate for teens rose sharply after 2010.

Teens who spent more than five or more hours a day using electronic devices were 66 percent more likely to have at least one risk factor for suicide, such as depression or a previous suicide attempt.

Data from a survey of eighth-graders in 2016 indicates that 1 in 10 spent 40 yours a week or more playing electronic games. That’s about 2.5 million kids.

Finally, Dr. Twenge reports that young people who want to talk to their friends at lunch can’t, because their friends are staring at their phones. Family dinners and vacations are constantly interrupted by texts and notifications. The norm for social interaction is now social media and online games, not hanging out in person.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Today’s Gospel reading gives us a potential option to Mary Oliver’s question. That option is this:

A chance to accept the call that Jesus gives us – the call to be “sent out.” That’s really what the word “Mass” means in its original form. It’s a word indicating a “mission,” a “calling.”

What Mark is making clear in today’s Gospel is that it isn’t just these 12 apostles that are summoned by Jesus to be sent out to teach and preach and heal.

You and I are too.

At the end of each Mass, each celebration of the Eucharist, we hear these very same words urging us to do exactly the same as Jesus did in today’s Gospel:

Go forth and spread the message of a “radically different” way of living.

Go forth and cast out the demons, the “unclean spirits” of narcissism, of self-immersion that has been given so much prominence in the world we live in today.

Go forth and heal the sick and the hungry and the homeless so prevalent in our society.

Go forth and bring wellness to those who are seized and captured by depression and anxiety.

Go forth and reach out to those addicted with drugs to kill the pain of life in our world of today.

Perhaps another translation of today’s Gospel says it best. It is one taken from The Bible in Contemporary Language: The Message.

Listen with care to these words that come right after Jesus tells them they – and we – are sent out:

“Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick … healing to their spirits.”

Jesus is asking each of us to accept the call to mission, to be “sent out” to dedicate our lives to something bigger than ourselves, something that will bring ultimate satisfaction to our souls, something that we can embrace with “joyful urgency.”

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

What is it?

Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.

11809194.1

7/21/2018