Words of Agur for a Mission Lesson - Wednesday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

 What do you make out of Proverb 30:5-9 and Luke 9:1-6?

This was a question I asked during my Wednesday Bible teaching, as the former is the First Reading and the latter is the Gospel Reading of Wednesday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II.

The First Reading (Proverbs 30:5-9) is taken from Agur’s oracle (Proverbs 30).

Agur is son of Jakeh,  the Massaite. As “Massa” is one of the offspring of Ishmael (Genesis 25:14), he can be a descendant of Jacob’s twin brother. Ishmael. The place, “Massa” is located in northern Arabia. But the Hebrew word, “massa”( מַשָּׂא), means “a load, burden, lifting, bearing, tribute”.  Then, it makes sense that Agur was weary (Proverbs 30:1). But, he was not just a man feeling burdened of whatever the heavy load that he had to carry but seeing God and His wisdom humbly, acknowledging his ignorance, believing in Him and trusting His Word to thrive in carrying his burden (Proverbs 30:1-9).

In the First Reading (Proverbs 30:5-9), we see Agur’s total trust in God and His grace. This is comparable to the Sucipe prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises 234, which seeks nothing but God’s grace, humbly acknowledging it is enough, while asking to remove everything that may distract him form trusting in God and being satisfied with His grace alone. For Agur, God’s Word is the kind of grace he needed. And he knew the Word brings wisdom, besides the strengths to carry his life’s load, which may be a cross that he carry, as taught by Jesus upon denying self (Matthew 16:24//Mark 8:34). Agur certainly denied himself for belittling himself (i.e. Proverbs 30:1-6).

Now, connecting the First Reading (Proverbs 30:5-9) to the Gospel Reading (Luke 9:1-6), we can see Agur as an exemplary figure to be sent on a mission, as this Gospel Reading is about Jesus sending his twelve disciples on mission with instructions.

In sending the disciples, Jesus said, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic”(Luke 9:3). In other words, Jesus was saying that they go on mission only with what they absolutely needed and bring nothing else, because anything “extra” may distract them from their missionary tasks. This corresponds to these words of humble Agur, “Put falsehood and lying far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need; Lest, being full, I deny you, saying, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or, being in want, I steal, and profane the name of my God”(Proverbs 30:8-9).

Agur humbly acknowledged that it is God who is the reason of his existence. Therefore, he asked only what he absolutely needed to make sure his eyes remained fixed in Him. The food he needed, in this context, is His refined and pure Word. He certainly understood that humans, being created by Him, cannot live with bread alone but what comes out of His mouth (Deuteronomy 8:3; cf. Matthew 4:4). And the Word, along with the Holy Spirit, comes out of God’s mouth.

As Jesus said, going on mission is to proclaim to evangelize and to bring healing to those whom they come in contact with (Luke 9:6). For this, one on mission certainly needs the Word, which speaks the good news and can heal. In fact, the Word gives life, as it comes out of Jesus, as it is the Holy Spirit (i.e. John 6:63). Therefore, a mission cannot be accomplished without carrying and bringing the Word. And we make sure the Word we carry on our respective missions is kept pure, not being tampered (i.e. Proverbs 30:6; cf. Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Revelations 22:18-19).

Jesus understood that not everyone his disciples bring the Word to proclaim the good news and to bring healing welcomes them and accept the Word. So he said:

As for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them (Luke 9:5).

Shaking the dust from feet was certainly a testimony against those who do not accept, as it was a custom of Jesus’ time in Palestine. It’s like sarcastically saying, “Thank you very little for your hospitality”.  But, according to Most Rev. Mark Bartosic, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, this can also mean that Jesus was instructing the disciples not to carry negative feeling toward those who reject and unwelcomed them, as they leave their houses. This way, the disciples are not affected by any previous negative experience when they reach out to new hosts, so that the Word they carry (massa) remains pure, not contaminated by their negative emotions from previous hosts. And this reminds me of my hospital chaplain training, being instructed not to carry any negative feeling from “bad” patient as I reach out to another patient, by “washing off” such feeling as I leave “bad” patient’s room.