Gospel: Mark 6:7-13

 

Today’s Gospel continues what we have seen in the Gospel yesterday. The passage through Nazareth was painful for Jesus. He was rejected by His own people. The community, which had been His community, is no longer such. Something has changed. Beginning at that moment, as today’s Gospel says, Jesus began to go around to the villages of Galilee to announce the Gospel. 

 

In the 70’s, the time when Mark wrote his Gospel, the Christian communities lived in a difficult situation, without any horizon. Humanly speaking, there was no future for them. In the year 64, Nero began to persecute the Christians. In the year 65, the revolt or uprising of the Jews in Palestine against Rome broke out. In the year 70, Jerusalem was completely destroyed by the Romans. 

 

This is why the description of the sending out of the disciples, after the conflict in Nazareth, was a source of light and of courage for the Christians.

 

Jesus extends the mission and intensifies the announcement of the Good News, calling other people to involve them in the mission. He summons the Twelve, and begins to send them out in pairs, giving them authority over unclean spirits. The objective of the mission is simple and profound. The disciples participate in the mission of Jesus. They cannot go alone; they have to go in pairs, two by two, because two persons represent the community better than one alone. They receive authority over unclean spirits, i.e., they are to be a help for others in suffering and, through purification, they are to open the door for direct access to God.