“I am God’s wheat, and I shall be ground by the teeth of beasts that I may become the pure bread of Christ.” (Saint Ignatius of Antioch).
I have been meditating on the Gospel of Saint Luke, where Saint Luke describes the mission of the seventy apostles who were sent out in twos to proclaim the coming of Christ (Luke 10:1-9)…
“After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to come. And He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.’” (Luke 10:1-9).
It is a beautiful passage really. You see, in that Gospel we are told that Christ sent out 72 apostles ahead of Him to spread the news of His coming to others. And He could have easily done the job Himself. After all – this is God the Son. He would soon raise not only others, but HIMSELF from the dead – surely He could translocate and let people know that He was the Messiah. And yet – He humbled Himself to rely on the works of others.
And the people He relied on were imperfect and inferior and weak. And yet still – God Himself – allowed them to do for Him what He could have easily done for Himself…
As I reflect on this blessed humility of God, I have also been reflecting on the differences between each of those seventy disciples. After all, in such a crowd there was surely a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of skills. As Saint Paul would later write in his letter to the Ephesians, some were “apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers...” (Ephesians 4:11). And God allowed each of them – each of us – to do His bidding…
And He did not just allow this during His lifetime, He allows it also after His death…
Later disciples, who converted after His death and Resurrection – like Saint Paul and Saint Luke – are an easy way to see the variety among the followers of Christ…
Saint Paul, for example had been a Pharisee and knew the Jewish Scriptures very well and so, the Holy Spirit made use of that in Paul because it meant that Saint Paul was able to explain the connections between the Old Testament and the New…
Saint Luke – who very often accompanied Saint Paul on his journeys – was not a wonderful orator as Paul was. Instead, Luke’s skill was as a writer. Being a physician, Saint Luke was used to a methodological process, and here too the Holy Spirit made us of this skill. In fact, it is in Saint Luke’s Gospel that we hear most of the stories about the Childhood of Christ, which – as they are not contained in the other Gospels – suggests that Luke spoke to Our Blessed Mother (and other witnesses) to uncover these stories so that he could document them in his Gospel.
The other day, I read a beautiful reflection about this very thing, which was written by a priest who I do not know. In this meditation the priest said, “God didn't need two Saint Pauls or two Saint Peters to spread the Gospel; He needed one Paul and one Peter, and one Luke... and one you.”
And he is correct! For I can see now, how my Beloved HUMBLES Himself to make use of my differences when He could simply do things so well Himself...
And as I marvel at the extraordinary wonder of such a God – who humbles Himself to make use of one such as I – I am overcome…
I am simply overcome…
And so now, as I present my differences – in all their inferiority – to my Beloved Lord and God, I dare to pray the prayer of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who said… “I am God’s wheat, and I shall be ground by the teeth of beasts that I may become the pure bread of Christ.”
Dear God, please let me be Your wheat…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comments