A Light Backpack Journey
Mark 6:7-13

Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
Claretian Publications, Macau

The apostles are sent two by two with authority over the unclean spirits of this world. The Lord instructs them with the dos and don’ts of the project. He allows a buddy system but a very light backpack journey.

The questions that arise in our minds are: Why were they sent as buddies? If they were sent one by one, they could have reached 12 places! Why were they sent without sufficient backup and supplies? If they had carried their food and money, they could have saved time from looking for food and free accommodation to stay!

The Master was teaching them to be like himself to deal with the people and things of this world with detachment and wisdom. Attaching oneself to the fruits of one’s labor is a temptation every disciple (in our times, leaders of the Church) faces today. The sense of “I accomplishing evangelization projects,” and “I building up the Church” does a disservice in building up the kingdom of God. So the Lord insists on teamwork, as Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered.”

Individual mission falls easily into the trap of attachment to situations and people contrary to the values of the gospel. Failing to deliver the challenging message of the gospel to people they get attached to, they preach a diluted version of the gospel. The allegiances with the powers of this world will make the missionary blunt and ineffective. In spite of being seen as a great success in this world, they turn out to be trees full of foliage but without fruits.

The wisdom of the buddy system is that they fall back to each other as sources of divine courage and inspiration. They will be moderators and collaborators to one another in the mission of the Lord. Working alone one often ends up doing personal projects rather than the proclamation of the word of God. The buddy system prevents the powers of this world from domesticating and neutralizing the transforming force of the Word.

Another wisdom of the buddy system is to prevent individualism. “The other is a hell” is a philosophy brewed by Jean-Paul Sartre. The idea is founded on psychopathology or a flawed premise that a person has absolute independence. S/he doesn’t. Human beings are hardwired to live in societies, and the idea that a human should be ideally alone is inadequate. Everyone of us has received from others, and we have the duty to give to others as well. Each one has a commitment to the other in the society. Convincing others about our projects and plans is the way to live our life. If your project is not convincing to your spiritual buddy, that project does not follow God’s plans.

The disciples are asked to take a lightweight backpack. The law of detachment is applied here too. The disciples who carry an overload of personal belongings make hurdles against their own work. An evangelizer with a lot of possession is an oxymoron by itself. Where one’s possession is, there one’s mind is. Lightweight sheds the preoccupation of the evangelizers.

This story of the journey of the monks has an excellent lesson to teach. A group of monks was embarking on a long trip. Each one had to carry backpacks for a few days to stay away from home. Some were heavier than the others. The heaviest was the food luggage. When the monks hurried to choose the lighter luggage, one monk picked the food luggage that was the heaviest. Others pitied him for not being clever and having to carry the heavy burden. When it was breakfast time, they sat down to eat, and he provided food for everyone and got his luggage a little lighter. By lunch and dinner, his luggage continued to get lighter. While those who were carrying lighter luggage felt their luggage grow heavier as the days passed by. All luggage tends to become burdensome as we advance in life! Carry only the luggage that needs to be given away to others, and your journey will be lighter.

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