Justin Appel

Dear Friends in Christ,

In today’s Gospel lesson, the Seventy have just returned from their missionary activity. They’ve had a good go of it, we might say. They’ve tread all over the enemy — over ‘serpents and scorpions’ and ‘spirits’. Jesus even says that he ‘saw Satan fall like lighting from heaven’.

I can only imagine but that these people felt elation: who wouldn’t, given the revelation of these surprising new abilities?

It’s impressive, then, that Jesus took this moment to say something like this:

‘Even though I gave you power over the enemy, don’t rejoice in this; rather, rejoice that your names are written in the book of life.’

What’s going on here? Well, Jesus seems to be telling them: Don’t get distracted! Keep your eye on the goal!

What is the goal? The notion of having your name written in a book seems permanent, possibly even a thing done in the past — or in eternity. However, we also understand that our goal of becoming united with God is clearly a temporal process, a journey, or better yet, a pilgrimage with an endpoint. The goal is, as Saint Paul would put it, to be ‘united with Christ’, and this is achieved through straightforward love: an all-consuming love we return and manifest, even as we have received God’s love as a gift.

Many things can become a distraction on that path. Our sins cause us to literally ‘miss the mark’ of Christlikeness. Thoughts — many of which enter our minds from outside influences — can distract us from the basic task at hand (such as prayer); even good thoughts can distract us. Things can become the object of our attention, and even people — possibly even good people, can distract us from the goal.

The bottom line here is that only one thing is of paramount importance: following after Christ! As believers washed in baptism and sealed with the Holy Spirit, we can rejoice that God loves us and desires this union with us, his creatures.

Of course, none of us is perfect in our execution of the journey. If you’re like me, you have many causes to be humbled and even to doubt your ability to walk forward. The important thing is simply to keep walking, to avoid the distractions, to get up if necessary, and keep moving toward the goal.

It’s in this painful, humbling forward march that we can find joy and peace in Christ’s words: ‘Rejoice that your names are written in the book of life!’

Yours in Christ,
Justin