Weekly Bible Reflection: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mark 6:7-13

This week I am going to talk about sending out, and leadership, and oil.

There is no record in the Gospels of Jesus using oil for his healing – he touched, or on at least one occasion, spat on the person he was healing. So I was intrigued at the end of the Gospel to find that the sent-disciples “anointed many sick people with oil and cured them”. Why the oil?

In the OT, anointing with oil usually signifies consecration – to kingship or priesthood. It is denoted “the oil of gladness”. On the other hand oil was a humble thing readily available (even to the poor widow in Elijah’s day) used in cooking and other household activities. What significance does it have in this context of healing? Do the disciples carry oil with them that has already been blessed by Jesus? Or do they use the household oil of the places they stay?

Jesus sends out the disciples with only a staff, a single outfit, sandals, and a purse (perhaps holding a phial of oil?); they are to be as vulnerable as he has been during his preaching days. Viewers of “Race across the World” (BBC UK) might be moved by the kindness of strangers offering lifts and beds to the travellers without charge. The imposed vulnerability of the competition contract requires the adventurers to engage much more readily with the people around them. Perhaps Jesus also had this in mind.

Jesus leads us in this vulnerability. But he is sending them away from him. Part of leadership is cultivating in those you are leading, a personal sense of identity with the leader and their values. In Jesus’ absence, he still holds sway and guides the travellers because he has made his ideals, their own.

In the early days, “what would Jesus do” might be the question. By the time they return, they will be looking in their own heart for the answer.

So why the oil? A sign of the extraordinary sacredness of the ordinary? Perhaps by the time their phial of oil has run out, they will have learnt, from their in-heart, how to touch.

Questions:

1.This oil of healing might be considered one of the earliest sacramentals of the Church. How do you use sacramentals in your own faith experience? How important are they to you?

2. Blessed oil brought from Jesus, or household oil provided by the householder. Which do you imagine it to be – and why?

3. What is your experience of the message of Jesus becoming “in-heart” for yourself?

4. How does the vulnerability which Jesus teaches, challenge you? Has it become “in-heart” if so, why, how? If not, why not?