Willibrord -- Reflection
While little is known about Willibrord, we remember his ministry, not because he did such extraordinary things -- though it is no small accomplishment to carve out a smidgen of a ministry presence in the midst of a foreign country. Imagine the daunting nature of the task! Willibrord wasn't in the Low Countries competing with other brands of Christians for pledging units to support his particular strain of the Church. No, he was bringing an entirely new religious outlook into a land whose inhabitants were, most probably, completely content with the religion they already had.
And yet, what seems to have happened is that Willibrord persisted. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. And by the time of his death, Christianity had taken a bit of a root in the countryside. In our culture, infatuated by the quick fix and the instant result, Willibrord's ministry would, no doubt, prove frustrating to the any judicatory wishing to see a greater return on investment. But Willibrord simply kept plugging at it.
The Gospel lesson assigned to the remembrance of Willibrord is the Sending of the Seventy in Luke 10:1-9. In that passage, Jesus sends out his followers, two by two with instructions to, "carry no purse, no bag, no sandals" (in other words, live off the hospitality of others). "Preach peace and the kingdom of heaven" Jesus says. And if people welcome you into their homes, stay there until your work in that community is done. Not very high tech. Not too exciting. And yet, there was something about the way Jesus issued the commission, that encouraged the Seventy to actually leave the presence of Jesus and go out into the countryside. And given the relative speed with which the Good News took root in the first century, one can only imagine that the Seventy's witness to Jesus was received by enough people to make a difference over time.
However it was that, seven centuries later, Willibrord heard the same voice of Jesus, he obeyed it. Left his homeland. Left his friends. Left security. Left social station. Went to a completely different culture. Sat up shop with scant resources. Went about the business of proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed. Blazed a trail for those after him so that their work in proclaiming the Gospel wouldn't be as difficult as his had been.
All of a sudden ordinary persistence seems powerfully extraordinary.
While little is known about Willibrord, we remember his ministry, not because he did such extraordinary things -- though it is no small accomplishment to carve out a smidgen of a ministry presence in the midst of a foreign country. Imagine the daunting nature of the task! Willibrord wasn't in the Low Countries competing with other brands of Christians for pledging units to support his particular strain of the Church. No, he was bringing an entirely new religious outlook into a land whose inhabitants were, most probably, completely content with the religion they already had.
And yet, what seems to have happened is that Willibrord persisted. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. And by the time of his death, Christianity had taken a bit of a root in the countryside. In our culture, infatuated by the quick fix and the instant result, Willibrord's ministry would, no doubt, prove frustrating to the any judicatory wishing to see a greater return on investment. But Willibrord simply kept plugging at it.
The Gospel lesson assigned to the remembrance of Willibrord is the Sending of the Seventy in Luke 10:1-9. In that passage, Jesus sends out his followers, two by two with instructions to, "carry no purse, no bag, no sandals" (in other words, live off the hospitality of others). "Preach peace and the kingdom of heaven" Jesus says. And if people welcome you into their homes, stay there until your work in that community is done. Not very high tech. Not too exciting. And yet, there was something about the way Jesus issued the commission, that encouraged the Seventy to actually leave the presence of Jesus and go out into the countryside. And given the relative speed with which the Good News took root in the first century, one can only imagine that the Seventy's witness to Jesus was received by enough people to make a difference over time.
However it was that, seven centuries later, Willibrord heard the same voice of Jesus, he obeyed it. Left his homeland. Left his friends. Left security. Left social station. Went to a completely different culture. Sat up shop with scant resources. Went about the business of proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed. Blazed a trail for those after him so that their work in proclaiming the Gospel wouldn't be as difficult as his had been.
All of a sudden ordinary persistence seems powerfully extraordinary.
posted by FrGaryB | 4:31 PM
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