Spiritual Reading: Legion Handbook page 66 – Chapter 10.7
This time around, I would like to bring all of us to go back and forth in time.
First stop:
Going back to almost 50 days ago… Easter is the core of our faith. During Easter Vigil mass, we heard the story of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who were visiting the tomb and told the news of Jesus’ resurrection to the disciples. If we recall the story of her encounter with Jesus, she didn’t recognize him at first because she was deeply saddened with the idea that Jesus was stolen. But, once Jesus called her name, “Mary”, she said… “Rabuni” This word has the same meaning as “Rabbi” which means teacher, but with more respect.
Second stop:
Going further away to the back… Jesus was a teacher all along, and that’s why the disciples are called disciples, the followers, the learners. He has shown us how to teach since the beginning of his public works. He didn’t bring a presentation or any textbook, or even the Holy Bible to teach them. However, He said, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Come and see. That’s what He asked His disciples to do. Not firstly to learn the text or books, but to come and follow Him.
Third stop:
Going to the future in before the Easter… Again, this idea was emphasized during Maundy Thursday. Jesus never only said and taught, he showed us how to do it. As we always heard during the washing of the feet, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” An example is what he has given to us to learn from.
And lastly, last week… Once we have learnt enough, His request to us was told again last week on the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
This time around, he asked us to be an apostle, someone who is sent forth, a messenger. But before that he has taught us first as a disciple in the way that the Legion Handbook has also suggested us to use. Not through lectures, but through works.
To prove this notion correct, maybe let’s try to remember the information that we have just read just now from the Spiritual Reading. Can you share step-by-step methods of implementing the idea of master and apprentice system? I am sure you have really listened or read it yourself. Yet, it is difficult to remember it. But can you recite the 4 standing instructions? I am sure you can at least mention the main ideas in each of the instructions. Because we only read the former one, we forgot. However, when we take part in doing it, we learnt and remember. Because we did the instructions in the latter one, we remember.
And this is how we should do the teaching: place the work in front of him, show him how to do it, comments on various points while we proceed, let him attempts on his own, and correct him when he is wrong. This is how we can try to show the recruits how Legion of Mary works, not through lecturing them on what we are doing, but involving them in it. And having joined, having seen the work being done and taken part in it, having learned by listening to the reports and comments in that work the best method of doing it, they are soon found proficient in it.
After Jesus sent the disciples to spread the good news, they were no longer called disciples but apostles, meaning the one who has been sent. They are sent to teach others what they have learnt from Jesus from his short time on earth with them. They were fishers of fish before, then Jesus taught them to be fishers of men. And they became, and taught others to be like them.
There are some criteria required to be a disciple:
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). In addition, He said that “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). It’s easy to say you’re a disciple of Christ but the test is do we bear our own cross?
And for us to be an apostle, something else is required:
Jesus choose twelve as Apostles and when Judas betrayed Jesus, they had to find another Apostle (capital “A”) so how did they know how to find an Apostle to replace Judas? Acts 1:21-22 shows the qualifications as an Apostle must be “one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” Basically, he must know Jesus. Because when we do not know him, we cannot bear witness of what he has taught us to the world. Because we do not know what are his teachings.
When we begin our journey as a legionary, Mother Mary says, “Come, bring your mite of talent; we will teach you to develop it and use it through me for the glory of God.” She is both our mother and our teacher. But now, we are called to be both a disciple and an apostle to learn and teach one another.