In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment. He answers with not only the greatest commandment, but also with the one that follows it, and then follows that with the whole apparatus for handing those commandments down to others. Anytime Jesus tells us something is the greatest, or best, or first, it should probably give us reason to listen more attentively.
These commandments to love God and to love neighbor, and the corresponding notion that these are ideas worth passing on, form the nucleus of what it is to be a missionary disciple. As our podcast is for Catholic disciples wrestling to be missionary-minded, we thought it would be a good idea to at least begin to comment on these habits, or ways of being. The habit of being in right relationship with God, and then the habit of acting rightly with respect to friends, and then the habit of helping others to live this way as well, are not only missionary discipleship in a nutshell, they're also invitations into a reality of reciprocal love and getting-outside-of-ourselves/transcendant living. In FOCUS, these habits are called divine intimacy, authentic friendship, and clarity and conviction for spiritual multiplication. Call them what you want, they describe a well-ordered life.
We read from Matthew 22:34-39 and Mark 12:28-34.
We reference a book by Curtis Martin, Making Missionary Disciples, and we'll list two links for buying (one has bulk buying options, but both at the time of publishing are out of stock, unless you want to buy a Kindle version...):
https://shopfocus.org/products/making-missionary-disciples-hardcover
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Missionary-Disciples-Curtis-Martin/dp/0692177493
We also reference an apostolic exhortation from Pope Benedict XV (yes, fifteenth-- from 1919) called Maximum Illud: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xv/en/apost_letters/documents/hf_ben-xv_apl_19191130_maximum-illud.html
(It's debatable whether the Maximum Illud reference really aided the conversation, but Joseph had considered doing an episode on this document earlier, and it was on his mind, and seemed to make sense in his head, though now he fears that it was not as relevant as he hoped and both he and our dear listeners will discover that on listening, but perhaps it will also encourage people to read this document, which is filled with wisdom and quirkiness...)
As always,
