11th Sunday in ordinary time. Today’s readings: Exodus 19:2-6; Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36-10:8.
In 2016, film directors Stephen Shin and Michael Parker released the historical drama On Wings of Eagles, portraying the inspiring story of a Chinese-born Scottish professional athlete Eric Liddell (1902-1945); a pure science graduate from Edinburgh University, and a missionary in China. Sequential success in sports as the fastest athlete in Scotland and an international rugby player culminated in 1924 when he took part in the Paris Summer Olympics, winning gold in the 400m weekday race but making world headlines for his refusal to race the prestigious 100m dash on a Sunday, honouring his devout Christian convictions, thereby losing a lifetime opportunity of being named the fastest world runner.
Following Chariots of Fire, the 1981 Oscar-winning drama movie on Liddell’s successful career in sports, On Wings of Eagles focuses on his return to China as a missionary in 1925. Both movie titles are biblically inspired: the former from the prophet Elijah’s ascension story, in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), and the latter from Exodus 19:4 and Isaiah 40:31. In Chariots of Fire, Liddell is portrayed preaching a sermon on the Isaiah prophecy in Paris on the same Sunday he was listed to compete.
Liddell later returned to China, following the footsteps of his parents, as a preacher. He was ordained in 1932 and got married in 1934. In 1941, he was transferred to a poor mission station in Xiaozhang, a civil-war battleground and in the wake of the Japanese invasion. There he served as a minister of God and as assistant to his brother, a medical doctor.
He refused to leave China, eschewing the British government’s advice, choosing instead to continue serving the poor and preach the Gospel. For his faith he was interned in Weihsien Camp where he persevered in his missionary activity, alleviating interns and bringing the hope of faith to the downtrodden until he passed away in 1945, yielding to the camp’s hardships and a brain tumour.
Today’s liturgy challenges us to prioritise that which is essential and fundamental over that which is ephemeral and impermanent
According to critics, On Wings of Eagles downplays Liddell’s strong faith as the motivating force behind his inspiring life. This is rather impertinent to his memory, as for him there was only one thing that mattered in life, both as a sportsman and as a missionary: giving glory to God and to be witness to the Gospel message, the Good News of Jesus Christ, that we are all “reconciled” and “saved by his life”.
In today’s gospel, Jesus sends his disciples on a very precise mission: that of bringing spiritual healing and freedom as well as “to cure every disease and every illness”, to the “lost” ones “from the house of Israel”. Witness to the “kingdom of heaven” comes with the price of gratuitousness and a readiness to serve. Jesus reminds his own: “freely you have received; freely give”.
A true missionary to the Gospel experiences the freedom from entanglements of fear, and the constant preoccupation for self-preservation at all costs. It is freedom of filial trust and abandonment in God that characterise a true disciple and missionary of the Good News. In today’s first reading from Exodus, the Lord reminds his people, facing a journey’s challenges in the wilderness, that in captivity, they were “bore up on eagle wings” and “brought to” God, raised up high in holiness of life.
Today’s liturgy challenges us to raise the bar of our standards on multiple levels, starting from our quality of life, comprising its physical, mental and spiritual dimensions, and prioritising that which is essential and fundamental over that which is ephemeral and impermanent. To be witnesses of the Good News is to soar on high and point out that there’s much more to life than the flutter of transient material affluence.