Travel Light, Going Two By Two If we take a short day journey, we don’t need much: a full tank of gas, a destination,money, maybe some snacks and maps. But if we want to take a longer journey,the baggage increases – change of clothes and shoes, toiletries, coats or sweaters and a laptop or tablet for unexpected business. The longer the journey, the “more baggage” we take along. In our Gospel today, Jesus sends the Twelve on a missionary journey and instructs them to wear sandals. This is not a day trip, the Twelve are in this for the long haul. Yet Jesus sends the disciples forth with no baggage, no money, not even food! This sounds more like an hour trip! Instead of the expected provisions, Jesus provides them with the one essential Resource. He gives them his authority to preach repentance, to cast out demons, to cure the sick. He also gives them each other, for they are sent two by two. The gift of his authority and the gift of one another is the gift of Jesus himself. The journey on which Jesus sends his disciples is a lifelong journey one during which our role as disciples is to make Jesus present to others. We are called to drive out demons of rugged individualism, self-centeredness and inordinate materialism. We are ton heal te ills of crippling feelings of inferiority, myopic vision and the debilitating fear of the unknown. We have the Resource we need: Jesus himself who assures us that it is his mission we carry forth and that we have what we need to come to fullness of life.