Jesus' instructions to his disciples sound rather impractical - no money, no change of clothing. They are to heal the sick, raise the dead, heal the lepers, expel demons. No doubt the disciples wondered where they were to get these miraculous powers from. We can be easily distracted by the wording of these instructions and so miss seeing things that are well within our reach, especially the injunction: "What you have received as a gift, give as a gift." St Paul (1Cor 4:7) asks us to reflect: "What do you have that was not given to you? In a similar way, Pope Francis has reminded us frequently of the obligation to share the gift of our faith with others.

What Jesus says about not carrying any money or a change of clothing can be read as a concrete way of expressing spiritual realities: but we should not put all our trust in material wealth to the exclusion of God.

In our modern world we are called to practise responsible ecology: we should not amass new clothes which we scarcely need and may never in fact use.