Enter the mission where you are!
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. Matthew 9:35-10:1
The heart of God is moved by compassion for those who are lost, confused, broken, wandering without knowledge of His love and forgiveness for them. So much so that the Father sent the Son so that, whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The reality of this truth is perfectly revealed in the Lord Jesus in his passage from Matthew. He taught that God’s reign was here, now! He demonstrated this good news that the Lordship of God by healing every disease. In compassion he was and is moved to urge us to pray for more workers to carry on His mission. But in addition to praying, which is the essential work of evangelization, He wants us to go into the harvest fields and do what he did! See the last couple verses above!
The Lord Jesus has you strategically placed right where you live daily life. Pray for eyes to see the opportunities he has already arranged for you to engage, be kind and befriend those you get to encounter each week, and be ready to share about the Lord’s love for you and them, anytime and anywhere! Fasten your seat belt and watch how he uses you to help others know Him! He is moved by compassion and urgently wants all to enter into his life through his people, the Church!
Labels: disciple, evangelization, Jesus, missions
posted by Dave Nodar @ 9:40 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Great post. This is just like section 28 of JPII's Apostolic Exhortation on the Laity, where he writes-
Being "members" of the Church takes nothing away from the fact that each Christian as an individual is "unique and irrepeatable". On the contrary, this belonging guarantees and fosters the profound sense of that uniqueness and irrepeatability, in so far as these very qualities are the source of variety and richness for the whole Church. Therefore, God calls the individual in Jesus Christ, each one personally by name. In this sense, the Lord's words "You go into my vineyard too", directed to the Church as a whole, come specially addressed to each member individually....
In the apostolate exercised by the individual, great riches are waiting to be discovered through an intensification of the missionary effort of each of the lay faithful. Such an individual form of apostolate can contribute greatly to a more extensive spreading of the Gospel, indeed it can reach as many places as there are daily lives of individual members of the lay faithful. Furthermore, the spread of the gospel will be continual, since a person's life and faith will be one. Likewise the spread of the gospel will be particularly incisive, because in sharing fully in the unique conditions of the life, work, difficulties and hopes of their sisters and brothers, the lay faithful will be able to reach the hearts of their neighbors, friends, and colleagues, opening them to a full sense of human existence, that is, to communion with God and with all people.
Yeah buddy! Lord Jesus use us in our daily lives!
I love it! I've heard someone point out that there is no spiritual gift of evangelism to be found in the Bible. Rather, evangelization is a work that all disciples of Jesus are called to (making disciples. The gifts of the Spirit are to be used for that work. How encouraging is that! Let's go make disciples and teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us!
One of the most profound homilies from the past month or two that I experienced was one in which the priest told us that when we receive the Eucharist, and then go out into the world, we ought to be aware that we who have just received Him are LITERALLY taking Jesus with us out into the world. It sounds so simple, but his point was that taking Jesus into every situation we encounter is MORE important than the actual situation or event itself. I had to reflect on that for a minute and realize that as I picture myself stopping at the store on the way home from Mass, or going to a meeting, I would now bring Jesus to that store or that meeting in a way that He wasn't there before, and that it should necessarily change any conversation that I might have with someone in that store or at that meeting. My children should see a change in me from the one who left the house before Mass. This is a lot of food for thought! It is not only a tremendous responsibility as someone who KNOWS that they carry the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ within them (and I'd better be careful with myself in doing that) but also in what I choose to do, where I go, and what I say, now that I have Him within me. It MUST be different! People should SEE that.
wonderful thoughts Jeanne! That is quite profound. I want that perspective next time I leave mass!
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