Readings: 1 Kings 2:1-4.10-12; Ps. 1Chr. 29; Mark 6:7-13
Rev.
Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.
THE CONDITION
AND NATURE OF OUR MISSION
The
rebellious nature of humanity has always kept us away from responding to God's
invitation to Life of love, holiness, faithfulness and integrity. Hence,
humanity has always failed to understand the true ways of God his creator.
However, God has not stopped caring and stretching his hands of love towards
us. In every generation, God always sends messengers to remind us of his love and
plan for humanity.
This
is exactly what we have in our readings today. In the first reading, we heard
David instructing Solomon his son saying: be strong and show yourself a man.
Observe the injunctions of the Lord your God, following his ways and keeping
his laws, his commandments, his customs and his decrees, as it stands written
in the law. And in our Gospel passage, where Jesus sent his twelve disciples,
the foundation of the future Church community, to do exactly the same work of
evangelization that he has been doing.
Hence, he gave them authority over unclean
spirits and instructed them to preach repentance, that radical conversion towards
the vision of the Kingdom, they were to anoint the sick and heal them. These
three activities cover the whole nature of the human person: spiritual, mental
and physical. Healing and wholeness, health and holiness. In this mission, they
were instructed to travel lightly, bringing only what they needed. No
food or money or even a change of clothes. They will not need these things because
they will be taken care of by the people they serve.
So in
this Gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for a task ahead. He lets them
experience the nature of their mission, the challenges, obstacles and dangers
which await them. He gave them the guidelines about the mission and sent them out. So, they succeeded because the power of God
was working in them. The message entrusted to the disciples by Jesus is to
offer peace and announce the coming of God's kingdom. This same message of
peace and justice, forgiveness and healing has been entrusted to the Church
down the centuries.
Now it
is our turn to witness it. The disciples returned with joy. We will
experience that same joy when we do what the Lord wants because, our joy is
rooted in our identifying with Jesus, not in what we do. So the source of our
joy should be our status in heaven as beloved sons and daughters of God, and
not on our success over the evil forces or the things of this passing world.
Thus,
the Lord has entrusted to us an awesome responsibility and privilege to carry
the message of God’s love, peace and mercy to the world. Unfortunately, many of
the disciples have to face rejection and persecution from the people, who
through their rebellious attitude have refused to believe in God even though he
has always been so patient, loving, caring and forgiving.
Dear
friends, today we are reminded about the condition and nature of our
mission, calling humanity to repent from our sinful and rebellious
attitudes in order to embrace the compassionate love and care that God is
offering us. As disciples of Christ, we have received a lot from God
without payment; we should learn to give without expecting a reward. Therefore,
we must offer to others these same gifts which we have received.
We are
to show love to people, forgive, help the needy and share with one another the
gifts God has blessed us with and if our love and care are rejected, we should
offer it as a sign for the judgement day.
Remember, your kind gestures today can turn someone's life around now or
later and by so doing we extend God’s divine compassion to rebellious humanity.
LET US
PRAY: Heavenly Father, as we are reminded about the condition and nature of our
mission for which you sacrificed a lot to save us from our rebellious and
sinful attitudes, open our hearts once again to repent and embrace your
compassionate love and care for us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Happy
New Month.
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