“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Wednesday, 6th July 2016,
Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Hos 10: 1-3, 7-8, 12;
Ps 104: 2-7;
Mt 10: 1-7
ON BEING A MISSIONARY!
Today’s gospel consists of instructions to Jesus’ disciples on how to conduct their missionary work and the reactions they can expect. It begins by the summoning of the inner circle of twelve disciples who are now called apostles. A disciple (Latin discipulus, from discere, to learn) is a follower, someone learning from a teacher and assimilating that teaching into his own life. An apostle (Greek, apostolos from apostello) is someone sent on a mission and disseminates the teaching of the master.
We all are called to be disciples and are also expected to be apostles, actively sharing our faith with others. It is easy to see ourselves as ‘ordinary’ Catholics, as disciples, regarding priests and religious as doing the apostolic work of the Church. That would be wrong. Each of us called to be a disciple is, by virtue of Baptism and Confirmation, also called to be an apostle.
Where are we in our mission? Are we strong enough inside to reach out into the darker regions of mankind? Or, are we petty and weak within, making the effectiveness of our outreach underdeveloped? Jesus wants devoted missionaries who are not special people but his unrelenting followers, his brothers and sisters who do the will of the Father.
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, You invite us to proclaim your gospel of hope and salvation here at home and throughout the world. Teach us to be your faithful missionaries in word and in action. Amen.
