“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Daily Reflections
Sunday, 22th October 2017.
Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
World Mission Sunday
Is 45:1, 4-6;
Ps 95: 1, 3-5, 7-10;
1Thes 1:1-5;
Mt 22:15-21
MISSION AT THE HEART OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
Summary of today’s readings
(Isaiah 45:1.4-6). The return of the people from exile under King Cyrus is seen not merely as a sign of God’s love for his people but of his lordship over all people.
(1 Thessalonians 1:1-5). This contains the opening lines from Paul’s first letter to the community of Christians he founded at Thessalonika. His concern for them shines through.
(Matthew 22:15-21). In an effort to trap Jesus into saying something incriminating, his enemies ask him whether or not it is right for a Jew to pay taxes to Caesar.
Have you ever wondered, “When a person becomes a Christian, why doesn’t God just take them on to heaven?” The answer is that God has an assignment for each of us; you were made for a mission. What is that mission? Mission began with the words of Jesus in Matthew 4:18 “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men”. It was clear from the outset that when Jesus called someone to be his disciple he was not calling them to a religious life but a life devoted to mission. He wasn’t calling them to the Temple, to Torah, but a life of active discipleship. In Acts 1:8 we see that just before his ascension Jesus spoke to his disciples and told them that they would be witnesses of him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. And then in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was gifted to God’s people to enable them to participate in the ongoing mission of God in the world. Since the day of Pentecost the mission of God has been an outward movement. It moves outward while somehow keeping Christ at the centre. Mission is something we are all invited, commanded even, to participate in. Mission then is giving witness to who Jesus is through the proclamation of what we believe and lived out in our daily actions; actions of loving God and loving others!
The God of the Bible is not the God of the status quo. First he shakes us up, and then he uses us to shake our world. That’s always been God’s method. When God wanted to change the world, he told Noah to do something he had never done before (build an ark) to prepare for something he’d never seen before (rain). When God wanted to bring forth a great nation, he called Abram and told him to leave Ur of the Chaldeans. When God wanted to deliver his people, he found a man slow of speech named Moses and sent him to talk to the Pharaoh. When the Lord needed someone to hide the spies in Jericho, he found a prostitute named Rahab. When God needed someone to defeat Goliath, he chose a shepherd boy named David. When God wanted to deliver his people from destruction, he chose a young girl named Esther.
When Christ wanted some men in his inner circle, he chose fisherman and tax collectors, a loud mouth named Peter and two brothers called the “sons of thunder,” and told them to drop everything and follow him. A witness is somebody who simply says what they have seen and what they have experienced. That’s all. You are the expert on your life. All you need to do is share what God has done in your life. Each one of us was created in the image of God.
St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians demands a careful consideration: “Our preaching of the Gospel proved not a mere matter of words for you, but one of power” (v. 5). The Good News, as Paul had proclaimed it among those ancient Greeks had not fallen on deaf ears and hardened hearts; it had been welcomed and allowed to take root in the fertile soil of their faith and hope. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, present within Paul and within those who received his message, the gospel of Jesus Christ became an incarnate, flesh and blood, palpable experience in Thessalonica. Is not this the intended goal every time the good news is announced?
Now, where are we supposed to share this good news? This is not mission impossible. It is mission inevitable. Where do we start? Right where we live. In our Jerusalem; friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, people who cross your path. And that is the second area that we are to do that, not just our Jerusalem, telling those in our immediate sphere of influence the Good News of Jesus, this is the area where we reach beyond our immediate world, our immediate comfort zone, people near us but different in background, education, perhaps economics. Paul said “I become all things to all people, so that by some means I might save some.” (1Cor 9:22)
Prayer: Lord, here am I. Send me to be Your witness. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen
Summary of “MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS FOR WORLD MISSION DAY 2017”
The Church is missionary by nature; So it is important to ask ourselves certain questions about our Christian identity and our responsibility as believers in a world marked by confusion, disappointment and frustration, and torn by numerous fratricidal wars that unjustly target the innocent. What is the basis of our mission? What is the heart of our mission? What are the essential approaches we need to take in carrying out our mission?
Mission and the transformative power of the Gospel of Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life
· The Church’s mission, directed to all men and women of good will, is based on the transformative power of the Gospel. The Gospel is Good News filled with contagious joy, for it contains and offers new life. That life sets us free from every kind of selfishness, and is a source of creativity in love.
· Through the mission of the Church, Jesus Christ himself continues to evangelize and act; her mission thus makes present in history the kairos, the favourable time of salvation. Through the proclamation of the Gospel, the risen Jesus becomes our contemporary.
· The Gospel is a Person who continually offers himself and constantly invites those who receive him with humble and religious faith to share his life by an effective participation in the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection.
· The world vitally needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the Church, Christ continues his mission as the Good Samaritan, caring for the bleeding wounds of humanity, and as Good Shepherd, constantly seeking out those who wander along winding paths that lead nowhere.
· The Church’s mission is enlivened by a spirituality of constant exodus. We are challenged “to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the peripheries in need of the light of the Gospel” (EvangeliiGaudium, 20).
· Mission reminds the Church that she is not an end unto herself, but a humble instrument and mediation of the Kingdom.
· Young people are the hope of mission. The person of Jesus Christ and the Good News he proclaimed continue to attract many young people. They seek ways to put themselves with courage and enthusiasm at the service of humanity. The next Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in 2018 on the theme Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, represents a providential opportunity to involve young people in the shared missionary responsibility that needs their rich imagination and creativity.
· The Pontifical Mission Societies are a precious means of awakening in every Christian community a desire to reach beyond its own confines and security in order to proclaim the Gospel to all.
· World Mission Day, promoted by the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, is a good opportunity for enabling the missionary heart of Christian communities to join in prayer, testimony of life and communion of goods, in responding to the vast and pressing needs of evangelization.
· Let us draw inspiration from Mary, Mother of Evangelization. Moved by the Spirit, she welcomed the Word of life in the depths of her humble faith. May the Virgin Mother help us to say our own “yes”, conscious of the urgent need to make the Good News of Jesus resound in our time. May she obtain for us renewed zeal in bringing to everyone the Good News of the life that is victorious over death. May she intercede for us so that we can acquire the holy audacity needed to discover new ways to bring the gift of salvation to every man and woman.