Friends,
in today’s Gospel Jesus sends the Twelve on their mission to announce
the nearness of the kingdom. I want to say a few things about embracing
our mission and being equipped for it.
What
do you need for your mission? You need a keen sense of God as the
absolute center of your life. In a word, you require the spiritual gifts
of piety and fear of the Lord. I realize that these terms can sound
fussy and puritanical, but they are actually naming something strong and
essential.
First,
you need fear of the Lord, which does not mean that you are afraid of
God. It means
that nothing to you is more important than God, that everything in your
life centers around and is subordinate to your love for God. Second,
your equipping needs to include piety. Piety means you honor God above
everything else, that you worship him alone. These spiritual gifts
enable you to find true balance; they allow you to discover what your
life is about.
Equipped
with these gifts, you are ready for mission. Having received the fire
of the Holy Spirit, you are ready to set the world on fire.
Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 451
Every word of God is tested;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Add nothing to his words,
lest he reprove you, and you will be exposed as a deceiver.
Two things I ask of you,
deny them not to me before I die:
Put falsehood and lying far from me,
give me neither poverty nor riches;
provide me only with the food I need;
Lest, being full, I deny you,
saying, "Who is the LORD?"
Or, being in want, I steal,
and profane the name of my God.
Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority
over all demons and to cure diseases,
and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God
and to heal the sick.
He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey,
neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money,
and let no one take a second tunic.
Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there.
And as for those who do not welcome you,
when you leave that town,
shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them."
Then they set out and went from village to village
proclaiming the Good News and curing diseases everywhere.
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