15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Sunday 15th July 2018)
Sent on Mission – (Mark 6:7-13)
This Sunday’s Gospel gives us guidance on how we are sent on mission by Jesus. Pope Francis constantly reminds us that we cannot leave the task of evangelisation to the “professionals” but that it is the task of every Christian to bring the Good News into their worlds and to all who they meet.
“In virtue of their baptism, all members of the People of God have become missionary disciples. All the baptised, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelisation, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelisation to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangeliation calls for the personal involvement on the part of each of the baptised. Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelisation; indeed anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love. Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus.” (Pope Francis – Evangelii Gaudium. no 120)
In His directions to His missionary disciples, Our Blessed Lord shares the same urgency; it is not about having all the up to date technical skills and best of communication skills, stop giving yourselves excuses to put off the mission ( no bread, no haversack no spare tunic), just get on with the job. When you meet someone, be prepared to mention Christ or at least by your kindness to witness to your Christian faith. “This is the informal preaching which takes place in the middle of a conversation… Being a disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpecedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on a journey” (Pope Francis – Evangelii Gaudium. no 127)
Secondly we have to respect peoples’ freedom not to listen and not to accept the Lord. There can be no forcing of another to accept Jesus as Lord. While we must always be respectful and gentle we should not always expect to be welcomed or listened to. We must learn true humility as missionary disciples. It is not always our fault when people don’t listen and accept what we have to say. However, we must not allow such a reaction to discourage us from the missionary work of evangelisation.
As the disciples in the Gospel we continue to bring the Good News into our world. Go out and invite as many young people as you know to the Summer Festival in Roscrea from August 16-19, 2018. Be missionary disciples, don’t leave it to someone else. If you don’t ask, then no one will.
“So they set off to preach…..” (Mark 6:12)
Fr. John