The theme this weekend, again, is God’s call and our response, but there is a focus on the urgency of responding…an urgency in building up the Reign of God…NOW! The Gospel tells of the disciple’s response to Jesus’ call, they respond without hesitation, dropping what they were doing and following him immediately. As disciples we too are called and expected to drop everything and follow Jesus…not only proclaiming the Gospel with our words but through our actions. Discipleship is about following “the way”…God’s way. And God’s way is “the way of love”… of being for the other as Jesus is for us…and this truly is the Good News. It seems more than we can do, and it would be without the Holy Spirit right there with us every step of the way, guiding us and gently pushing us along!
There is urgency in discipleship; we are not to tarry and be about many other things but rather to live in such a way that our very lives proclaim God’s amazing love for all people. It is such a monumental task, but we can, each one of us, each in our own way live it out…not perfectly, but with the willingness to listen for the call and respond to the best of our ability at that time, and if we fall, getting back up and trying again. The Good News is preached by our loving of each other, especially by our loving the poor, the marginalized, the immigrants, the “Dreamers” and the refugees, by loving the one who is “other” than us and loving those most in need of being loved…not just with our words but with our actions. We are called, as Pope Francis has said, “to draw close to them”! We are called to work for racial justice we are called to work for an end to white supremacy and white nationalism! We are called to be ambassadors of the Reign of God, where all of those previously mentioned negative realities cannot exist and are antithetical to the Reign of God. We are called to not just preach about it but making it present by how we live our lives…lives of peace-making and justice-building, guided by and built upon the principles, values, words and actions of Jesus Christ as proclaimed in his Gospels.
What Gospel values or principles are most evident in the way I live my life? What other Gospel values or principles might I work on manifesting in my life, so as to more fully proclaim the Good News? What part of the Gospel do I find most difficult to embrace and put into action in my own life?
God’s Blessings,
Fr Tim
There is urgency in discipleship; we are not to tarry and be about many other things but rather to live in such a way that our very lives proclaim God’s amazing love for all people. It is such a monumental task, but we can, each one of us, each in our own way live it out…not perfectly, but with the willingness to listen for the call and respond to the best of our ability at that time, and if we fall, getting back up and trying again. The Good News is preached by our loving of each other, especially by our loving the poor, the marginalized, the immigrants, the “Dreamers” and the refugees, by loving the one who is “other” than us and loving those most in need of being loved…not just with our words but with our actions. We are called, as Pope Francis has said, “to draw close to them”! We are called to work for racial justice we are called to work for an end to white supremacy and white nationalism! We are called to be ambassadors of the Reign of God, where all of those previously mentioned negative realities cannot exist and are antithetical to the Reign of God. We are called to not just preach about it but making it present by how we live our lives…lives of peace-making and justice-building, guided by and built upon the principles, values, words and actions of Jesus Christ as proclaimed in his Gospels.
What Gospel values or principles are most evident in the way I live my life? What other Gospel values or principles might I work on manifesting in my life, so as to more fully proclaim the Good News? What part of the Gospel do I find most difficult to embrace and put into action in my own life?
God’s Blessings,
Fr Tim
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