Qua bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, chúng ta thấy Chúa Giêsu đã chọn những người rất bình dân, có thể nói là những người quê mùa chất phát để rao truyền tin mừng cứu độ của Ngài cho những người khác. Trong số các tông đồ đó họ là những người đánh cá, họ là người thu thuế, và họ có thể là những người yêu nước. Chúa Giêsu đã không tìm gọi những người giàu có hay những người có học thức, thông minh để thực hiện sứ mệnh của Ngài. Nhưng, Ngài đã chọn những người đơn sơ thấp kém nhất trong xã hội nhưng có lòng trung thành và sẵn sàng tin tưởng vào Chúa. Điều này có nghĩa rằng trong số chúng ta, ai cũng sẽ được kêu gọi để tham gia vào công việc truyền giáo. Chúng ta không thể lấy vịn vào cái lý do vì thiếu khả năng, ít học, quá yếu kém hay quá nghèo để làm việc cho Chúa. Qua phép rửa, mỗi người chúng ta đã được nhận ánh nến sáng của Chúa Kitô, chúng ta được sức dầu như tư tế, và được kêu mời để đem lời Chúa đến cho người khác.
Chúa Giêsu ban cho các môn đệ những sức mạnh và quyền hạn khi họ ra đi để rao giảng Tin Mừng của Chúa. Trong khi chịu phép Rửa, chúng ta cũng nhận được sức mạnh của Chúa Thánh Thần để ra đi làm chứng và rao giảng Tin Mừng của Chúa. Chúng ta có thể thực hiện việc này bằng những công việc hành vi đơn giản thường ngày trong cuộc sống của chúng ta qua những lời nói, nhưng việc làm, hay qua cách chúng ta cư xử với người khác. Chúng ta phải biết cố gắng tìm kiếm những cách thức mới để giới thiệu đức tin cho những người không biết Chúa Giêsu và những người không theo những đường lối của Ngài. Chúng ta hãy cầu xin Chúa Kitô, ban cho chúng ta những hồng ơn và sức mạnh cần thiết để thực hiện sứ mệnh của Chúa trao ban.
Jesus chose very ordinary men to tell others the ways of his kingdom. Among the apostles were fishermen, a tax collector, and a patriotic zealot. Jesus did not look for the richest or the smartest to carry on his mission. He chose those who could exercise faithfulness and had a willingness to trust the Spirit. This means that none of us are excluded from participating in the work of evangelization. We cannot make the excuse that we are uneducated, too weak or too poor to work for the Lord. We are all called through our baptism.
Baptism does not only mark our entry into the Church and the reception of the gift of salvation, but also begins our responsibility of having to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. We are all commissioned, like the apostles, to bearing witness to God's power. Jesus gives his apostles and disciples authority as they go out to preach. At baptism, we are similarly given the authority to proclaim the Good News through the lives we lead and the words that we speak. We search for new ways to introduce faith to those who do not know Jesus and to those who do not follow in his ways.
Let us pray that Jesus gives us the grace and the power we need to carry out his mission.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 10:5–7
The very last words of Jesus, just prior to His Ascension into Heaven, expands the mandate we read above that Jesus gave to His Apostles. He later says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19). Eventually, Jesus sends the Twelve and all of His disciples to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Gospel to every creature. But here, prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit, and prior to the completion of Jesus’ earthly mission, He instructs the Twelve to go only “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Thus, Jesus gives a sort of priority to the preaching of the Gospel to those who have already been entrusted with the revelations of the Old Testament—that is, the teachings of the Law of Moses and the prophets.
Though, today, we must all hear the call from our Lord to “make disciples of all nations,” we must also hear this unique commission to first preach to those who are already members of the family of God. And though, today, the Holy Spirit has already come and the Gospel has already gone forth far and wide, there is still an important spiritual lesson to be learned by Jesus’ progressive commission from those of the family of God to those who do not yet know the Gospel.
Start with yourself. By hearing Jesus give special emphasis to His Twelve to go first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, you should hear our Lord speaking especially about you. You, who were baptized, have been confirmed and have received Holy Communion, now have a special obligation to listen to and respond to the Gospel of Christ. From there, God entrusts you with the sharing of the Gospel in a special way to those who also share your faith. For that reason, parents are uniquely obliged to share the Gospel with their children. Friends within the same faith community are uniquely obliged to reach out to others who share their faith. And pastors of the Church must do the same. The Gospel is now universal and must be proclaimed to all people, but this passage appears to highlight the importance of sharing the Gospel with fellow disciples of Christ.
We know from our daily life that there are many who profess faith in Christ who still are not fully evangelized. There are many who have received the Sacraments but lack the deep faith to which they are called. It can appear that most fail to worship our Lord every day, and many fail in their prayerful worship each and every week. Therefore, it is useful to place yourself into this Gospel passage and to hear our Lord call you to especially devote yourself to the sharing of the Gospel with those who have already become members of His Church, even if it is only in name.
If we begin with ourselves, seeking to daily grow deeper in our life of faith, praying and seeking out the will of God, then God will more easily be able to use us as He wills to share the faith with those who belong to God’s family but whose faith may be weak. And for those who are “all in” and have truly given themselves over to Christ, God will certainly also use you for the proclamation of the Gospel to those who have not yet come to know Christ through the gift of faith.
Reflect, today, upon the invitation Jesus gives to you to be His evangelist. First, look at your own life and do all you can to allow the Gospel to transform you into a fervent follower of Christ. From there, be open to the many ways that God wants to use you every day to inspire others to become followers of our Lord. Start with your family. Pray for them. Be attentive to the promptings of grace God gives to reach out to them. Then turn your eyes, also, to the wider community. Allow the Lord to lead, follow His voice, and He will use you in many ways to help others come to know His burning love for them.
My universal King, You came to establish Your Kingdom in the lives of all people. You call all Your creatures to faith in You. Help me to be among the first who turn to You with my whole heart. Please also use me to become an instrument of Your saving grace to those whom You’ve put into my life. My life is Yours, dear Lord. Use me as You will. Jesus, I trust in You.
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for calling me to this time of prayer. Again, I ask you to inflame my heart with burning faith, hope, and charity. Grant me the grace of gratitude for those who first preached the Gospel to me, and give me the strength to proclaim the Gospel to others.
1. The Names of the Twelve: For some, this list of names can seem like a skip-worthy section of the Gospels or else a fun piece of trivia to be pulled out at the next Bible study. However, this passage would have carried some weight for the original audience of the Gospel of Matthew in the first century AD. In it, new and old Christians would recognize the names of those who preached the Gospel to them for the first time, giving thanks to God for these men. We can insert the names of our parents, catechism teachers, friends, and parish priests, asking ourselves, “Who was an apostle announcing God’s love to me?”
Opening Prayer: Lord, place in my heart the fervent desire to be one of your faithful disciples. Allow me, by faith, to walk with you, learn from you, pray with you, and be your companion. Place in me the desire to do your work, wherever that work needs to be done: in my home, in my workplace, in my daily routines, and in encounters with your “lost sheep.” Bless and protect all your disciples with your love. Amen.
Encountering Christ
Honor Roll: In the Gospel read yesterday, Jesus said he would need “workers” for the “harvest.” Today, we see the beginnings of the early Church, those first workers—the disciples listed by name. We should aspire to see our name included on that sacred roll-call! Does the world appear different today than the world surrounding those first disciples, two thousand years ago? Yes. Are the challenges to the faith very different? Not really. Then as now, there were pagans (who worshiped false gods) and Samaritans (who differed with the Jews on a number of religious issues). But Jesus advised his disciples, and advises us, to go first to those who are closest. For the disciples, that meant the “lost sheep of Israel.” For us, that means our families, our friends, and our neighbors.
The Twelve whom Jesus named apostles were ordinary people with neither high education nor extraordinary talents and possessions. They were ordinary people with their faults and shortcomings: proud, stubborn and hard-headed. Two would betray Jesus: one three times before simple house-girls and one for thirty pieces of silver. However, they were basically loyal followers of Jesus. Strengthened by the coming of the Holy Spirit, they preached the Good News of Jesus to the world. Except for the apostle John, all of them gave witness to the Jesus they followed and the Gospel they preached with their lives.
God makes use of the ordinary to accomplish truly extraordinary things. God has decided to make use of and to need people for the spread of his kingdom.
By our baptism each one of us has been called and chosen by God to play a role in the spread of the Kingdom, in our own lives and in the lives of others around us. God has not given us gifts of healing and authority over unclean spirits but he encourages us, as best as we can, to reach out to the broken-hearted and the lost, to the weary and the downcast, and to preach and share the Good News of the Kingdom with all the world. We are called to transform the world and to re-create it for the Lord Jesus.
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