Daily Reflection – 10/3/19
Sacred Scripture
Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the Kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.”( Luke 10: 1-12)
Reflection
Peace be with you, and with your spirit. From the very beginning of Christian worship, peace has been the core of our faith — the peace and love of Christ as the salvation of the world.
First, though, Jesus teaches the disciples about the way to bring the peace of the Lord to others. Peace is not imposed, but chosen; the disciples do not stay where peace is not valued. Rather than fight and argue for people to accept this, the disciples instead are told to leave the community and warn them of their fate. Separation becomes a practical necessity for the moment. “Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves,” Jesus says, with the clear instruction that they are to remain lambs. Still, the disciples leave with a final plea for these communities to repent, an act of caritas that holds the promise of eventual redemption.
Peace, as we see, is that caritas love expressed by the Lord for all of us, and to which we are each called to have for one another as children of God. It’s not just the absence of open conflict, whether that be war or flinging a piece of Christmas turkey at Uncle Jack’s head. Peace means putting anxiety and conflict aside and trusting in the Lord for justice and mercy, and sharing that peace with all of those in your life.
This welcoming with joy and solidarity keeps us human and humble. We need each other to find joy in God, we don’t go to God on our own. We have one God who is like father and mother to us, and we are brothers and sisters.
God is the mother welcoming and merciful, no matter where we have been or what we have done. God the mother invites us to follow the Lord Jesus. The things of Jesus are to be first in life –mercy, forgiveness, the common good of all, faith and prayer.
We recognize people by their step or their knock on the door. It’s a knowledge of the heart. This is like the intimacy of our relationship with God. It’s an intimate knowing.
This is the reason of the Church – to be the community in love and for love. The church calls us not to Jerusalem but to the living God in our church, school, family, and neighborhood. In our loves of friendship, of marriage and for the poor. Calling us to find this reign of God in love and spread it in works of justice, compassion and mercy.
Prayer of The Day
“Lord, may the joy and truth of the gospel transform my life that I may witness it to those around me. Grant that I may spread your truth and your light wherever I go.”
Daily Note
What is the reality to which the biblical expression “kingdom of God” points. The kingdom of God comes into being wherever God reigns, and wherever God’s will is done. The kingdom of God is present in persons through whom God acts. It is no surprise that in the early church the kingdom of God soon came to be identified with Christ himself. God reigns in Christ. God’s will is done in Christ. God acts through Christ. To proclaim the kingdom of God is the same as to proclaim Christ. In fact, the church from its beginning, by proclaiming the good news of Christ, was being faithful to his mandate to proclaim the kingdom of God.
