Deacon Tom Writes
Go, Make Disciples
The Ascension of the Lord, Year A
Were we able to hear God’s voice in the midst of our Lenten journey through the desert? Or gain a new insight about God’s incredible love for us during this Easter Season? Perhaps we have a better sense now of what God is asking of us than we have when we started out. How successful were we in changing some of those habits and behaviors we needed to change about ourselves - our judging and criticizing attitudes, our negative thinking, our inertia for self- reflection, or our sense of superiority, and our propensity to put others down in order to fuel our own ego? Have we succeeded in elimination gossip from our lives?
Three months is not a long time when you think about it, especially if we are trying to measure such things as spiritual growth…. It just not a lot of time. And yet, that’s, at most, all the time that the apostles had to grasp Our Lord’s revolutionary way of thinking about loving, forgiving, and serving one another… friend and enemy alike. The Apostles really were, when you think about it, on the fast track. Once Jesus was gone, that was it. It was all up to them to spread the Word throughout the world.
Imagine if you were the one who Jesus told to, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” What would you do? How would you begin?
Well, the strange thing is, this command Jesus gave His hand picked “go-to” guys was meant for you and I also? Yes, we who hear the Word of God today are chosen to carry the message in our times. Jesus is telling us to go into the world and proclaim the Good News to everyone we meet along the way.
In his Apostolic Exhortation on Evangelization in the Modern World , (or as they say in Rome, Evangelii Nuntiandi- December 8, 1975 – the feast of the Immaculate Conception), Pope Paul VI wrote:
“Those who sincerely accept the Good News, through the power of this acceptance and of shared faith therefore gather together in Jesus' name in order to seek together the kingdom, build it up and live it. They make up a community which is in its turn evangelizing. The command to the Twelve to go out and proclaim the Good News is also valid for all Christians, though in a different way…. Moreover, the Good News of the kingdom which is coming and which has begun is meant for all people of all times. Those who have received the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation can and must communicate and spread it.”
My brothers and sisters, there is a saying that goes, “Faith isn’t taught, it’s caught.” Jesus’ work of salvation has been accomplished. What remains is our participation in that work that calls us to spread the Good News, to be living witnesses of the faith that we profess, to do as St. Francis was fond of telling his followers….to go out and preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words.
Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacs engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or leaving it.
OTHER RESOURCE
Recommended Reading: The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation. One of the founders of the Centering Prayer movement, Thomas Keating offers a reflection on contemplative prayer, the human search for happiness and our need to explore the inner world. The spiritual search for God, he says, is also the search for ourselves.
Recommended YouTube Video: Living in the Presence of God Fr. Thomas Keating discusses the title topic and the practice of Centering Prayer.
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