The
other day in the prison I led a discussion about Sunday’s Gospel, which
describes how Jesus sent some of his disciples out in pairs to prepare the way
for him in area villages. I found an image with Jesus in the center and pairs
of disciples facing outward in all directions and asked the men what they
noticed about the picture. One inmate said, “The disciples look excited.” “Why
do you think that is?” I said. “Because they have a mission,” he replied. “Here,
we just sit around all day with nothing to do. But when you have a mission, you
have purpose in your life—a reason to get up in the morning.”
Sometimes our jobs give us a specific mission—to
teach, to heal, to counsel. However, all Christians should have a sense of
mission that flows from knowing Christ. As Joan Chittister says, “Contemplation…not only brings us face to face with God,
it brings us, as well, face to face with the world, and then it brings us face
to face with the self; and then, of course, something must be done. Something
must be filled up, added to, freed from, begun again, ended at once, changed,
or created or healed, because nothing stays the same once we have found the God
within. . . . We become connected to everything, to everyone. From
contemplation comes not only the consciousness of the universal connectedness
of life, but the courage to model it as well.”
That is the mission of all Christians—to
recognize the connectedness of all life within the body of Christ and then to
live out the consequences of that connectedness by welcoming, serving, and
loving others. It is a mission that lasts a lifetime and can be practiced wherever
we are and no matter who we are with. As Fr. Duane Roy often says at the end of
mass, “The mass is ended; our mission continues.” May your missionary work
today be blessed!
No comments:
Post a Comment