Thursday, October 3, 2024
Readings: Job 19:21-27, Psalm 27, Luke 10:1-12.
Theme: THE SWEET CHALLENGE OF EVANGELIZATION: LIKE LAMBS AMONGST WOLVES.
The Catholic Church dedicates the entire month of October to reflect on her central mission: spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20).
To be a missionary is to be available to answer God’s call each day and to live united to the Lord in the most common every day things, work, meeting other people, our daily duties, opportunity events of each day such as parties: wedding, graduation silver jubilee, birthday, patron saints day in our churches, schools and small Christian communities. In all these events we allow ourselves always to be guided by the Holy Spirit to attract many to our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. John 16:7-13, 1 Samuel 3:8). This means October is a special month of prayer and action to renew our missionary commitment which we received by the virtue of the sacrament of Baptism. We are called to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with all peoples.
Jesus in today’s gospel assures His future missionaries that many souls await their arrival. “The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are scarce”. Much is required of the Lord’s labourers, if their work is to be effective. They must be:
+ Emptied of self and filled with Christ.
+ Their hearts must be enlarged and deepened that God’s presence may fill them.
Jesus calls on Christians to be on duty to pray to God for Apostles of great zeal and holiness: “pray to the owner of the harvest to send out labourers to reap it”.
Though the harvest is great and plentiful, and the owner sends out labourers to gather it, the enemies of man are always busy, and there is continual danger to the good work of God’s servants. Persecution, disappointments, and even death may await the true disciple. Jesus reminds us, “Go then and remember, I am sending you like lambs in the midst of wolves”.
In these words, the Lord who is all wisdom spells out our Christian Vocation. It is one of both joy and sorrow, of success and failure, of an abundant harvest and of wolves ever ready to devour the unsuspecting lambs (cf. 1 Peter 5:8-10). Indeed, such has been the history of Christ’s church, as prophesied by Himself.
We rejoice at the great courage and charity of the Saints of God who did the work of evangelization. We are sad at the spectacle of ignorance, bad will, rejection, hatred and cruelty on the part of their persecutors. We are glad at the spread of Christ’s kingdom on earth particularly in Kabale diocese, for all the good things brought by faith and love of Christ such as schools and hospitals that brought transformation among our people.
The Lord still calls us not to be merely disciples; but also Apostles who have been sent out since the harvest is rich but the labourers are few. This is because despite the numerous churches in the world today, many Christians including some preachers are evangelizing like wolves instead of lambs. Some extort money from christians using different tricks as wolves and some others do not see themselves as worthy of evangelization and still, others carry along fears and insecurity (self rejection, self hate) into the work of evangelization and these limit effective mission.
We sorrow at the many who remain blind and cold at the news of their redemption:
1. Do I stand for my religious beliefs and all that is just and truthful, or do I hide my faith out of fear?
2. Do I join in common prayer on Sundays or do I miss Sunday prayer because of laziness?
3. Do I take an active part in the life of my small Christian community, parish and Diocese?
4. Do I support my Christian community (small Christian community, Hiika, parish and Diocese) according to my financial position?
5. Do I help the members of my Christian community who are in need: the poor,the sick, those who are in prison, the lonely, the elderly, widows and the orphans?
We can not be successful in evangelization without Mary’s intercession. The Apostles succeeded because from the beginning they were with mother Mary (Acts 1:14). This is affirmed by St. Padre Pio that “the Rosary is the weapon for these times”. May we use this weapon for our effective evangelization.
Let us pray today: Jesus, King and Mary, Queen of Martyrs, help us not to count the cost as we witness our lives to the Gospel. Amen!
Fr. Kwehangana Bagubwa Mathias