Friends,
Today, let us reflect on the theme of Sending. Have you ever felt a call to do something? Is it in your church, family, a group of your friends or elsewhere? Do you still have the same desire to do something greater than yourself? If yes, then God is the one speaking to you, be attentive.
During the small Christian communities’ workshop, is the sending of the participants into a mission. They are to go and practice what they have learned. In doing so, they will engage in a mission of transforming their world. Topics are, therefore, prepared in a way that will inspire their missionary desire and commitment. To demonstrate their readiness to respond to God’s sending, each carried a burning candle during the sending ritual ceremony that symbolized their hearts with the fire and love for the mission.
Similarly, from today’s readings, we hear of the sending. Prophet Amos is sent to the Northern kingdom by a high priest Amaziah. Being a good listener, Amos responded to God’s call and went up to speak for the poor in Bethel. But he was told to leave and mind his own business. The Psalmist is ready to listen and hear what God says. To him, God promises his faithfulness, mercy, justice, and help to those who trust him. Moving on to St. Paul, in his long prayer of praise and blessing, he imagines God’s plan. That is, before the world began, God chose us through his son, and he has made us his forgiven sons and daughters. In the Gospel, Jesus sends his disciples in pairs of two to go and preach the message of love and repentance. They have already learned from him, and now they can go and teach others. As they go along doing that, they are only to trust God and rely on the hospitality of others.
For Catholics, there is another form of sending that resonates with the biblical sense of sending. In every liturgical celebration of the holy mass, in the end, the celebrant sends the congregation with these words, “Go and announce the gospel of the Lord” (Roman Liturgy, Concluding Rite). These sendings have a missionary dimension. Therefore, our response of love and by the grace freely bestowed upon us, as Paul tells in the second reading, will make us missionaries of hope and hospitality, and we shall transform our world.
Christian Action This Week: Find out the great thing God is calling you to do. And as you do that, listen more this week.
