Mission Possible

Mission possible

Jesus summoned his 12 disciples and began to send them giving them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing, for this journey, but a walking stick. Jesus sent out the 12 to basically do, what he had been doing. He did not ask for volunteers. He sent out his 12 disciples: all of them: 

What a trip. No suitcase. No hair dryer, no cell phone, no travel’s checques, no ATM card, no reservation.  No even a brief case, 

But who cares? It will still be a trip of a life time. A long journey. A mission impossible. But with the God’s divine help, mission possible. 

When you look to all people that Jesus chose to be his disciples, they are all ordinary people. They are not the most educated (no college or university degrees) and not the most religious people.

All of them have a common thing: weakness. They were sinners, called from among sinners, broken men, from among broken men, made different by the power of God’s divine call. In reality he choose ordinary people and make them extraordinary 

So, all his disciples had been sending to preach the Good news. 

We are sent too. All of us. To preach and share our faith with love and enthusiasm.  It’s invitation. 

 People today are able and free, to make decisions to accept or reject Christianity in whole different way than before. 

We should not dictate people to follow Christ or trying to threaten them with the rules of the church. Especially young people don’t like to be dictated . They need a wise a truthful explanation about our Christian faith.

 As believers of Christ we need to understand the meaning of our faith and then share with the others. Jesus told us to make disciples, not decisions. We cannot simple sit in our pews, being comfortable or read some prayers without praying. We need to go and work in the field. We should be servants and disciples. No saviors.

Another important thing is to preach the Gospel of the Lord with compassion. We should not threat people with an eternity in hell.  Unfortunately some fanatics use this weapons of threat for they have their own insecurity feelings.

 Use compassion. Meet them where they are.  Make also sure when you share the Good News of Christianity, to do it with humility. We all have weakness and we are all sinners.

 Let us be sure before we judge and point the finger to somebody else, that our hands are clean. 

We should also do the work of the Lord with discretion. How many  people, for instance, especially young left the church, because of us and the way we act. Clergymen have a big challenge on this.

We need to proclaim the goodness of the Gospel in a very honest and compassionate way. Ane every home should be s church

It is not our business to make the message of God acceptable, but to make it available. 

Fr. Constantin Siarapis (Prof. Emeritus)