MANY MESSENGERS

MANY MESSENGERS – 3^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

            Temperament, values, experiences, and personalities draw different people. Those to whom we are more attracted have a greater influence on us. They may say and do the same things with greater effect on us than someone else. This also has consequences for how we hear the Gospel. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the Lord calls such a variety of people with varied temperaments, looks, likes and dislikes, to proclaim the kingdom of God.

            Not even Jesus, who is the message Himself, was able to reach everyone in His earthly person. Neither did the prophets of the Old Testament reach everyone with their message. No one proclaimer of the Gospel today reaches everyone. While there are differences in those who proclaim the Gospel in different ways, and in different settings, they are all characterized by faith in Christ, a love for the Church, and a conviction of being called by the Lord. For the most part, they came out of a background of faith, which was preparation for being God’s messenger.

            Proclaimers, priests, deacons, religious, missionaries, lay people in the marketplace, are often prepared by the Lord many years before they become conscious of being a proclaimer of God’s Word in some way. The Lord chooses for His own reasons. He may want the person to announce the message to just one other person, or to a whole group, a nation, or the world. Some calls are more demanding than others. The Lord’s calls are matched to the person He calls. The Lord’s standards are not always like purely good human ones.

            The messengers, and those who receive the message through them, are to remember they are to be attached to the message and not to the messenger. Paul warned the Corinthians not to say “I belong to Paul” or “I belong to Apollos”, or to any other Gospel messenger. Jesus is the message to become attached to, and the only one who has died and rose for our salvation. He is the one in whose life we have been baptized and called to live by the Holy Spirit.

            Messengers of the Lord are first receivers of the message. The process of calls is simple and complex at the same time, as we learn from the faith accounts of the Gospel. “As He was walking along by the sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers…casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.” They had learned a lot in their work of catching fish. The Lord called them to catch people for the kingdom of God. “Come after Me and I will make you fishers of men.” They were greatly attracted to Jesus for “At once they left their nets and followed Him”.

            Only by following Jesus could they be prepared to later lead others to Him and to His message of the kingdom of heaven. They spent a lot of time, along with others, just being with Jesus, listening to His teachings, studying His person, actions, attitudes, and ways of ministering to others. They accompanied Him in His public ministry, which Matthew summed up in this way. “He went around…, teaching …proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.”

            The process of the Lord’s calls has the same basic ingredients in them today. People begin to follow the Lord first through their families for the most part. Over a period of time of growing in knowing, loving and serving the Lord, a sense of being called by the Lord to participate more fully in His mission of the kingdom through the Church can happen. This is worked out over a long period of time depending on the call and the response. The prayerful listening disciple is more likely to hear the Lord’s call and respond, like the other disciples Jesus called, who were “mending their nets”.

            Life needs constant repentance, healing and conversion, and getting and keeping our lives in order. If their lives were not in order, they wouldn’t be able to answer a call to follow the Lord more closely, and to participate in His mission more fully. The whole human race is in need of the Gospel message of Jesus’ salvation, and the kingdom of God.

            The Lord calls many to do His work. Those who accept the call are blessed beyond all telling!

Reflection from Divine Mercy #929

“…how greatly concerned I am for all mankind, that they all do not know You, and those who do know You do not love You as You deserve to be loved.”