Find what you’re looking for
During Mass this week, we hear readings about what it means to be a prophet, God’s greatest gift of love, and the reaction to the message Jesus delivered to people at the synagogue.
Saints Timothy and Titus were trusted friends and co-workers with Saint Paul through many of his trials. He eventually set both up as heads of local Churches and encouraged them as would a father. Saint Paul seems to have truly relished their support and friendship.
Few of us are called to be prophets but we can identify some contemporary figures who fit that role. How do we accept the prophetic message we hear proclaimed each Sunday? And would we invite the bearer of that message home for Sunday dinner?
God’s word is still being sown today. Its fruitfulness depends on where it is planted. Today’s parable invites us to ask ourselves what kind of soil we provide for God’s word.
I was looking for a world-affirming way to become a mystic activist for our time.
Christ shared his glory with his disciples. He breathed upon them and sent his Holy Spirit upon them for the forgiveness of sins. He does the same for us today.
It took falling off a horse and becoming temporarily blind for him to hear the voice of Christ. Then his sight and strength were renewed when the Lord realized that Saul’s heart was converted and made anew.
The conversion of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus was to be the turning point in his spiritual life. There he met Jesus and nothing was the same after that. Thereafter, all his zeal and energy were focused on the spread of the gospel message.
Paul’s apostolic adventures were not effortless, but they were the will of Christ. Apostles of today carry out that same agenda. Christ’s basic evangelical enterprise is still going on.
Initiative and hard work matter, but achievement is shaped by what we’ve been given, not just what we’ve earned.
