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The Pharisees who listened to Jesus began to deride Him. There are many in the modern world who would stand with the Pharisees, deriding the Gospel of Jesus, rejecting the Church's call to us to grow into a more just and loving humanity. There are surely many different ways of deriding what Jesus has to say. There is the open derision of the Pharisees who heard but did not want to listen. There is surely also a more subtle form of derision where we apparently accept the words of Jesus but live lives that are quite at variance with what Jesus teaches. We are often quite adept at serving two masters! On another occasion, we hear Jesus quote the words of the prophet Isaiah, "This people honours me with their lips but their hearts are far from me". Because of their derision, the words of Jesus did not reach to the hearts of the Pharisees and did not convert them. If we accept the word of God into our hearts we will experience it as a living and active word, a word that purifies and recreates, a word that guides and sanctifies. Lord, we thank You for the gift of Your word. May it always be living and active in our hearts, probing and purifying our thoughts and motives. |
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P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
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That holy and exemplary men and women may be our companions in proclaiming boldly the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
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"They began to proclaim the word of God boldly" (Acts 4:31). The word "boldly" can also be translated as "audaciously" or with "forthrightness" in announcing the Christian message. The ideal agents of evangelisation should be "holy and exemplary persons". Though God could have spread His Kingdom without human collaboration, He has always sought human partners, who as suitable and free instruments, work for the salvation of humankind. The laity can evangelise chiefly through prayer, the testimony of life and the establishment of a temporal order inspired by the Gospel. Though preaching the Gospel is the competence and principal duty of those who have been ordained, lay people, who have the necessary theological training, can preach. Vatican II stresses the need for priests to be holy preachers. God ordinarily prefers to show his wonders through those men who are more submissive to the impulse and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because of their intimate union with Christ and their holiness of life, they are able to say with St Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). Let us therefore pray that all those who devote themselves directly to evangelisation may live a holy life that emphasises the credibility of the Christian message. | |
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