Are you doing your share in spreading the Word of God? Or are you one of those who are busy trying to silence it through secular materialism - Daily Reflections April 22,2015

GOING ABOUT PREACHING THE WORD   While Saul was busy “dragging out men and women,” and “handing them over for imprisonment,” others also “went about preaching the Word.”        In our times, many individuals and groups are as busy as can be trying to destroy the Catholic Church and disparage the faith of millions. Mainstream media is one of them. One only needs to scan the various reports from all over the world to see how many of them are biased against the Catholic Church, and how they can twist facts and put a spin to anything that Pope Francis says.        Last year, I was blessed to meet a German couple, both alumni of  our school in Benedikbeuern, Southern Germany. Kristian and Nicola Maier have been missionaries in Bontoc-Lagawe doing what they call the “apostolate of presence” with the natives of Bontoc, Mountain Province.         I was in awe. I felt blessed and grateful to God for making me realize and see first hand how so many lay people are busy “going about preaching the Word.” There are times when I feel sorry about the haters and naysayers. It is no secret that the object of their hatred is the Church and what She stands for. To make matters worse, they seem to be very busy, like Saul was, “trying to destroy the Church, entering house by house, and dragging men and women” to their culture of unbelief.          We ought to do better than the likes of Saul, version one. He was rabid and relentless. But Saul, version two, was a totally different man. He was zealous, committed, passionate and dedicated to the mission.       Some of us have not yet gotten into the groove of the new evangelization. Now that there is a veritable persecution of the Church everywhere, we could rethink our being Catholics. Have we remained in version 1 — the version we got from the day we were baptized many years ago?          We need to join “ministry version F,” and do like Pope Francis does! Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB   REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Are you doing your share in spreading the Word of God? Or are you one of those who are busy trying to silence it through secular materialism?   Stir up my heart, Lord, that I may have the passion and the commitment to spread Your Word wherever I may be.