WE ARE MISSIONARIES, TOO!
Jesus
sent His Twelve disciples on a mission, not because He was getting
tired or lazy. He was preparing them for His ascension into heaven and
the coming of the Holy Spirit. We will recall that Jesus, as soon as He
began His ministry, chose the Twelve. That gesture is very significant
and consistent with God’s way of involving the cooperation of man in His
work of salvation. From the time of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, to the prophets, judges and kings, Mary, Joseph and John, and
then to the Apostles, God had given us the message that even if He
created us, He will not save us without our consent.
The Twelve will be Jesus’ witnesses to everything that He did. Being
with Him in His three-year ministry prepared them for the foundation of
the Church which will be God’s sacrament of presence in the world. The
mission sending is a prelude to the coming responsibility of the Church
to proclaim the Good News to all men. It is the task of the Church to be
faithful to what Jesus said and did. The Church here refers to all the
baptized led by the pope, bishops and priests.
The same responsibility was given to us when we were baptized. We
received the threefold functions of Jesus: prophet, priest and king. As
prophet, we proclaim and witness to the Word of God. As priest, we serve
by praying for and inspiring each other in the liturgy. As king, we
guide our fellow baptized in living a moral Christian life. We are our
brother’s keeper. At the end of every Mass, we are being sent out on
mission.
Unfortunately, this responsibility is either forgotten, taken for
granted, or not known at all. Parents and godparents have the
responsibility to rear their children and godchildren in the faith. They
should be able to hand on the faith they professed for them when they
were children. The children, in turn, should hand on the faith to the
next generation. We are all part of the chain. Do we hold the lines that
keep the chain connected? Fr. Benny Tuazon
REFLECTION QUESTION: How are you responding to your baptismal call to be a prophet, priest and king ?
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