HERALDING THE GOOD NEWS
As a young seminarian, I was invited to speak before a group of people in a small poor community nestled in the middle of the city. As I entered their place, I was at once taken aback by the sorry state of their living conditions.
I began my talk with the question, “Ano po ba mga pinagkakaabalahan niyo dito?” I was met with tremendously edifying answers that really touched my heart. The women in that community regularly take turns in cleaning their parish church located in a big subdivision but which they are members of. Two of them were community-based volunteer catechists teaching the kids in their own community. The men were parking attendants in the busy business district during weekdays and volunteer parking attendants in the church during weekends. Three were Eucharistic Ministers.
And what do their children do? One mother offers this response, “Naku, ‘yan pong mga elementary na ‘yan, nag-iipon ng mga bente-singko mula sa baon nila. Tapos pagdating ng Sabado pupunta sa phone booth doon sa kanto, bunutan sila kung sino ang tatawag sa telepono para sabihin lang, ‘Linggo po bukas. Simba po kayo ha, sama buong pamilya ha! Thank you, babay!’” (Those elementary students, they save 25-centavo coins from their allowances. Then on Saturdays, they go to the phone booth at the corner street and they draw lots as to who will make the phone calls just to say, ‘It’s Sunday tomorrow. Please go to Mass with your whole family! Thank you! Bye!’”)
This whole Easter week we are bombarded with stories of jubilation on the part of those who have come to see the Resurrected Christ. We know that the Resurrected Christ came to give us peace and to comfort us in our miseries brought about by our own misdeeds.
Now, the Resurrected Christ is giving us a command to proclaim all that we have come to know, see and experience. We are asked to tell the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are now to become His heralds to the world, just like the people in that poor community I visited. Fr. Sandy V. Enhaynes
REFLECTION QUESTION: How are you responding to the call to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ?
Lord Jesus, empower me with Your Spirit that I may be able to proclaim Your work and Your glory to the people around me.
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