15TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B
MISSION ALIVE!
MK 6: 7-13
MESSAGE
Check your attitude in the morning: Did you wake up refreshed and recharged and ready to face another day? Do you go to work with excitement and energy? Do you appreciate more than you complain? Do you wish you were somebody else and somewhere else, or with something else and with someone else? These are not only questions to ask yourself but also feelings to discover in yourself. The answers you give will allow you a glimpse of your sense of mission and purpose.
In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus sends the disciples on a mission of preaching, healing, exorcism and other adventures. Those early apostles and disciples lived their mission to the full, making it the very purpose of their lives, and even the cause of their death. Today, the Lord continues to give each of us a mission, some to faraway lands for preaching and service, but most of us, to a daily mission of fidelity to him and goodness to our neighbor. The core of the mission is the same for all – love! If we have fallen in love with Jesus, we will always be excited to live for him and with our brothers and sisters. I remember a short inspirational message from the late Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, which can be our valuable guide this week:
“Nothing is more practical than finding God,
That is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings,
What you will do with your evenings,
How you spend your weekends,
What you read,
Who you know,
What breaks your heart,
And what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
REFLECT
This week, when you feel bored, irritated, fed up, and about to surrender, remember that Jesus wakes you up each morning to give you a blessing, to make you a blessing to others, to give you the power to bless the world around you. In trying moments, renew your love for him and ask him to strengthen you for your mission.
