When was the last time you updated your job description?  Does it include a faith component?  Because, faith is to be a part of every aspect of our life.  In today’s Gospel (Luke 9: 57-62) Jesus calls each of us: “Come, follow me.”  With this invitation is the commission of Jesus: “But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”

Are you listening to Jesus?  Are you following Jesus?  How do you proclaim the Kingdom of God in your life?

It is helpful to be as clear as possible about how Jesus is calling you and specifically how he is sending you in his name to proclaim the Kingdom of God.  Every master plan / job description has goals and objectives.  The common component of every Christian life is “Go, proclaim the Kingdom of God.”  But the objectives differ according to the call of Jesus and the state of one’s life.

Last week in the daily readings for Mass, St. Paul in the Letter to the Ephesians (4: 1 – 16) beautifully breaks down this understanding of how we are to follow and serve Jesus.  I encourage you today to read both passages from Luke and St. Paul.  Here is what St. Paul tells us:

I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, …

… living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s growth and builds itself up in love.

So, to summarize, each of us are called.  Every one is graced by Christ with a specific call and the grace to fulfill it.  This grace provides different ministries in and for the Church, which are to be exercised

  • to equip the holy ones for ministry
  • for building up the Body of Christ
  • to attain:
    • unity of faith
    • knowledge of God – in Jesus Christ
    • to mature in our full stature in Jesus Christ

Our life in Christ is our truest identity.  The call of Christ is our highest calling.  Growing to full stature in Christ is our life’s mission.

This cannot be done by isolating or relegating faith to what we do in church.  This is why our daily life, our job description is enhanced when we include our greatest mission: “But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”

Our concluding rite at the end of every Mass has three options, two of which say it best:

Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.

Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.

Peace,

+pde

 

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