2023-06-18 11:00:01
At that time, when Jesus saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them, because they were exhausted and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples: “The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. Pray, therefore, to the owner of the harvest to send workers to his fields.” Then, calling his twelve disciples, he gave them power to expel impure spirits and cure all kinds of diseases and ailments. These are the names of the twelve apostles: the first of all, Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John, sons of Zebedee; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the publican; Santiago, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who was the traitor. Jesus sent these twelve with these instructions: “Do not go into pagan lands or enter Samaritan cities. Go rather in search of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Go and proclaim along the way that the Lord is drawing near.” Kingdom of Heaven. Heal lepers and other sick; raise the dead and cast out demons. You have received this power freely; exercise it, therefore, freely” (Mt 9,36-10,8).
It is a great joy to know that everyone who faithfully teaches or fulfills any mission in the name of Christ has his own name written in heaven; and this should be reason enough for joy, regardless of success or failure. God does not ask for success in the apostolate, but fidelity, which is constancy impregnated by love. If success doesn’t exalt you, failure doesn’t bring you down either. Jesus knows perfectly well that he has chosen sinful men and fishermen, with little preparation, but who should only present their words to the world and repeat their gestures soaked in boundless tenderness.
Here are the three verbs that should mark the life of every authentic Christian. The first of them: see. It is found frequently in the Bible: “God heard the groans of the Israelites. Then he turned his gaze towards them and took them into account” (Ex 2,24). Yahweh himself on Sinai presents himself to Moses saying: “I have seen the oppression of my people, who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cries of pain…Therefore I have come down to deliver them” (Ex 3,7 ). God sees and provides. The second verb appears in the expression: “Jesus was moved by the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” His look is not the neutral observation of a sociologist or the cold and disinterested look of a photojournalist, since he always looks with the “eyes of the heart.”
About the shock: Walking down a street in Russia, during the famine that accompanied the war, the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), ran into a beggar. Tolstoy rummaged through his pockets to find something to give this man. But they were empty. He had already given all the money to him. Moved with compassion, he embraced the beggar, kissed his sunken cheeks and said: “Don’t be angry with me, brother, I have nothing to give you.” The beggar’s haggard face brightened. And tears shone in his eyes as he said, “But you called me brother…and this is a great gift!”
“They were like sheep without a shepherd.” As the French philosopher Albert Camus (1913-1960) pointed out, “the meaning of life is the most pressing question of the human being.” The idea that life has a meaning is not an invention of some author or simply a definition borrowed from some philosophy, but from the very nature of the human person. At present many people, and especially young people, state that they experience a deep existential emptiness, equivalent to an absence of objectives, lack of purpose and lack of definition of a vital project that guides their lives towards an end. The renowned Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), who lived for three years in a concentration camp with his parents and wife, surviving their death there, wrote his famous book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, where he describes the life of the prisoner in that center of horror. In this work he exposes that, even in the most extreme conditions of dehumanization and suffering, man must find a reason to live, based on his spiritual dimension. Disenchantment, as well as the boredom of existence and the inability to fight with the daily routine of life, are related to the lack of meaning experienced by today’s man. It is up to parents, educators and social agents to help discover that, as Seneca stated: “Life is like a literary work: what is important is not the extension but its content”.
For him Pbro. Dr. A.S. Jose Manuel Fernandez
#Fidelity #mission #Cuyos #diary