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January 25, 2023Jesus is instructing each one of us: “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.” Today’s Scripture readings are an invitation to each one of us to spread the gospel by our words and actions. We are also ending the Octave for Christian Unity. This is a time for us to reflect on what separates us from each other as persons, as faith traditions; then make a move to bridge that gap.
As a loyal, practicing Jew, Paul persecuted those who followed Jesus. God has a special love for Paul by physically and overtly calling him to follow the way of Jesus. Although each of us has been called by God in a special manner, I doubt that any of us has been searched out in such a demonstrative way. Yet, in our blindness, in our stubbornness, in our apathy, God does call each one of us personally. If we have not thought much about our individual call by God, perhaps today is an appropriate time to look at our call and how we can respond.
Recently I watched the Netflix film, Mission Joy, the story of the deep friendship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the 14th Dalai Lama. I thought of the similarity between Paul’s struggle in his own conversion to Jesus and the struggles of these two men. Both the Archbishop and the Dalai Lama suffered severely in their own ways because of their love for their God. The Archbishop struggled to abolish apartheid in South Africa. The Dalai Lama was exiled from his own country because of his beliefs. Both men experienced God in different ways. They both loved deeply. They respected and loved each other in true friendship. Each of them had a singular call to the Divine as they grappled for freedom for their people, just as Paul struggled when called to follow Jesus.
In today’s gospel, Jesus is commanding us to do the same. Go out and spread the good news. Let people know how much they are loved. Although we look different, speak various languages, follow our individual cultures, we are all called by God to live in peace. In print, Jesus’ mandate seems so easy. In daily living, it is not. Often in this column I have reminded us that we received grace in Baptism and Confirmation. We have the beatitudes and the works of mercy. We need to make these spiritual tools a part of our ordinary daily lives.
Let’s recall that conversion is a process. Perhaps, we need to reflect on our own conversions. When did we realize that God loves us personally? That God has a special mission for each one of us? That God asks each of us to love—even love those to whom we are not attracted? We have the grace to love, and when we can, care for the stranger, the difficult person, the cranky old person, the one whose culture I find difficult to understand. When Jesus tells us to go out to the whole world and tell the good news, he means all those people who are disregarded, maybe not even lovable. But they are God’s people like us!
We may not be called to martyrdom for the sake of the gospel. But we are called each day to spread the good news by our words and actions to the people around us.
Listen to the song: “Prayer for Kind Speaking” by Jan Phillips on YouTube
