Fulfilling God’s Purpose and Will! Mark 6: 7-13

Dear Friends,

In the Gospel, Jesus sends out the twelve he has chosen, to proclaim his message, respond to the needs of the people, and to offer his healing. He instructs the disciples to take next to nothing for their journey. God’s choice of the disciples was not a product of chance, but a deliberate act.

After Christ had chosen his disciples, he took time to prepare them in order to achieve the primary purpose of God in their own lives. Afterwards, He sent them out to achieve the secondary purpose and will. That is, mission to their community and world.

This is what growth in Christ means. It means striving to achieve the primary purpose of being holy, impeccable and loving and also, going out to help others achieve it. This is what it means to be a missionary and to develop a missionary spirit. For this to be possible, we must not be selfish and love must move us to invite others to share our experience.

Both in the calling and sending of the apostles, we discover that they were all at the discretion of Jesus. He would later remind them that they did not choose him, but rather he chose them (John 15, 16) so it is with us, we did not call ourselves; it is God who has called us in Christ. And as he called us, so he empowers us to proclaim the wonders of his love to all creation. Let us therefore live out our Christian calling for it is a mandate to share God’s LOVE.

We Christians and therefore disciples of Jesus are given the same mandate as the Twelve of today’s gospel. We can cure others by our love, encouragement, affirmation, forgiveness, acceptance of their failures etc. We can cast out devils of fear, anxiety, worry, guilt by the way we are there for them when they need us. Welcome and hospitality have great healing powers.

We may find it hard to accept this and it will seem impossible if we think the power comes from us. But if we are more conscious of being chosen and sent by God as the Twelve we can claim the power of God to fulfill the calling he gives us.

May our daily lives truly reflect a people chosen by God, whom God has taken for his own, to make his Love known and shared in our families and the society at large.  Let us remember that we are chosen, that we are not alone, and that we can draw strength from knowing we are one with each other, sisters and brothers in Christ.

We may be rich or poor materially, but in Christ we have everything. We must constantly remind ourselves that God chose us for a purpose and, we must strive to achieve it, by witnessing to his LOVE.