+ In this, the “fullness of time,” the Son of God himself comes
to dwell among his creatures as one of them, to announce the arrival of an
amazing Kingdom to which all are invited to become citizens of. And so Jesus tells his helper Apostles to go, likewise, and announce the arrival of that kingdom, and to give credibility to
the announcement by giving them miraculous power over nature, sickness and
disease. They were to simply make the announcement, offer God’s peace and
then move on to another town! It would be up to the individuals in the towns
and villages to either respond to the “grace of the moment” or not! Many did,
many did not! It seems to be similar today: the same kingdom is being
announced, with the same invitation, but now, at least in our culture, less
accept such a kingdom as a reality (in fact far less), but the smaller amount
that do accept it know they have something very special and something to defend
from enemies.
The first reading from Hosea
(I) prophesys God’s willingness to take back errant children, for he loves them
so very much; his heart, the very heart of God, is overwhelmed with pity, and the flames of his justice he will withhold
so that they do not consume.
May we today revel in the fact
that as baptized Christian persons, we live in the heart of God more and more
deeply, the more and more we surrender ourselves to his love, give up our own
self-destructive wills, and choose to enter into the ever-giving dynamic of
real love: the love of the Trinity itself. If we can share this message with
just one other person today, then we also have fulfilled out baptismal,
apostolic calling! May we not be the reason why someone right here and now does
not hear the Good News announced to them!
The
Kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel.
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