Sunday, July 14, 2024 – Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B Readings: Amos 7:12-15, Psalm 85 “Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.”, Ephesians 1:3-14 or 1:3-10, Mark 6:7-13

                                     A Staff and Sandals Are Needed
     The Word of God is like a seed; it needs an open furrow and a welcome. The Word of God is the link be-tween God and man; once inside a man’s heart, its transformation begins. Christ needs coworkers who pro-claim the Gospel. To them the Gospel’s recommendation applies: ”Take only your walking stick and sandals,” as if to say, “Don't put your trust in the means, but rather only in the grace of God.”
 
Brothers and sisters,
 
1. The master's fortune will also be that of his followers. He was not well received by his countrymen for the mere fact of being one of their own. On another occasion, they wished to stone and hurl him over a    ravine because he had given witness to his status as Messiah; he was persecuted, abandoned, betrayed and nailed to a cross. “What has been done to me shall be done to yourselves as well.” This does not only refer to the clergy, but also to his lay followers. It is clear that from the beginning, the preaching of the Gospel goes against the current of the world.
 
2. Today, people want to banish God from society. Secularization, laicism, and agnosticism have taken over the mass media, politics and economic power. Their laws and customs harm the most basic morals, assault life (abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, genetic manipulation, therapeutic cloning of embryos, etc.) assault family (quick divorce, gay marriages), assault our faith (our religious teaching, our popular devotions, the elimination of holidays).
 
But where are committed Christians who can give convincing answers through their words and proclaiming truth and goodness through the witness of their lives? Where are those who bravely defend values in the public square, in academia, in the financial world, in scientific research, on the street? It seems that Christians with leadership and guts stand out by their absence.
 
3. A Christian is an apostle through the strength of his Baptism and his Confirmation. He is responsible for the salvation of his brothers and sisters. To be a lay disciple is above all, a must for a person of faith. It is to make God's love penetrate the world's ordinary circumstances. It is to feel that God drives us to get involved with people and their problems. To be a disciple is to pray as a little girl once did, “Lord, make the wicked good and the good likeable.”
 
Being an apostle is not just talking about God, but living from God and bringing him to all those around us. Being an apostle is having a heart so overflowing with love that you cannot but share it with those around you.
 
Brothers and sisters: Christ puts down three conditions in order to proclaim the Gospel: full time dedication to the mission, letting go of things, and the internal freedom to evangelize without limitations. Let us re-member that the success of evangelization depends not only on our own personal effort, but also on the grace of God.
 
Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests