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What a visionary.\u00a0 Paul’s visions of the Old and the New Testament God are so graphic.\u00a0 First, he gives his vision the Old Covenant vision of the God of Moses- fearful, terrifying, power and might, and foreboding.\u00a0 It was a vision such that people begged that there be no more of it.\u00a0 In fact, Paul says even Moses thought the scene was terrifying.\u00a0 But then, Paul gives a vision of God in the New Testament- a heaven that awaits all of us because we are the ones invited to approach it.\u00a0 It is a wonderful, joyful, welcoming place of peace and joy.\u00a0 Such a contrast!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It seems to me that the first vision communicates a sense of overwhelming power- a power that none of us can cope with, a power that is hopelessly beyond us, the power of the almighty God.\u00a0 It evokes fear, because it should evoke fear.\u00a0 All of us are so small compared to God, that all of us should fear the immensity and the power of the supreme being.\u00a0 It is a power and might that should strip of us of all our prideful inclinations.\u00a0 And indeed, that was the emotion that Moses described.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the fact is that when Jesus came, it was our merciful God coming among us to calm our fears.\u00a0 Jesus broadcast a message of the love and mercy of God.\u00a0 It was as if God was saying, “Look, I will take on your nature so that you can see that you do not need to fear me like that; just listen to me, and I will show you the way so that you can be with me in eternal joy.\u00a0 Don’t worry, be happy; I am a God of mercy”.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But with that promise, there comes a price to pay.\u00a0 That’s what our Gospel is all about today.\u00a0 Did you notice that Jesus sends his disciples forth to preach before his passion?\u00a0 It was a sort of trial run of the Apostle’s future mission after He dies and is resurrected.\u00a0 These men of faith are told what to do- to carry out their mission with confidence and in faith.\u00a0 They are empowered with authority.\u00a0 And walla, they do it- they cure the sick, drive out demons and work miracles!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now the way I see it, these men were just showing all of us the way.\u00a0 We, too, are being sent out to work miracles and spread the good news.\u00a0 First we have to believe.\u00a0 Then the conviction of our belief and the reassurance of our God will give us the authority and the confidence to do mighty things.\u00a0 Unlike the Apostles, whose mission really was to spread Christianity to the whole World. our mission is much less ambitious.\u00a0 We just need to practice our faith in our lives, in our families, and in our communities- in our little world.\u00a0 We are called upon to do that with confidence and authority, so that our brothers will see that Christianity is the way and the truth.\u00a0 In our little world, there are many demons to cast out:\u00a0 Abortion, lusts of all kinds, and materialism are just a few;\u00a0 And there are many illnesses to cure: addictions, psychological disorders, and others.\u00a0 And we can do it, because we really do believe. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of the 4th Week of Ordinary Time Heb 12: 18-19, 21-24; Mk 6: 7-13 Dc. Larry Brockman What a visionary.\u00a0 Paul’s visions of the Old and the New Testament God are so graphic.\u00a0 First, he gives his vision the Old Covenant vision of the God of Moses- fearful, terrifying, power and might, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[16,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}