“Without cost you received; without cost you are to give”.\u00c2\u00a0 These were Jesus words to his disciples as he sent them forward.\u00c2\u00a0 They are something all of us need to ponder.\u00c2\u00a0 Because almost all of us did, indeed, receive the gift of faith without cost.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not so in China, or Iran, or dozens of other places, where the cost of believing is certainly an issue.\u00c2\u00a0 How truly blessed we all are, whether our faith was handed down to us in Baptism as an infant, and nurtured by our parents, or acquired by us later in life through our own free choice.\u00c2\u00a0 It was basically without cost- free to us.\u00c2\u00a0 All we had to do was accept it, and move on.\u00c2\u00a0 Consider how costly accepting faith is for others, like the people in the places I mentioned.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, we have an awesome obligation as well- an obligation to spread that faith, also without cost, to others.\u00c2\u00a0 But what exactly does that mean?\u00c2\u00a0 Most of you, I am sure, do not consider yourselves evangelists.\u00c2\u00a0 But, by virtue of your Baptismal promise, you are.\u00c2\u00a0 And whether you like it or not, you have been given the opportunity already- your children, your co-workers, your friends, even your enemies.\u00c2\u00a0 They have all had the opportunity of relating to you, and observing first hand how and whether you project your faith.\u00c2\u00a0 Have you demonstrated it freely, and without charge?\u00c2\u00a0 Or do you hide it, keeping it to yourself?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, first of all, you give your faith freely by living it so that it is noticed by all by going out of your way to make your Sunday obligation; and by taking seriously what your Church teaches on issues and morals.\u00c2\u00a0 Second, our faith needs to be contagious- like a gift- something that others will seek out because they want what you have.\u00c2\u00a0 You do that by projecting joy, conviction, and above all, love, in what you do.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul and Barnabas are great examples of evangelizers.\u00c2\u00a0 They exhibited these qualities, and their peers could not help but notice it.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s society is absorbed in secularism.\u00c2\u00a0 All of you are called to be new Barnabases and Pauls, by sharing what you have, freely, and without cost.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0 Thursday of 10th Week in Ordinary Time Feast of St. Barnabas Acts:11; 21b – 26; 13: 1-5; Mt 10:7-13 Dc. Larry Brockman “Without cost you received; without cost you are to give”.\u00c2\u00a0 These were Jesus words to his disciples as he sent them forward.\u00c2\u00a0 They are something all of us need to ponder.\u00c2\u00a0 Because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62"}],"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=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}