From the Pastor&#039;s Desk: July 18, 2021

The last few Sundays invited us to reflect upon the call to be proclaimers of the Good News, to be prophets of our times. This incredible call comes with some awesome opportunities, responsibilities, and challenges. Last Sunday, St. Mark told us the story of Jesus’ disciples, who after a long time of His guidance and instructions, were sent out to be His ambassadors, to announce His message and testify to its truth. Today, we look at the example of Jesus' Apostles as they returned from their first successful missionary endeavor as they share their report of progress.

We know from the other evangelists that this moment of reunion was full of rejoicing and energy - they had experienced the power of God working through them, moving people's hearts through their words and deeds. And how does Christ respond when his missionaries return from their exciting and busy adventure? He takes them aside to rest, to be with Him again in the quiet intimacy of their small community.

The lesson is clear, but so hard to put into practice: active apostles, Christians who are energetically engaged in evangelizing the world around them, need to balance their activity with a focus on their personal relationship with the Lord. As much as the Lord invites us to rest with Him, we also learn in our busy-ness of our lives, with stress, discouragement, and other crippling emotions, these can wear us out and leave us emotionally and spiritually exhausted. Where do we look or go to recharge our spiritual batteries?

To that point, St. Mark gives us one of the most amazing phrases in His entire Gospel. When Jesus gets off the boat and sees the crowd and St. Mark tells us: "His heart was moved..."
Jesus has a human heart - He took on one purpose: so that He could be close to us. He truly cares for us; He feels our needs and struggles even more deeply than we feel them ourselves. And He continually reaches out to be our leader, our light, and our strength. So, it is our friendship with Christ that supplies us with the strength and wisdom we need to be truly successful in the roles the Lord calls us to serve as His faithful witnesses. Because in truth we find rest, spending time in prayer, study, giving freely of ourselves to others and time alone with God, in order to experience the loving compassion of His most Sacred Heart. Otherwise, in this crazy, corrupted, convoluted world with endless and exhausting demands and expectations, we will soon run dry and have very little, if anything, to offer others.

As we continue through another week of summer vacations, let us set aside a time to allow the desire to live in communion with God to be our own experience. I am convinced that only those who find Christ get to live out that communion in the form of a real, human friendship and are fully capable to do something beautiful with their lives for God. “I have met many famous people, successful people, wealthy people, and powerful people. None of us – not you, or me, or them – ever do great things.
But we can all do small things with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”
-St. Mother Teresa

I wish you a blessed and relaxing week!

With prayers,
Fr. Andy