On Being Missionary Disciples
(Acts 18:23-28; Ps 47; Jn 16:23-28)
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God is good – all the time! All the time – God is good!
That saying, popular with foreign-born priests, underlines the message from today’s readings: God is good, so believe in Him, love Him and be a missionary disciple spreading that good news.
In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of the goodness of the Father, and how that goodness flows out to the disciples as joy, because of their belief in him and through him in the Father, so that both Jesus and the Father love them. That goodness of God is so great Jesus promises that whatever they ask for in his name, they will be given. God is good – all the time. All the time – God is good. This discourse continues to reveal our God who is dynamic inter-relationship, Father loving the Son, Son loving the Spirit, and the Spirit in turn loving the Father. God is family, intimate relationship, a divine dance or perichoresisas the Fathers of the Church taught.
Both St. Paul and Apollos, in the first reading, are good examples of those who truly believe in the goodness of this trinitarian God made know through Jesus, and who are dedicated to spreading that message throughout all the known world.
Spreading the message involved both kerygma (proclaiming the message for the first time) and didache(deepening that message through teaching). The last is what we see Paul doing in this reading from Acts – going about from place to place strengthening the disciples.
We also read how Priscilla and Acquila took Apollos aside and instructed him, gave him didache, so that he would have a greater knowledge of “the Way of Jesus” to go along with his enthusiasm for this new way of life. They are a model of a couple living their sacramental marriage as missionary disciples. Interestingly, they play a key role in the movie Paul – Apostle of Christ.
Aquila and Priscilla
The goal of all this kerygma and didache was to show that Jesus was truly the Messiah, the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament – that this was the time for salvation history to come to full term – and they were instruments of this process. What a privilege – no wonder Apollos was full of enthusiasm.
The Eucharist we celebrate now is in a sense didache for us, a deepening of our faith experience of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
May our celebration strengthen us and empower us to go out to both proclaim the Good News for the first time to some, and deepen it in others, always within a joy that only the Spirit of the Risen Lord can give.
God is good all the time ! God is good all the time ! If you know what he has done for us on earth by using his son Jesus to show us the important ways of being a missionary disciple. If we believe in the Trinitarian God , God the father and the son and Holy Spirit then he will help us with any problems we face everyday. He will save us from our sins all the time and lead us to the right path and teach us lead sons we need to know. Well yes, the message should be kergyma and didache to show people that Jesus is the Messiah and Christ the King one last time. Being a missionary disciple is deepening our faith and experience in order to the Good News to the world. Praise be to God The word of the Lord.
Thanks Bishop Lavoie for the entire messages and homilies these couple days in expressing the Risen Lord. Blessings ! Blessings! Today praying the Rosary to cherish Our Lady of Fatima in front of City Hall is pretty loving and heart warming under the lovely sunshine. I was shaking and speaking into tongues during the rosary and adoring the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. You should be blessed by God . Bravo!