(Listen to this homily here).
One of the joys of this first year here has been getting
together with our evangelization team.
We have been meeting every month or so and have been reading through
Sherry Weddell’s book Forming Intentional
Disciples. This has been one
way in which I want to help our parish make disciples—which is one of our core
activities.
We
had a great conversation last night about the task of evangelization—spreading the
Good News of Jesus Christ. Our
discussion centered on the fact that evangelizing is not only for priests and
religious! In fact, the Second
Vatican Council taught that a priest’s job is to consecrate the laity, the
laity’s job is to consecrate the world!
Jesus
said to his disciples, “The
harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to
send out laborers for his harvest.” We need more laborers in two areas.
The
first is with intentional disciples
in the laity. Sometimes we
overcomplicate evangelism. We
think it takes an advanced degree in theology or other academic work. I keep thinking about the Samaritan
woman at the well. She had a short
conversation with Jesus, came to believe in him, went home and her whole town converted. She simply shared the story of how
Jesus touched her life. You know
abundantly more about Jesus than this woman ever did! Be intentional about sharing how God has touched your life.
The
second is with an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious
life. One step we are going to
take soon is to pray specifically for this intention at every Mass. We have new hymnals on the way, and
when we put them out they will contain our Diocesan Vocation Prayer which we
have been asked to pray at Mass. I
pray that many men and women will have the courage to say yes to a religious vocation from our parishes!
Be
an intentional disciple today. The
harvest is abundant!
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