Father Robert Barron sees in that gospel a portrait of the church and the church
is on the move and the gospel says that it will have the power to tread upon
serpents and scorpions, nothing poisonous can kill the church, the church
is indefectible it will be here till the end of time. And it can trample on
whatever the world throws at it. Our Lord points of furthest 72 and
that's the point that the church is a missionary church
We're not given the faith just for our edification.
We're not given the truth just for our own personal aid.
We're given the truth to share it with others.
We're given the faith to bring it to others.
Like the Cardinal O'Malley up in Boston says that we're fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium.
We're not meant just to maintain the status quo, but we're meant to be on the move.
And we're meant to acquire new members.
And we're sent. We're not lone rangers.
We're not here sent on our own, but we're sent by the church.
Not free agents, but we're missionaries from the church.
It says the harvest is rich, laborers are few.
Ask the harvest master.
To send out laborers.
The point is prayer is necessary.
Prayer is essential.
The church cannot make progress without it.
The fruit of prayer is the conversion of souls.
So the church will have no success in its mission without prayer.
The fruitfulness of the apostolate depends on our intuition.
fatherland, materia, union with Christ.
Take no walking staff, no traveling bag, no extra pair of sandals.
Well, that's a reference to the poverty and simplicity of lifestyle the church lives.
A life of luxury is incompatible with discipleship.
Like, if a priest were to live a life of luxury,
if a person could live a life of luxury,
if a priest were to live a life of luxury,
of affluence his words would not be convincing okay we we need to especially in religious life
religious take vows of poverty sacrificing some of the comforts of this life
and to continue to proclaim the kingdom of God in season and out of season proclaim the unpopular
truths people need to need to hear and the gospels of actually a friend of pope john paul the second
said that one of the virtues that struck him the most was was his poverty that he was very detached
even living in the splendor of the vatican he lived a very simple life but but all his life
he lived very detached from worldly things
again
the
the
the gospel says send out laborers laborers are those who generously give of themselves
their time their talents and their resources
pope benedict recently established a commission on evangelization and that's what this gospel the
church is a is an evangelizing church and one definition of evangelization is one orphan
telling another orphan where their mother is one orphan telling them an other
orphan where their mother is another definition is one beggar telling another
beggar where the bread is the bread of eternal life and so this evangelism is it moves by zeal they see
where there is no zeal there is no love
And it's our love for others that seeks union with them.
And zeal seeks union in Christ.
Union with the mind of Christ, which is truth.
Union with the life of Christ, which is grace.
There's the story of St. Ignatius, who founded the Jesuits.
And one of his early disciples was St. Francis Xavier.
And when St. Francis Xavier was leaving as a missionary, St. Ignatius was old.
He knew he would probably not see him again.
And his words, as he left on his missionary journey, St. Ignatius said,
Go and set fire.
And they say fire is caught, not taught.
We must first be inflamed with that burning zeal.
That zeal.
That zeal.
That zeal.
That love for God, love for souls.
One saint says that to possess burning zeal for God and for souls is a sign of lively faith.
To lack it means the faith is dying.
Our prayer today is that our faith may only grow stronger and our zeal for souls may ever increase.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.