We learned from yesterday's Gospel and from today's Gospel that the Apostles were given
a share in the divine power. But our Lord adds something further in today's Gospel, for he says,
the gift you have received, give as a gift. That is, in dispensing the mysteries of the Church and
most especially the forgiveness of sins, the Apostles are not to seek or pay in any way,
manner, shape, or form as a man has the right to do in human industry. For the products we produce,
we have a right to a fair price to those products. But our Lord is elevating those mysteries of the
Church, for they are not a human product. They are, in a certain sense, they are the result of
divine industry, and most especially that greatest act of love by which Christ died on the cross
in order that we may receive the forgiveness of our sins. And so the Apostles are to go out to
all the world and freely give.
The Lord indicates there is really only one thing required, that is, humility. Humility and repentance
of sins is the only requirement for the Apostles to dispense their gifts. And so they are to go to
every town and to every citizen, preaching the forgiveness of sins and the establishment of the
kingdom of God on earth, freely giving, and where they are rejected, they are to shake the dust of
their feet. That is, they are to go to every town and to every citizen, preaching the forgiveness of
sins. They are to depart from that town because the free gift was not accepted. And so, let us truly
rejoice that we are members and citizens of that kingdom, where the gifts that are given are free,
and indeed, it is required of us only one thing, that we be willing to die in order to preserve
those gifts in the soul. And so ultimately, our Lord is telling us that we are to give freely,
and most especially, we are to give our lives freely.
If we are called to do so. And so, we celebrate today the memory of Bishop Gregory
Agrasi and his companions, who willingly gave their life rather than renounce, that is,
rather than to give up those gifts they freely received. And so, they freely gave their lives
in honor of Christ, who first gave his life for them. And so, let us go forth with that confidence
that we are members of God's kingdom, therefore, citizens of our eternal Father,
and let us strive always and everywhere to witness to that truth and to preach the forgiveness of
sins and the freeness by which one may receive it. If they merely approach the Lord with a humble
heart and a contrite spirit, they will receive that which cannot have any human price placed
upon it, for it is beyond human industry. Indeed, without the revelation of Christ,
we would not even consider the marvels and the mysteries that Holy
Mother the Church contains and that she will freely give to all citizens until the end of
time. And our Lord assures us that if the gift is rejected, then we need not worry, for he is
the eternal judge, and he will judge. Where his mission and apostolic labor of his church is
rejected, he says very clearly that it will go worse for those reasons than the region of Sodom
and Gomorrah. And we all know the uncredible
practices that were practiced in Sodom and Gomorrah and the divine wrath it brought upon
that region of the world. And so, let us always and everywhere offer all nations, all peoples,
and ourselves to the mercy of God so that no one may experience that terrible judgment
by which the Lord himself says it will go worse for all citizens who reject the revelation of
Jesus Christ that is the institution of the church, because after the institution of the church,
incarnation, passion, and death of our Lord, there is no excuse for any land or any people or any
nation to fall again back into the paganism that it had felt fallen into before. And so, this is
precisely why the new paganism is a more virulent and more violent paganism, because it is in some
level a conscious rejection of the mission of the church and the free gifts that God wishes to give
every citizen.
And so, let us this day, in memory of all the martyrs who have gone before us, make an offering
of our life, begging the Lord that rather he take our lives than to see the world and our nation
plunge deeper into that rejection of the free gift of God, which is ultimately, if one perseveres,
the rejection of heaven itself. And so, let us strive,
always to remember, that we have not a home in this life, but we have a heavenly home in that life to come.
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