Jesus said to his Apostles: "As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town."
REFLECTION
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.....
let your peace return to you.
So many times we forget who we are and we feel so entitled to everything...from God's love, peace, happiness to being served. We might even feel that the spreading of the good news belongs only to priests. We can then go and live our lives as we think we have a right.
Yes, Jesus gave the disciples and the priests the commission to speak in His name and to act with His power. But does that mean that we have no commission to serve the Kingdom of Heaven? We are the Kingdom of Heaven and we submit to and honor God. We are to tell all about Him and bring His healing power to all.
The gifts we have received are free and Jesus reminds us that we are to give back freely, without renumeration, serving without deceit, full of charity and a simple life. Being human, we tend to get our feelings hurt if people don't respond to us as we thought they should, or what we said and did was not well received. The special feelings, privileges or rewards that we expected for our work are just not there.
We should be dependent on Jesus alone, not others, our feelings, our friends, nor our family. Share your peace. If not accepted, take it back, smile, bless and walk on. Keep the peace that God has given you and move on doing His work.
The Holy Spirit will always be with you. Listen to Him.
God Bless You and Pray for priests and for one another.
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