SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR: THE FULLNESS OF LIFE IN CHRIST (COLOSSIANS 2:6-14)

Have you ever seen a counterfeit one-cent coin? Probably not. A cent is so cheap that it is not worth counterfeiting. Have you ever seen a counterfeit $100 bill? Sure. Why? Because it is worth so much. The existence of a counterfeit is testimony that a thing is precious. Anything that is truly precious is sure to have counterfeits. The Christian faith is very precious. And from the beginning it has always had counterfeits. A counterfeit of true Christian doctrine is called a heresy. Paul wrote to the letter to the Colossians to combat heresies that were developing there and corrupting the true faith they received in the beginning. Paul did not personally found the church in Colossae. He never even visited the Colossians. But when he heard of the corruption of sound doctrine that was brewing there, he could not restrain himself from writing to them to point out the counterfeits of Christian doctrine that were circulating among them.

Paul does not give a name to the heresy of the Colossians. But from his response and the things he emphasized in his letter it is possible to make out certain tendencies of this heresy. His principal advice to the Colosssians in today’s second reading is: “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (2:6). From this we can see that the heresy of the Colossians has to do with belief in Christ. Paul urges the Colossians to keep living their lives in Christ. Using the image of a house, Paul urges the Colossians to sink their foundation on the solid rock of Christ so that they can be firmly built up in him. Departing from Christ would mean building their house on sand, and such a house cannot stand (Matthew 7:24-27).

Paul gives three reasons why he urges the Colossians to centre their lives on Christ. The first is because “in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (2:9). Apparently the heresy claimed that Christ was not fully God but shared in some aspects of divinity as do many other spiritual “rulers” and “authorities” in whom they believed. But Paul is quick to point out that in fact the whole fullness of deity dwells in the man Jesus and that he is “the head of [i.e, above] every ruler and authority.” (2:10b).

The second reason Paul gives to the Colossians why they should remain steadfast in Christ is because “you have come to fullness in him” (2:10a). Many heresies thrive by promising their devotees a deeper knowledge of God which will bring their Christian experience to a new level of maturity. Paul tells the Colossians that in Christ they have already attained fullness as daughters and sons of God. In other words, they have no need for additional, esoteric beliefs and practices to bring them to Christian maturity.

Finally, Paul reminds the Colossians that “In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ” (2:11). The Colossians were mainly Gentiles. Part of the heresy could be that Jewish extremists were telling them that their membership as God’s covenant people was deficient because they were not circumcised. Paul reassures them that the baptism they had received was a spiritual circumcision, the circumcision of Christ.

We can see that in all his arguments Paul was trying to make one point, namely, that for Christian believers, Christ is all-sufficient in their relationship with God. This includes their redemption, their ongoing sanctification and their eternal salvation. Like the first temptation in the Garden of Eden, heresies often promise you that “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). But as we know, that promise is false.

There are many New Age religions today who adulterate sound Christian teachings with esoteric doctrines. Many of these base their teachings on the “Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ,” an admixture of Christian and oriental religious beliefs. Many well-meaning Christians who desire to deepen their knowledge and experience of God often fall prey to these modern day heresies. We will do well to heed Paul’s message to the Colossians that the sound teaching of Christ which has been handed down to us in Christian Tradition and the Bible is all that we need for full and authentic Christian life. Nothing more.

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR: PRAYING AS JESUS TAUGHT (Luke 11:1-13)

A businessman who needed millions of dollars to clinch an important deal went to church to pray for the money. By chance he knelt next to a man who was praying for $100 to pay an urgent debt. The businessman took out his wallet and pressed $100 into the other man’s hand. Overjoyed, the man got up and left the church. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed, “And now, Lord, now that I have your undivided attention….”

Robert A. Cook, president of The King’s College in New York, once spoke at the Moody Bible Institute. Cook said that the day before, he had been at a gathering in Washington and had talked with Vice President George Bush. Two hours later he spoke briefly with President Ronald Reagan. Then smiling broadly, he said, “But that’s nothing! Today I talked with God!”

These examples of two men at prayer, a businessman and a college president, can teach us a lot about Christian prayer. Positively, it shows us that even top-level executives and professionals still make time to pray. But in a very subtle way they also highlight the problem that today’s gospel seems to focus upon, that of the right disposition for Christian prayer. In both instances we see that God is portrayed as the big boss or the CEO of a corporate establishment. Is that the right disposition for Christian prayer? The request of the disciples to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1) can be understood as a quest for the proper disposition for Christian prayer. The reply that Jesus gives them can be summarised in one sentence: the right disposition for Christian prayer is the disposition of a child before its father.

The gospel reading, Luke 11:1-13, consists of the request of the disciples in verse 1 and the long response of Jesus in verses 2-13. The response of Jesus begins in verse 2 with the words, “When you pray, say: ‘Father’” and ends in verse 13 with the words, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father.” We see immediately that prayer, according to Jesus, is a child-father affair. In other words, it is a family affair based on a relationship of familiarity and love. Jesus uses the imagery of father here in order to correct the dominant image of God as the boss or the king who is to be revered rather than loved. Speaking of God as father has practically the same force as speaking of God as mother. Both images speak to us of a relationship based on tenderness and intimacy and not on power and authority.

To pray as Christians is to put ourselves in the situation where we see God as father (or mother) and speak to Him as His children. When children speak to their parents, there is hardly a right or wrong way. They simply focus on one thing, to put into words and body language what they feel in the heart. I know a man who took issues with his pastor for using the wrong prayer formula. His pastor had said “Almighty and ever-loving God” instead of “Almighty and ever-living God.” One wonders what kind of image this man has of God. Maybe he thinks of God as the Chief Judge or the Law Enforcement Officer before whom one must use the “right” words. Certainly he does not think of God as “Abba” (Daddy) before whom there are no correct formulas.

Children trust their parents to always do what is in the children’s best interest. “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?” (verses 11-12). God’s children should likewise come to God with a spirit of trust and expectancy, knowing that God will always do for them whatever is in their best interest. Children, like the friend at midnight, refuse to take no for an answer. Say no to them and tomorrow they are sure to come back with the very same request. Jesus teaches us, as God’s children, to show the same spirit of perseverance in prayer. He makes this point with the Parable of the Friend at Midnight who refuses to take no for an answer.

Speaking of prayer as a father-child affair finally reminds us that prayer is an activity that flows out of a relationship. We do not learn how to pray better, we become better women and men of prayer when our relationship with God becomes more intimate like that of father and child. If you want to improve your prayer, focus on improving your personal relationship with God, our Father.

Note: The example of Robert Cook was a reflection I listened to on Youtube.

Sixteenth Sunday of the Year: The Church as the Body of Christ ( on the Epistle)

William Barclay, a famous Bible scholar, has this beautiful illustration of the relationship between Christ and the church:

Suppose a great doctor discovers a cure for cancer. Once that cure is found, it is there. But before it can become available for everyone, it must be taken out to the world. Doctors and surgeons must know about it and be trained to use it. The cure is there, but one person cannot take it out to all the world; a corps of doctors must be the agents whereby it arrives at all the world’s sufferers.

That precisely is what the church is to Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that all people and all nations can be reconciled to God. But before that can happen, they must know about Jesus Christ, and it is the task of the church to bring that about. Christ is the head; the church is the body. The head must have a body through which it can work. The church is quite literally hands to do Christ’s work, feet to run upon His errands, and a voice to speak His words.

The identity of Christ with the church was the first lesson that Paul learnt in his life as a Christian. Before his conversion Paul, then known as Saul, saw Christians as a bunch of infidels deserving of death. When Christ appeared to him in a vision as he rode to Damascus to persecute the Christians there, Christ’s first words to him were: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) The voice came from heaven, so how could Saul be persecuting Christ on earth? Paul then understood that the heavenly Christ and the earthly church are one and the same thing. What you do to the church you do to Christ.

The vison on the way to Damascus taught Paul that even though Christ was already enjoying divine glory with the heavenly Father, it was still possible for him to suffer through the suffering of Christians. That is how Paul came to the realization that the church is the body of Christ. When he says in today’s second reading from the letter to the Colossians that “in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Colossians 1:24),” he does not mean that the suffering of Christ by which he redeemed us was deficient. He only meant to underline the fact that so long as Christians are suffering persecution in this world, Christ was still suffering, in his body, that is. When we realize that Paul wrote this letter from prison (verse 4:3) in Rome where he and other Christians were still being persecuted for their faith, then we see why he understands their suffering as Christ’s ongoing suffering. When Christians suffer, Christ suffers.

Paul says of the church, “I became its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you (verse 1:25).” For Paul being a servant of Christ and being a servant of the church are one and the same thing. There is no separating Christ and the church. What you do for the church you do for Christ.

There is a funny game in which people are asked, “If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be, and why?” Some say they would like to be a mango, delicious and irresistible; others that they would love to be an apple, hard but good for your health, and yet others a cactus fruit, thorny on the outside, but delicious in the inside. Today, we could play a similar game. If you are the body of Christ, what part of Christ’s body are you? Are you Christ’s feet bringing him to other people, like the Eucharistic ministers bringing Holy Communion to the sick? Are you Christ’s hand wiping away the tears of the afflicted or helping to put a roof over the head of the homeless? Or are you Christ’s mouth announcing Good News to the poor? As a church we are Christ’s body. As an individual, what part of Christ’s body are you? What are you contributing to the well-being of Christ in his body, the church? Each of us is invited to answer this question for himself or herself today

Sixteenth Sunday of the Year: The Lord of the work, and the work of the Lord (Gospel)

A certain Catholic missionary was doing a very good job in his mission village in the African interior. In a few years he had baptized many people and built a church, a school and a health centre. Owing to his restless work schedule he took ill and had to be flown back to his native country in Europe for treatment. After many months he was well enough to return to Africa. To his surprise and utter disappointment he discovered that the whole village had abandoned his church and turned to a local evangelical preacher. Even the church he built now had an evangelical signboard in front of it. “What went wrong?” he asked himself. How did his flourishing mission collapse overnight. “What did I do wrong?” he asked his former church members. The truth hit home one day when a woman said to him, “Father, you did a lot for us. You gave our children clothes and built up our village. But there was one thing you did not do. You did not bring us to know Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour.” Doing the work of the Lord is great. But knowing the Lord of the work comes first. Today’s gospel is the story of two sisters, Martha who is busy with the work of the Lord, and Mary who is more interested in knowing the Lord of the work. For Martha service comes first, for Mary relationship comes first. Like the missionary in our story, Martha must have been shocked to hear the Lord himself saying that it is relationship with him that comes first, for without it our service is meaningless. There are people who see Martha in this story as the material girl and Mary as the spiritual one. The association of Martha with materialism is easier to make in the English language where the name Martha seems to rhyme with the word “matter.” But this way of thinking in terms of separation between spirit and matter does not belong to the gospel of Luke. Rather Luke presents Martha and Mary as two sisters who are both interested in the Lord, two women who both want to please the Lord. The difference between them is the manner in which they go about trying to please the Lord. Martha takes the way of service or working for the Lord. Mary takes the way of relationship or being with the Lord. Mark tells us that when Jesus called the apostles to follow him, he called them for a dual purpose: “to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message” (Mark 3:14). The need, on the one hand, to be with the Lord, to know him, to fellowship with him and be nourished by his word and, on the other hand, to do the Lord’s work, to serve the Lord in others, to proclaim his message of love in word and deed, brings us to a conflict. Which one comes first? How much of my time should I devote to being with the Lord, to prayer and listening to God’s word, and how much time to doing the work of the Lord? In spite of the urgent need to throw ourselves into the work of the Lord, it is only logical to say that my relationship with the Lord of the work comes before my involvement with the work of the Lord. The point of the story of Jesus with May and Martha is not to invite us to choose between being a Martha or a Mary. The true disciple needs to be both Martha and Mary. The point of the story is to challenge our priorities so that we come to see that fellowship with the Lord, being with the Lord and hearing his word should always precede the work we do for the Lord. Do we have a program of daily fellowship with the Lord? Many people fulfill this by assisting daily in the Eucharist where they can also hear the word of God. Others schedule a holy hour or quiet time when they can pray and read the word of God. Whatever way we fulfill this need, today’s gospel invites all Christians first to be a Mary who sits with devotion at the Lord’s feet listening his word, and then also to be a Martha who throws herself with energy into the business of serving the Lord.

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR: NEIGHBORS WITHOUT BOARDERS (Gospel)

Catherine Booth, co-founder with her husband William Booth of the Salvation Army, was an electrifying preacher. Wherever she went, crowds of people went to hear her message of hope: princes and nobles, beggars and homeless people. One night, after preaching in a certain city, a certain well-placed lady invited Mrs. Booth to dinner. The lady’s words of welcome as she arrived were: “My dear Mrs. Booth, that meeting was dreadful.” “What do you mean, dear?” asked Mrs. Booth. “Oh, when you were speaking, I was looking at those people opposite to me. Their faces were so terrible, many of them. I don’t think I shall sleep tonight!” “Why, dear, don’t you know them?” Mrs. Booth asked. “Certainly not!” the hostess replied. “Well, that is interesting,” Mrs. Booth said. “I did not bring them with me from London; they are your neighbours!” The Golden Rule, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27) which we hear in today’s gospel is not just a Christian thing. Every conceivable religion and culture in the world has the Golden Rule in one form or another. Here is a sampling: Judaism “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the law: all the rest is commentary.” Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” Hinduism: “This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.” Buddhism “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Confucianism: “Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.” If the Golden Rule was so well-known in ancient cultures why then did Jesus spend so much time teaching it as if it was a new thing? It is because Jesus brought a completely new understanding to the commandment. The Golden Rule is understood differently in different religions and cultures. And the key to its understanding lies in the question that the lawyer asks Jesus in today’s gospel, “Who is my neighbour?” (verse 29). Who is my neighbour that I have an obligation to love? Among the Jews of Jesus’ time there were those who understood “neighbour” in a very limited sense. The Essenes of Qumran, for example, required new members to swear to love the children of light and hate the children of darkness. For them, your neighbour is the one who shares the same religious persuasion as yourself. Other groups, such as the Zealots, would understand neighbour to include only those who shared the same nationality and ethnicity with them. The average Jew would not regard the Samaritan as a neighbour. They are outsiders. The circle of neighbourly love does not include them. Jesus came into a world of “we” and “them,” “we” being the circle of those recognised as neighbours, and “them” being the rest of the world regarded as hostile strangers and enemies of the people. The new thing in Jesus’ teaching of neighbourly love is his insistence that all humanity is one big neighbourhood. Thus he broke down the walls of division and the borders of prejudice and suspicion that humans erected between “us” and “them.” To bring home this point he tells the story of the Good Samaritan. This man regarded as Enemy Number One by the Jewish establishment simply because he is Samaritan, is the one who finally proves himself to be neighbour to the Jewish man in need. Thus to the question “Who is my neighbour” Jesus’ answer is: Anyone and everyone without exception. The lady who invited Mrs Booth to dinner understood her “neighbour” to be limited only to those on her social and economic level. Mrs Booth reminded her that her “neighbour” should include the nobodies of society. Like this lady, we all need to be reminded that the Christian understanding of “neighbour” admits of no borders. Today is the day to identity and tear down all the borders we have erected between those who belong to us (and are, therefore, deserving of our love and concern) and those who don’t (those others who can go to hell). Sometimes these walls of division are religious in nature, as in the case of religious intolerance, or in the mutual distrust and hatred between those who call themselves “conservatives” and those who call themselves “liberals.” Other times they are ethnic and racial, as in the bad blood between Blacks and Whites in places like South Africa and parts of the United State. They could also be social and economic, as in the divide between suburban neighbourhoods and the inner-city. The gospel today challenges us all to dismantle these walls. This way we work with Jesus to realise his dream of the world as a neighbourhood without borders.

FIFTEETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR:Do not give the devil undue honour (On the Epistle)

In the wake of the sex scandals in the church in parts of the world, many Christians have stopped going to church. Convinced that the storms rocking the church is the work of the devil, they conclude that the devil has infiltrated the church and that it is, therefore, safer to abandon ship and go elsewhere. This reminds us of what happened in 1988,when a popular tele-evangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, was implicated in a sex scandal involving a prostitute. The Assemblies of God, to which he belonged, ordered him to stop preaching for one year. But Swaggart defied the order. “The devil made me do it,” he claimed. Then he announced that Oral Roberts, another popular Evangelical preacher, had prayed for him over the phone and cast out those demons in his body that were responsible for his immoral behaviour. Three years later, Swaggart was again implicated in a sex scandal with a prostitute. Swaggart was finally defrocked and removed from the ministry by the Assemblies of God. There comes a time when we have to leave the devil alone and accept our responsibilities.

The growing wave of Pentecostalism in our world today has reawakened the devil. Like Swaggart, many Christians in our world today see the devil where there is none. This is especially true in the young churches of Africa and the developing world, where the devil is blamed for every ill health and economic downturn. Someone has an unexpected ill heath. Their first port of call is not a hospital where the disease could be diagnosed but to a prayer ministry where the demon would be exorcised. Someone has a professional or business setback. They do not review their professional conduct or seek help from a business consultant, rather they resort to the ministrations of a “man of God.” In some prayer meetings, half of the time is spent praying to God and the other half rebuking the devil. The devil is enjoying a very high popularity rating.
The revival of the devil’s popularity is not a new thing in the church. The church has seen it before. It was there in the early days of the church as the church was spreading from Jewish to Gentile lands. It was known as Gnosticism. Christian Gnosticism is a belief system that gave as much importance to God or Christ as to the devil. Gnostics saw life as a combat between the principle of Good, God, and the principle of evil, the devil. As Christians, they understood their duty to be joining God in a daily fight against the devil. The devil was seen as God’s rival and competitor, only that God was somewhat stronger than the devil, especially when God got a helping hand from believers. The church condemned Gnosticism as a heresy, a deviation from sound doctrine.
Today’s second reading from Colossians cannot be clearer on this subject. It says of Christ,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him. (Col 1:15-16)It says that all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, were created in Christ, through Christ and for Christ. This includes the invisible created beings we call demons or rebellious angels. They still owe their existence, powers and activities to God. They do not pose a threat or constitute a rivalry to God.
Christ, not the devil, but Christ, is the head of the body, the church (Col 1:18). Christ is king, and he still reigns as head in his church and in the lives of all who surrender their lives to him. As Christians, we dishonour Christ when we believe that the devil in in control of our church or our lives. Whatever is going well in the church and in our lives today is as a result of God’s grace, and whatever is going wrong in the church and in our lives today is as a result of our failure to cooperate with the grace of God. We must stop glorifying the devil, giving him an honour that is not his due.                                                                                         

The mission of the Lay Person (Fourteenth Sunday of the Year) Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

A preacher was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the following night. But he arrived a day early. He came unannounced and sat on the grass with the crowd. In front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening attentively to the preaching. When the call came for people to come forward and make a commitment to the Lord, the gentleman did not move. Dr Graham tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, “Would you like to accept Christ? I’ll be glad to walk down with you if you want to.” The old man looked him up and down, shook his head and said, “No, I think I’ll just wait till the big gun shows up tomorrow night.” In the thinking of this man and in the thinking of many people, winning souls for Christ is something that should be reserved for the “big guns.” Today’s gospel story, however, shows us that mission is for everyone, big guns and little shots alike, the clergy as well as the laity.

Luke’s Gospel has two stories of Jesus sending out his followers to go and spread the Good News. In chapter 9 Jesus sends the Twelve apostles and in chapter 10 he sends seventy disciples. Matthew’s Gospel has only one: the sending of the Twelve. Scholars believe that Luke’s story of the sending out of the Seventy is his way of emphasizing the universal scope of the message of Christ. The mission of the Twelve, according to Matthew, was limited to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). The mission of the Seventy has no such limitation. According to Jewish tradition there are twelve tribes of Israel and seventy nations of the earth. The sending of the seventy disciples, therefore, symbolizes the sending of the message of Christ to the whole world.

Today, however, I will invite you to look at the story from a different perspective, from the perspective not of those receiving the message but of those bringing the message, from the perspective of the missionaries themselves. Christian tradition identifies the Twelve apostles with ordained ministry in the church. When at the Last Supper Jesus commissioned his followers to “do this in memory of me” he was addressing the Twelve, the clergy. If this is so, then the Seventy who are sent out on mission in today gospel must be understood as lay people. Today’s gospel, therefore, is the commissioning of lay ministry. This way we can 

read the two missions in the Gospel of Luke, the mission of the Twelve and the mission of the Seventy, as the mission of the clergy and the mission of the laity. By including the two accounts Luke, unlike Matthew, is saying, therefore, that mission is not only for the clergy, mission is not only for the “big guns,” mission is for us all, ordained and non-ordained followers of Christ alike.

What is the reason for lay involvement in the spreading of the gospel? Because “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” (Luke 10:2). This is as true today as it was in the days of Jesus. What role are the laity supposed to play in fulfilling the mission of Christ? The role of the laity is twofold: “Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (verse 2), i.e. prayer, and “Go on your way. See, I am sending you” (verse 3), i.e. active involvement. It is not a question of doing either the one or the other. Every Christian is called to participate in the spreading of the message of Christ through a commitment to prayer and a commitment to action. Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you. Jesus goes on to detail the disposition we should bring to the work of evangelisation: a spirit of meekness and vulnerability, a spirit of politeness and adaptability to the changing and challenging local situations in which we find ourselves in the course of mission work.

Jesus places special emphasis on the work of curing the sick. This is not an optional task in the work of spreading the gospel. Someone may ask: Is health of body necessary for salvation? Is holiness of soul not enough? We tend to forget that holiness is another word for wholeness. It has to do with the whole person, body and soul. The Good News is good not only for the soul but for the body as well. The seventy disciples went on their way trying to implement what Jesus charged them to do. They were surprised to see that, acting in Jesus’ name, not only physical sicknesses but “even the demons” submit to them (verse 17). A similar happy surprise awaits all followers of Christ, ordained or non-ordained, who dare to embrace the work of spreading the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ just as he directed us.

FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE:

WE HAVE A MISSION

The family of Robert Giles had barely finished celebrating the birthday of their daughter; very pretty girl, when armed robbers stormed the family. He is rich but stingy, and always physically and verbally abused the wife and their children. The armed robbers tied him up, and every other person was ordered to lie on their faces. After taken everything they could find and were about to kill, the girl (4 years of age) appeared from one of the rooms with a beautiful bouquet of flowers she got from the Dad, as birthday gift. She gave the flower to the leader of the gang who had his gun pointed to the Dad, and said “Uncle take; this is all I have; please don’t kill my Dad!” Stunned by the courage and gesture of this beautiful girl, he took the flower, and they left without taken even a pin. It was like a new dimension started in the lives of armed robbers, and a new mission was given to them. This event not only changed Robert’s life but also the lives of the armed robbers, and that day each of the people involved in this episode received a new mission in life. A few years later, the leader of the armed robbery gang told the story, as a preacher of the Word of God and no longer an armed robber.

Any movement we make in life has an objective; the objective may be self-inspired or comes from another person. Meanwhile the objective may be evil intent or good but it is a mission. People had created a lot of troubles between husbands and wives after their visits. People are sent on the mission to kill for some political reasons or on personal vendetta. There are people who travel very long distances just to spread false and destructive rumors and gossip, and deform the characters of people they jealous. There are also covert military missions for various intentions, personal inspired adventures and spiritual movements like astral travels.

Like the bouquet of flowers handed to the armed robber by the little girl. God gives every Christian a special mission and instrument for the mission. The prophet Isaiah describes it as a mission of nourishment and comfort to all the nations of the world. Jesus Christ tells us that we are carrying the message of peace, reconciliation and love to the entire world. Paul who has been on this path before indicates that accomplishing this mission depends on our disposition to glory only in the cross of Jesus Christ through which God administers forgiveness, compassion, liberation, peace and love to all. We all have a crucial mission with clear objective, and the objective is the total wellbeing (body, mind and spirit) of the entire person we meet.

In this mission, a bouquet of flowers should replace the various weapons of sorrow, death, character deformation and oppression of others that we are used to. What does this mean? It means that peace has eluded many hearts and nations, and everyone wants to use different forms of violence, tricks clothed with diplomacy, power, position and all kinds of manipulation to achieve their goals. These only create more problems, violence, suffering, terror, and destruction of families, hatred, anger and sorrow among individuals, families and nations. The peace and love that Jesus talks about are gifts we can only receive from God by having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace and real Bouquet of Love. These can only be established by recognizing the dignity of each person as the images of God and not as cheap labors, instruments of terror, sexual objects, ritual objects, slaves and people good only for our dirty works. Our mission is to be like the Jerusalem described in the first reading that brings comfort and nourishment that comes from the depth of our hearts. It is a service of genuine love, rich in all the spiritual, physical and psychological nourishments (like the breast fluid of a woman that contains the nourishment) that a person needs to live healthy and happy. It is the mission of the Church as Mother of all.

The beneficiaries of this mission are each person, family and the entire world where there is poverty, starvation, chaos, abuse of human dignity, exploitation, war, hatred, lack of faith, the spirit of revenge and lack of forgiveness; to people without hope, peace, love and vision in life; we are sent to people who need to smile, to sleep without been afraid, people who have the demons of fear, shyness, disbelief, arrogance, pride, hatred, destructive languages and to people with oppressive demons. One act of love could expel the demons in a person and change him/her from being agent of hatred, confusion, violence and death into an angel of love, life and peace.

Jesus Christ sent seventy two disciples because the harvest is rich but laborers are few. So it is not a mission for priests and religious men and women alone, everyone should get involved. Nurses, doctors, engineers, farmers, educators, sports men and women, business people, lawyers, masons, youths, adults and indeed everyone has an important role to play. We evangelize more effectively by what we do more than what we say. He sends us not regarding our color of skin, language, defects in life, mistakes/sins of our past, cultural barriers and social status. The number seventy represents every person from every nation of the world. He also warns us of huge obstacles on the way, but in his name, we shall make progress. United in this mission, we can say “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy. Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, and sing praise to the glory of his name; proclaim his glorious praise. Come and see the works of God, He has changed the sea into dry land; through the river they passed on foot.”