Posted by The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Semei Rebayla SVD – Tagbilaran City, Bohol
Wednesday 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Attraction. Differentiation is a marketing strategy that the business world employs to develop products and services that would appear distinct and better than others. In the case of Jesus, his way of teaching differed from other temple preachers because his teachings matched his deeds. In addition, his lifestyle was exactly the opposite of the lives led by early kings and preachers. As a result, people from all walks of life got attracted to Jesus and eventually followed him. Even his adversaries followed him but only to spy on him and to know why people wanted to follow him.
It’s good to ask ourselves then: what attracted you to the life of Jesus? Have you experienced stages of disillusionment?
Benchmark. Jesus attracts and calls people to follow and participate in his mission. However, he sets a certain standard of discipleship. Based on the challenges he threw to the three would-be followers, a disciple must know how to disengage him/herself from worldly allurement and trust in God’s provision, prioritize the mission over family concerns, and fix one’s eyes on the mission of God. These three challenges can also be used as a performance metric to evaluate the modern lifestyles of our missionaries. Seminary programs for our missionaries also need to be reviewed and updated.
Commission. Finally, Jesus sends his committed disciples for a mission. It is the task of every believer to pray for all disciples commissioned by Christ that no worldly allurements and threats can divert their missionary zeal. Your support can make you co-missionaries.
It’s disturbing to know that missionary life is not as attractive as before to the eyes of the young generation. Every believer must contemplate this sad reality.
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