June 11, 2015 Thursday St. Barnabas, Apostle 1st Reading: Acts 11:21b–26; 13:1–3 Gospel: Matthew 10:7-13
Jesus said to his disciples, “Go and proclaim this message: The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons. You received this as a gift, so give it as a gift. Do not carry any gold, silver or copper in your purses. Do not carry a traveler’s bag, or an extra shirt, or sandals, or walking stick: workers deserve their living. “When you come to a town or a village, look for a worthy person and stay there until you leave.
“As you enter the house, wish it peace. If the people in the house deserve it, your peace will be on them; if they do not deserve it, your blessing will come back to you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
A health expert advised his listeners against eating lechon and dried fish to avoid high blood pressure. A stubborn septuagenarian tried to push his luck by asking if lechon would be the lesser evil. The doctor insisted that he should avoid both. A visibly pissed off granny stood up and said, “I believe lechon is the lesser evil because dried fish is the leading cause of high blood pressure”. The doctor who thought he was serious pressed him for more explanation. The old man said, “When you come home tired from work and you find nothing but dried fish for dinner, won’t your blood pressure shoot up? (End of the joke).
We need to eat well to stay healthy and live. So do God’s missionaries, for they too are corporeal beings like us. To free them from worries about health issues Jesus wants us to support them in their basic needs. “The workers deserve their living,” Jesus said in today’s Gospel reading. We do the Lord a great service if we volunteer to feed those who work for Him. It even appears from today’s Gospel reading that doing so is a Christian duty. Jesus’ explicit instruction to his disciples was to eat what the mission areas could offer to them. In the mind of Jesus it is our Christian duty to support missionaries by, at least, providing for their basic needs.
There are two components of God’s ongoing project in his vineyard. The first involves missionaries while the second involves the laity. Missionaries offer their lives in God’s vineyard while lay people welcome these missionaries and support them in their basic needs. Ultimately lay people stand to benefit more from the team work. In supporting the missionaries they help themselves because what missionaries do will be to their spiritual advantage.
Considering the importance of health on mortals, supporting missionaries in their basic needs to keep them going is itself a big mission. In helping missionaries lay people become missionaries themselves. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
Prayer for the day: God our Father bless our livelihood and pour out upon us the abundance of your grace so that we may be able to continue supporting the needs of your Church. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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