How can we be faithful if we live for ourselves? We may say we live for our families, in that we earn a living to provide for them but how and what are we providing for their spiritual life? For their growth in relationship and faith in the Lord our God? Do we belong to a community of praying disciples who encourages and affirms one another through prayer meetings, sharing of the Word and testimonies of living in the joy of the presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
How then can we hope to be faithful when there are so many distractions and temptations in the World. How can we believe that our children will not go astray if we ourselves are easily led astray?
Today’s Gospel is about the calling of the 12 Apostles, but it is also serves as a reminder that in 2022, He is still calling and sending you and me into homes of His lost sheep. All those who have lost their way, who have left the church for whatever reasons. To turn their hearts back to the Lord their God so that they may live free from sin in His love. Then together with them we can go on to make disciples of all nations. Amen
First reading
Hosea 10:1-3,7-8,12 ·
Seek integrity and reap a harvest of kindness
Israel was a luxuriant vine
yielding plenty of fruit.
The more his fruit increased,
the more altars he built;
the richer his land became,
the richer he made the sacred stones.
Their heart is a divided heart;
very well, they must pay for it:
the Lord is going to break their altars down
and destroy their sacred stones.
Then they will say,
‘We have no king
because we have not feared the Lord.’
But what can a king do for us?
Samaria has had her day.
Her king is like a straw drifting on the water.
The idolatrous high places shall be destroyed –
that sin of Israel;
thorn and thistle will grow on their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’
and to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’
Sow integrity for yourselves,
reap a harvest of kindness,
break up your fallow ground:
it is time to go seeking the Lord
until he comes to rain salvation on you.
Gospel
Matthew 10:1-7
‘Go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’
Jesus summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows:
‘Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’
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