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It is time for us to go and seek out our Lord’s lost sheep and to bring them back into the fold. To share His great love for all and to bring about healing and reconciliation. For too many have been left to wander in the ‘wilderness’ of the pandemic searching for respite from the drudgery of living in their empty world. Many too have turned to sinful distractions and have been enslaved to them.

God our Heavenly Father never forgets or abandons His Children in their slavery. He so loved the world that He gave us His only Begotten Son.  That whomever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. So with courage and great confidence in the promises of Christ let us go as our dear Lord commanded us; To make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything He has commanded us. And surely He is with us always, to the very end of the age. Amen

First reading

Ezra 9:5-9

‘God has not forgotten us in our slavery’

At the evening sacrifice I, Ezra, came out of my stupor and falling on my knees, with my garment and cloak torn, I stretched out my hands to the Lord my God, and said:

    ‘My God, I am ashamed, I blush to lift my face to you, my God. For our crimes have increased, until they are higher than our heads, and our sin has piled up to heaven. From the days of our ancestors until now our guilt has been great; on account of our crimes we, our kings and our priests, were given into the power of the kings of other countries, given to the sword, to captivity, to pillage and to shame, as is the case today. But now, suddenly, the Lord our God by his favour has left us a remnant and granted us a refuge in his holy place; this is how our God has cheered our eyes and given us a little respite in our slavery. For we are slaves; but God has not forgotten us in our slavery; he has shown us kindness in the eyes of the kings of Persia, obtaining permission for us to rebuild the Temple of our God and restore its ruins, and he has found us safety and shelter in Judah and in Jerusalem.’

Gospel

Luke 9:1-6

‘Take nothing for the journey’

Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, ‘Take nothing for the journey: neither staff, nor haversack, nor bread, nor money; and let none of you take a spare tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there; and when you leave, let it be from there. As for those who do not welcome you, when you leave their town shake the dust from your feet as a sign to them.’ So they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the Good News and healing everywhere.

See Jesus prayed and selected only twelve Apostles to be sent, these were consecrated men set apart to preach the Good news of the Gospel, to heal and cast our demons. They were special, Priests after the Lord’s own heart. I cannot do what they do! I am not so Holy as they were, only priests can follow in His footsteps!

By virtue of our very own baptism, we were consecrated, set apart. To be Holy as our Heavenly Father is Holy. We are likewise sent into the world when we are confirmed! Sent to do what? Well to preach if not then to share the Good news of the Gospel, to heal and cast our demons even, if we are so empowered by Christ to do so. For nothing is impossible for the Lord our God. Do you think He loves His priests more than His flock or vice versa? All of us are called to carry our cross and to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And while we all possess different gifts and talents we all have the same mission!

Here I am Lord, I come to do Your Will! Amen

First reading

Colossians 2:6-15

The Lord has brought you to life with him

You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received – Jesus the Lord; you must be rooted in him and built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving.

    Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some second-hand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ.

    In his body lives the fullness of divinity, and in him you too find your own fulfilment, in the one who is the head of every Sovereignty and Power.

    In him you have been circumcised, with a circumcision not performed by human hand, but by the complete stripping of your body of flesh. This is circumcision according to Christ. You have been buried with him, when you were baptised; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead. You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our sins.

    He has overridden the Law, and cancelled every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by nailing it to the cross; and so he got rid of the Sovereignties and the Powers, and paraded them in public, behind him in his triumphal procession.

Gospel

Luke 6:12-19

Jesus chooses his twelve apostles

Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

    He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.