It is 30th November 2020. We celebrate the Feast of St Andrew the Apostle.
The readings are from Romans 10:9-18; and the Gospel from Matthew 4:18-22.
The mandate to evangelize is for all of us. The Sacrament of Baptism offers all the spiritual resources to spread the Good News. There are so many go hungry for the Word of God all around the world. Just like St. Andrew, we need to bring people closer to Jesus. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Mt.9:37). Some of us get frustrated so soon when our evangelisation has not reached the way we wanted and so we stop evangelising. Even if the seed fall on the different types of soil, the Lord can bring about the produce according to the receptivity and the capacity of the soil. It is a duty placed on all our shoulders to preach, reach, and teach the Word to all we can.
Advent is the time God comes closer to us, in turn God expects us to come closer to Him.
When we have a load to unload personally, we cannot upload something worthwhile for the humanity around. Unless and until we have the personal experience of the person of Jesus, our evangelisation would be having no impact on those who hears.
All of us lack the confidence to share about Jesus because we have experienced Him until now. A lot of us remain nominal Christian doing a few things to appease our ego and others. Evangelisation is the work of the Holy Spirit and of the heart. It is the love for the Lord propels us to evangelise. There is no need to convert someone towards Jesus. Conversion is done by the Lord.
In the Gospel, Jesus himself invites the fishermen to follow and become evangelizers for Him. “And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Mt.4:19,20). We need to free ourselves from all attachments, desires of the world and to have a generosity of heart to listen, learn and lead others.
There is no need to blame anyone in the Church for not evangelising enough. Let us simply a question: have we done our part? What are we going to leave behind to follow the Lord? Have a good day. God bless you.