The WORD in Other Words by Fr Bel San Luis SVD (Philippines)
Wednesday 14th Week in Ordinary Time
Gn 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a, Mt 10:1-7
Every Christian is commissioned to a ministry of healing, preaching and teaching by virtue of his or her baptism.
You can be an apostle of Christ or “fisher of men” by participating in church works in your parish. Today numerous lay Catholics sacrifice time, talent and treasure for the church, rendering services as lay ministers, lectors, collectors, choir members, catechists, and joining church organizations like the Legion of Mary, Knights of Columbus, Catholic Women‘s League and renewal movements like the Marriage Encounter, Couples for Christ.
The most basic and effective form of being a fisher of people is through the testimony of Christian living or witnessing to Christ‘s teachings.
There was a young man who worked in a leather factory in Belgium. On Lenten Fridays he brought out his fish, egg, and cheese sandwiches to lunch. His non-Catholics fellow workers called him a fish—eater and flaunted their meat sandwiches before him.
Years later, the leather worker met, in a Catholic Church, one of his former co-workers now dressed as a Catholic priest. The priest said, “Did you know that it was your good example that aroused my interest in Catholicism? I thought if a man could take the taunts and insults of a crowd and still remain proud of his faith, there must be something wonderful about that faith. That led me to inquire about your Church. Today, I celebrate my first Mass.”
Let‘s heed the words of Pope St John Paul II from his encyclical Redemptoris Missio: “The witness of a Christian life is the first and irreplaceable form of evangelization.”
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