03/02/2022

There are many who deny that Jesus appointed priests and that we are all at liberty to ponder the Word and act as personal priests. Today we hear  of  the first mission and there are the twelve who are appointed. Jesus needs to have no ceremony to directly access his own authority. He didn't authorise all of his disciples but only the twelve were sent. Their mission was to warn the people of their sinfulnes, to drive out devils and to cure the sick by a ceremony of healing.

Preaching repentance must have been  supported by the revelations of the Old Testament as the New was unfolding in them as they lived. Their preaching was hindered as the Temple and its Scribes and Priests were an organised religion with a calendar and all sorts of functionaries who must have  been all too ready to protest about these ignorant upstarts who were taking on their roles without any of the training and formation undergone over many years to serve in the Temple and read in the Synagogue.

Today our priests are the spiritual descendants of those twelve who inspired by the Holy Spirit and their nearness to the Son had the inspiration needed to walk into strange villages and begin to speak about God. Did they do this in the market place or in the Synagogue? I don't think that we are told; but the great leap of Faith inspired by the presence of the Lord, that was taken by these men of the first century is the example that we must all follow especially our Clergy. Preach, combat the devil and heal the sick is what our Lord first required from his priests and our Church.

Dear Lord let my prayers this day be sincere and without any guile. Let my thoughts be pure and focused on You. Let my love for Father Son and Holy Spirit govern all my actions and let me grow nearer without fear to the time when You will be my all in all.