25/09/2024

Today we read of the very first assignment given to the twelve chosen disciples. It is the first mission given by God not to a single individual but to a group of people. Each of the twelve is  to "shout out" that God is always near and to cure diseases. If there is no favourable reaction Jesus tells them to forget that town and blot it from their memory. They are to shake off even the dust collected in that place from their feet.

The people who inhabit the towns to be visited are all following a way of life taught to them by Moses. They have grown over centuries to become a people who have always had God close to them, who have followed the "Law" and worshipped together in Temple and Synagogue. They all know that they are special in the eyes of IAMIAM, the divine fire that filled the mind and soul of Moses and the other prophets.

Two thousand years later we are witnesses to what has developed from those simple instructions given by Jesus to his "twelve".

First we have to wonder what it was that FatherSonHolySpirit found unsatisfactory about the human beings in the created universe at that time rather than previous other times, particularly as these were the  ones that had been chosen to know God and worship him in this world.

It seems to me that human wisdom had become lost in the grandeur of its own abilities and "religion" was largely lip-service without the purity of heart that could reflect the holiness of God. However, only FatherSonHolySpirit can understand the Infinite Loving kindness that is Calvary.

The Twelve, an elven to one mixture of mostly good and mostly bad human beings has grown to become the same mixture of humanity but on a vastly greater scale.

We have been given complete freedom to choose where we want to be in the eyes of God, if not Adam's sin would have wiped us out before we got going. There is something about us that our Father knows and loves. We can choose to accept that he wants from us the righteousness that he has revealed as the way, truth and life.

Jesus and the eleven continue  to proclaim "Emmanuel" and we still have grace and opportunity to respond with love to Love. Even I can aim at the Apostolic ratio of eleven to one in my own being and never forgetting  that nothing is impossible ( Judas can be saved ) for the Mercy of God passeth all understanding. My redeemer liveth.

Dear Lord, I hope that I am getting to the point where I can confidently say that I have got closer to your will for me than I did yesterday. Jesus condemned hypocrisy and it is my greatest fear that I fall into the self-satisfaction that disguises itself as love of God. It is in my behaviour that I reveal the secrets of my heart not in the thoughts and words that come to me each day. Let me on earth at this moment join my prayers to those of Mary and all the Angels and Saints as we all proclaim the Glory and Goodness of you, Our Father in Heaven. May my sins and the sins of the whole world be smothered by the eternal sacrifice you made in our worldly time on Calvary and may we all come to know how to subdue our human ego to save our immortal souls. May our souls and the souls of all the departed rest in your peace. Amen