‘I CAME TO BRING FIRE’XV SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_disciples_chosen_and_sent_out.jpgJesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two

and gave them authority over unclean spirits.He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick— no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them” (Mk 6:7-13).

I. TIP FOR PRAYER: HUMILITY AND PRAYER"Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God" (St. John Damascene). But when

we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart? (Ps 130:1) He who humbles himself will be exalted (Cf. Lk 18:9-14); humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought" (Rom 8:26), are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God."Jesus made that unforgettable parable for explaining who will be here in his prayer: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk 18:9-14).Talking about prayer is very important to understand that “as the foundation of the entire edifice is humility, the nearer we come to God, the greater must be the progress which we make in this virtue: otherwise, we lose everything”. (Saint Teresa of Avila. Life, c.12)

II. JESUS SEND THEM WITH AUTHORITYJesus sent the Apostles as he sends us today to announce the Kingdom of God, to proclaim the presence and work of God in human history, in my story. “Jesus said to them, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you’” (Jn 20:21). The announcement of the Gospel is the proclamation of the proximity of the Kingdom of God: “The Kingdom of God is at hand”, is the Good News of God himself, his power and his love wanting to come into our lives, into our hearts bringing transformation, healing, peace and newness to our hearts and relationships.The announcement of the Kingdom of Heaven is accompanied by signs that manifest the power of God. The kingdom of God takes away “unclean spirits” Jesus gave his disciples the authority and so the power to cast out evil spirits and to heal. The Gospel is about the power of God acting for healing, for saving: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has

faith” (Rm 1:16). “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” (1 Jn 2:8)All the concretes instructions about poverty are more oriented to the disposition of the messenger than to express concrete rules. Because the announcement has to be united to a way of living that means confidence in the Providence of God. They cannot announce if they are attached to material things. Poverty help the messenger to do not rely on oneself nor on the human means, and also keep the messenger aware that he goes in the name of other and that he has to rely only in Him. Poverty is a sign of the richness of the Kingdom, is the pearl and the treasure that who finds it full of joy sell everything for possessing the treasure: Jesus. “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:8).They have to give free what they are receiving free. All the preaching is about the grace of God, his action; his Holy Spirit and its fruits. They as us announce what we have received free, “gratis”, pure Mercy.

III. THEY WENT OFF AND PREACHED REPENTANCE It seems that the preaching was not too long: “So they went off and preached repentance” (Mk 6:12). Why that need of repentance, of conversion? The miracles and all the other works are subordinate to the call to repent, to convert, o turn wholehearted to God. Even the urgency is such that without it cannot be salvation. “I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish” (Lk 13:3, 5). The proclamation of the "Good News" that resonates for the first time in Galilee, shaking the heart of man, inexorably demanding a radical transformation, for making room to the unheard, the unexpected; God offers us freely the Kingdom of God: "convert and believe in the Gospel" (Mk 1: 15.).This divine offer requires a total human emptiness of the protective, selfish, self-centered and fearful ego. We need to give up our own mercantilist categories, to transcend our human reasonable possibilities, to settle in a new order of absolute surprise for our intelligence and prudence. God brings to us his gift in the person and message of his Son.

The message is simple: turn to me your God and my love for you; I am here at hand, I am the one who comes, I am wanting to fulfill your heart with my delightful and divine gifts; but for that you need to change our mind, stop thinking in me as an enemy, as a controller, as a punisher: “You who once were alienated and hostile in mind to God because of evil deeds he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him.” (Col 1:21-22)Conversion is also the constant work of prayer. Turning to him, to his love, power, tenderness with hope and confidence; so he can come in us and renew our hearts: “If you turn to him with all your heart and with all your soul, to do what is true before him, then he will turn to you and will not hide his face from you. And you will see what he will do with you, and you will give thanks with your whole mouth, and praise the Lord of might, and extol the everlasting King” (Tb 13:10-31)Turning to God means leaving aside what is contrary to God, to his Kingdom, the thoughts desires and acts that are selfish; therefore everything that do not let me to be his beloved child and love Him.

IV. JESUS I WANT TO PREACH YOU WITH MY LIFE https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Jah Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.Flood my soul with Your Spirit and Life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.Let then look up, and see no longer me, but only Jesus!Stay with me and then I will begin to shine as You shine, so as to shine as to be a light to

others.

The light, o Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.It will be You, shining on others through me.Let me thus praise You in the way You love best, by shining on those around me.Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears for You. Amen. (Blessed Card. John Henry Newman)