"The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them, but he said to them, "to the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God because for this purpose I have been sent."
Like the people in the gospel, we often want to keep Jesus for ourselves. We want to contain him, grasp him, hold on to him. We have to let him go. We have to let him carry the good news to others.
How do we do this?
We do this by rejoicing when the other experiences the power of the kingdom. Many times we get envious or jealous of other's blessings. This is tragic. When we do this we refuse to allow the goodness of the kingdom to be spread. When we recognize the blessings of others, we should not grow envious but rather we should rejoice that Jesus continues to move forward and reach out to others. We must let the blessings of others be a sign of hope for us. Even if we have to wait for our turn, we must remember it is easy to wait with hope then not.
Secondly, we must be like Jesus in carrying the good news to others. By our demeanor, by our words, by our lifestyle the kingdom is brought forth and Jesus' presence journeys onward in fulfilling the tasks set before him.
We are christianus alter Christus that is Christians are the the other Christ. In us the light of Christ shines forth scattering the darkness in others and in other places by simply letting it scatter the darkness in us.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Gregory the Great. He was a Pope in the 6th century and he preferred the title, servant of the servants of God.
These are a few of his insights for us today:
"So who am I to be a watchman, for I do not stand on the mountain of action but lie down in the valley of weakness? Truly the all powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me in spite of my weaknesses a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him."
God of compassion your strength claims hold of our weakness; may our weakness always and never cease to rely on your strength.
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