St. Augustine Catholic Church     314-385-1934

…go forth and spread the Good News of Jesus

Pastor’s Pen
Sunday, July 11, 2021

Dear Church Family,

Because of our baptism, we, like the Apostles and the prophet Amos, are called “chosen, beloved” to go forth and spread the Good News of Jesus’ coming with healing and love  He is trying to convince us that that is the way to go.  So in a way, we could think of ourselves as having ‘marching orders’.  I have a spattering of knowledge of the military from my past life to be considered as having ‘ marching orders’ but when I was in high school (CBC) and we had the military and we were given ‘marching orders’.  So we see the Apostles today being sent out by Jesus and He is trying to give them a proper way of spreading the Good News.  They were to travel light, not let anything get in their way, stay wherever they were welcomed, and if not welcome, shake the dust from their feet and move on.  This is sort of a hard message but they got their ‘marching orders’  and there were bigger fish to fry and today, we, like them, must go out and spread the Good News.

The Apostles did that with joy and did not accept anything monetarily.  We are accepted by Jesus just calling us to spread the Good News and to let everyone know that Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ has come to bring everyone His love and as a result, our salvation. Alleluia!!

Church, in the first reading, we see the prophet Amos humbly called from his role as a shepherd which was a job of lowly status and looked down upon by the culture of that day.    He was also a dresser of sycamore trees.  I don’t know what that is except maybe having something to do with the sap like maple syrup coming from maple trees.  But what he did for a living was not a very significant job at all.  However, Amos is told to just proclaim what the Lord says.  The message is too blunt and he runs into big trouble by trying to refuse the job.  He says he doesn’t want this job.  He doesn’t belong to the group of prophets that we seem to see in the scriptures.  He’s just a simple farmer but the Lord has called him to do this. He goes on to tell them that they might not like to hear this message of salvation and reforming their lives and loving everybody but that’s our calling.

So, enjoy your calling and maybe just rest in praying real slowly the four long sentences of the second reading from Ephesians.  Just rest in those words—that we are called, chosen, beloved, given grace, and we are totally loved.  And that  everything is going our way and all we have to do is respond.  Alleluia!!

Love, Fr. Bob

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