Persevere Christians and Missionaries in mission

May 8, Monday of the 5th Week of Easter
Daily Readings: Acts 14:5-18; Gospel-John 14:21-26

The privilege of those believers, evangelists, preachers, and apostles who know God and love Him is the responsibility to make Him known to the world. The process of preaching becomes easy if the listeners are eager to know and love God, while it becomes difficult if they aren’t.

The First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles portrays the missionary activities of Saints Paul and Barnabas during their first missionary journey. To the Gentiles, they introduced the God of Israel as the God who created heaven, earth, the sea, and all that is in them. He is the One who sustains the world and all its creatures. The plight of these missionaries in cities such as Lystra, Derbe, and Lycaonia is despicable. The Jews and the Gentiles, together with their rulers, persecuted them. The apostles continue to proclaim the good news undeterred. We see them performing miracles. They heal the crippled. This made the Lycaonians consider the apostles as Gods and thus necessitate a situation to clarify the situation. The task of the missionaries is to persevere through all kinds of problems.

In the Gospel Reading taken from St. John, John the Baptizer (JB) gets an opportunity to bear witness to Jesus Christ. In the process, he also bears witness to himself. He could have easily projected himself to be more significant than Jesus because of his seniority and the authority to baptize him. But he does not have an inflated self-image but rather a realistic and well-balanced one. He also points out that the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah is fulfilled in his life. His life is in the plan of God. He is not the Messiah,  Elijah, or the prophet. He is a mere voice in the wilderness. He baptizes only with water.

Thus, JB teaches us that God has a plan for all His children. It is the responsibility of each one of us to identify our calling and discern how to live it to the fullest. The ancient Greek aphorism, “know thyself,” holds good even today as many Emotional Intelligence Theories are based on this maxim. Aristotle said that “Knowing ourselves is the beginning of all wisdom.” Conversely, not having a realistic view of oneself creates problems in community life. It also affects one’s performance. May the natural view of oneself, JB and the perseverance of Paul and Barnabas inspire us to become ardent followers and missionaries of Jesus Christ! Amen.