“As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 10:7).

Empowered by Jesus, the Apostles were sent to proclaim that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, that the God of all creation is present in our midst, and seeks to restore a relationship with his fallen creatures. This invitation is not new with Jesus. The Father has sought reconciliation and unity with his children since the fall. This is present also in our first reading through the words of Hosea, God shared how he sought to take care of his children, Israel. How he “drew them with human chords and bands of love”(Hosea 11:4).

God has reached out, generation after generation, not in some abstract way, but as he has done since he walked with Adam and Eve. He came among them, he drew close to offer reconciliation, forgiveness, and intimacy of relationship.

Salvation history is a record of God’s coming close to encounter and interact with individuals in every age. At the appointed time, he sent his Son to open the doors to a deeper communion with his Father. Jesus devoted himself to people, “accepting them, receiving them into fellowship with him and granting them forgiveness of sins. The power of his affirmation is to be found in his attention to the concrete individual, in particular to the despised, the abused, the sinner, but also involving himself with people in a very personal way… in giving himself away to them” (Gnilka 1997, 111).

We, as the Apostles were, are called to do the same. Empowered by Jesus, we are not to bring about some abstract utopian ideal, but we are sent to enter into the chaos of the lives of real individuals in our midst and on the margins in our own unique and personal way. The Gospel is not just for a select few but for everyone. This is just as true today in our polarized climate of 2024. We need to resist the temptation to be led by our prejudices and pride, of embracing an, us versus them mentality. For God, there is no us and them.

Just as the sun rises on the good and the bad alike (cf. Mt 5:45), we are to examine ways in which we have contributed to division and separation instead of invitation. May we get in touch with our sorrow for the hurt we have caused others, for our actions and omissions, and for failing to reach out in love. Jesus was sent by his Father to love us, he invites us to receive his love, abide in his love and to love him and others in his name. We do so by building relationships within as well as beyond our comfort zones. We do so when we are more present, accepting, understanding, kind, and forgiving and when we share person to person the light, love, mercy, and invitation of fellowship that we have received from Jesus. In doing so, we will help people to experience Jesus and his kingdom which is at hand.

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Photo: Blessed to be celebrating Mass with Dcn. Jude and a server from the Jesus Youth community in Delray Beach in June.

Gnilka, Joachim. Jesus of Nazareth: Message and History. Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, July 11, 2024