Bringing About the Realm of God
Yesterday, I mentioned to someone that I was going on a trip to the Dominican Republic. Before I was able to explain that it was a mission trip, she responded with the same warning she had been given, “Don’t leave the resort!” Next week, I will be traveling with five of my brother diaconal candidates to visit La Sagrada Familia, the sister parish of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. We will be staying in exactly the place where tourists are told not to go. Mission is bringing about the realm of
God, especially to those places our society tells us not to go. It is a commitment to transform our world into the world that God wants for each of us, even when it feels uncomfortable. We are called through our baptism to live as Jesus lived and
become the instruments through which God works to make mission possible. Each of us has been chosen to bring love, hope, reconciliation, and healing to all people, especially to those on the margins, just as Jesus did in his day.
In hear in the Gospel, that many of Jesus’ disciples returned to their former ways of life and no longer accompanied Him because what He was teaching made them uncomfortable. Right now, I too am feeling uncomfortable about my upcoming trip. However I have chosen, like Peter and the Apostles, to stay with Jesus on mission. Please pray for our Dominican brothers and sisters, and for me, and all those who go on mission.