Drinking His Cup

July 25: Feast of Saint James, Apostle:

2 Corinthians 4:7-15; Psalm 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Matthew 9:18-28

Thoughts to help us surrender to Jesus expressing himself through us in ministry.

“I believed, therefore I spoke.” 2 Corinthians 4:13

What if the Apostles had not spoken about Jesus?

Well, for one thing, they would not have all been put to death.

And we would not have been brought to life.

We have to make it clear the Good News is something to die for. We can begin by just showing it makes us happy; by expressing some enthusiasm. The Psalm says it was because “our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with rejoicing,” that “they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’”

Is your mouth filled with laughter when you go to work? Is your tongue filled with rejoicing when you are at Mass? They go together: what we celebrate at Mass is what we experience at work. And at home. In everything we do. If we don’t have anything to celebrate at Mass, we don’t have anything to rejoice in the rest of the time. Without the meaning the death and resurrection of Jesus gives to our time on earth, life is ultimately as empty as the epitaph on an ancient Greek gravestone:

Naked at my birth;

Naked back to earth;

What’s it worth?

So why did I pretend?

Why did I buy and spend?

For a naked end.

Christians, however, always have a reason to be happy—even if we’re killed for it.

PRAY: “Lord, let me be good news where I am.”

PRACTICE: Show what you know.