Thursday, July 10, 2014

Why Do You Minister?

July 10: Thursday of Week 14 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:
Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9; Psalm 80:2, 3, 15-16; Matthew 10:7-15

To surrender to Jesus expressing himself through us in ministry.

Why Do You Minister?
“Freely you received, freely give.” Matthew 9:36.

Through Hosea, God says he loves like a father. Fathers don’t give to their children to get something out of it. They want to give, because they want what is good for their children. A parent’s love is not conditional.

Our ministry as “priests in the Priest” should be like that of Jesus—pure gift: not conditional on people approaching us in the right way, at the right time, with the right kind of compensation, or making the right kind of response. Priests give because they want to give. They live to give. Not to be used is the worst thing that can happen to a priest. This is true of those in Holy Orders as well as of those who have the “root” priesthood of Baptism. For a priest, ministry is fulfillment. Ministry asks nothing in return, not even gratitude. Ministry is its own reward.

It is the same reward that parents get: posterity. Giving life. The “joy that a child has been born into the world” (John 16:21). Paul called his converts, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19)

This is the reward God gets out of creating and redeeming us: our life, our happiness.

When what makes us happy is the happiness of others, we have the heart of Christ.

PRAY: “Lord, live and love in me.”

PRACTICE: Give life as freely as Jesus does. 

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