15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024

Sometimes when we hear the words of the Gospel, such as today’s, saying that the apostles were accomplished in exorcising, converting   or healing, we may ask ourselves questions:   Is this really true?  One can also look with envy at their accomplishment: “So they went out and called for repentance. They were also casting out many evil spirits and anointing many sick people with oil and healing them.”    The answer to this question is not difficult. Jesus knows each one of us. He knows me and He knows you. He knows your heart, your capabilities, he knows what you are really worth. If he invites you to do something, gives you  a calling, He knows that you are capable of achieving it. He believes in you more than you believe in yourself.  To rely on Him and on others. You cannot act alone in your life if you want to achieve something in the field of evangelisation and the realisation   of your vocation.

You need a community, people who share the same values as you, believe in the same things, although perhaps in their own distinctive way.     You have to rely on others sometimes, on their experience, their faith, their relationship with Jesus. Just as they should rely on you. Then action is effective. Rely on Jesus, on what he gives you, on the fact that he will not abandon you and with his power, you will perform miracles. If you want to be effective in your evangelistic efforts or in fulfilling your vocation, it must not just be your action, but Christ’s action through you. It has to be the action of the community, which is the Church, to which Jesus sends you, and not alone. Only then will it be affective.                               This truth applies not only to those who, to say evangelise on the front line, preaching the Gospel directly in various ways. This applies to every  vocation.

Spouses who have given themselves in the sacrament of marriage do not go through life alone; they have each other, but also Jesus, who has brought them together and, coming in this very sacrament, has given them the ‘package’ of graces needed to live life together, to overcome the demon of infidelity, of discouragement.   He, in sacramental marriage, gives the graces needed to effectively evangelise each other and pass on the faith to children. He makes it possible to demonstrate the meaning of married life with the witness of one’s life.

To be an effective disciple of Jesus, you have to rely on people and on Him for every calling.  After all He and in Him the people that’s the Church.