I recently read an article on the internet
about the decrease in baptism rates in the United States, not only in the
Catholic Church, but in Protestant denominations as well. The
article also said that now 20% of Americans whatsoever say that they have no
affiliation or identification whatsoever with any religious group. We hear
these statistics in contrast to the message in the Gospel reading, that
compares the kingdom of God to a small mustard that can grow at an astonishing
rate into a huge bush. Jesus
made this comparison in order to encourage his disciples in their proclamation
of God’s kingdom. Yet, we
are reminded time and again that we are to trust in the Lord, to go about doing
his work with great encouragement and enthusiasm. We are
also getting a lot of encouragement from Pope Francis, who wants the Church to
be inviting and welcoming. I
remember that as a missionary, it was hard to see results most of the time,
knowing that often we plant the seed, and then the harvest will take a long
ways down the road, and the results may be very different than what we
anticipated. May we
feel the Lord encouraging us today in our Gospel reading, to never give up and
to keep the faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment