Fifteenth Sunday in OT ‘B’

Today’s readings remind us of our Divine adoption as God's children and of our call to preach the Good News of Jesus by bearing witness to God’s love, mercy and salvation as revealed through Jesus. "God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world." (Eph 1:4).

The First Reading warns us that our witnessing mission will be rejected, as happened to the Old Testament prophets like Amos. He was ordered by Amaziah, the angry chief priest serving in the Northern Kingdom of Israel at Bethel, to take his prophesying back to his own country, the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Amos defended his prophetic role with courage, clarifying that it wasn’t his choice but his God’s choice to elevate him from a shepherd and tree-dresser to a prophet. Like Amos, we are chosen by God to become missionaries and to preach the “Good News,” by Christian witnessing.

In the Second Reading, St. Paul explains the blessings that we have received through our Baptism and the responsibility we have to become missionaries. Then Paul reveals the Divine secret that it is God’s eternal plan to extend salvation, through Jesus, to all mankind -- first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. That is why the Jewish and the Gentile Christians need to love, help, and respect one another and thus proclaim Jesus, giving true witness by their lives.

In today’s Gospel (Mk 6:1-13), the evangelist tells the story of Jesus' commissioning of the twelve apostles to preach the “Good News” of repentance, forgiveness of sins, liberation and salvation through Jesus. Just as God sent the Prophet Amos to preach repentance to ancient Israel and St. Paul to preach the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles, so Jesus sends forth His followers to proclaim the Good News of God’s Kingdom and to bring healing to those who need it most. Today’s Gospel includes the instruction Jesus gave His disciples for their first mission. They should be walking illustrations of God’s love and providence in action. They should preach repentance -- a change of heart and a change of action taking people from a self-centered life to a God-centered life.

We, too, have a witnessing mission… We are called to be witnessing disciples and evangelizing apostles. As witnessing disciples, we need to follow Jesus, imitate Him and reflect Him. As apostles, we need to evangelize the world by sharing with others our experience of God and His Son, Jesus. Wea are to proclaim the Gospel and the salvation promised by Jesus through our transparent Christian lives and radiating the love, mercy, forgiveness, spirit of humble service and concern of Jesus to the people around us.