A Christian finds joy in mission: Go out to people of every nation!
A Christian experiences joy in following a command: Go forth and proclaim the good news!
A Christian finds ever new joy in answering a call: Go forth and anoint!
Jesus sends his disciples out to all nations. To every
people. We too were part of all those people of two thousand years ago.
Jesus did not provide a short list of who is, or is not, worthy of
receiving his message and his presence.
Instead, he always embraced life
as he saw it. In faces of pain, hunger, sickness and sin. In faces of
wounds, of thirst, of weariness, doubt and pity. Far from expecting a
pretty life, smartly-dressed and neatly groomed, he embraced life as he
found it. It made no difference whether it was dirty, unkempt, broken.
Jesus said: Go out and tell the good news to everyone. Go out and in my
name embrace life as it is, and not as you think it should be. Go out to
the highways and byways, go out to tell the good news fearlessly,
without prejudice, without superiority, without condescension, to all
those who have lost the joy of living. Go out to proclaim the merciful
embrace of the Father. Go out to those who are burdened by pain and
failure, who feel that their lives are empty, and proclaim the folly of a
loving Father who wants to anoint them with the oil of hope, the oil of
salvation. Go out to proclaim the good news that error, deceitful
illusions and falsehoods do not have the last word in a person’s life.
Go out with the ointment which soothes wounds and heals hearts.
Mission is never the fruit of a perfectly planned
program or a well-organized manual. Mission is always the fruit of a
life which knows what it is to be found and healed, encountered and
forgiven. Mission is born of a constant experience of God’s merciful
anointing.
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