More on sowing and reaping from Hosea in our first reading today. "Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety."
In the Gospel reading today from Matthew 10, Jesus sends out the Twelve. He starts with this: "Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." The first mission of the Twelve was to preach the gospel to their own - those who had fallen away.
"Former" Catholics or lapsed Catholics or fallen away Catholics comprise one of the largest religious groups in the world. Some go off to other churches; many go nowhere. Our hearts - and our evangelization efforts - must go out to them. I'll bet you have one in your family or in your life. I hope you'll have the boldness to reach out to them. This can be as simple as inviting them back to Mass. You never know how God will work in that situation.
Father, give us the love and the boldness to reach out to the lost sheep of our own faith. Help us to draw them back to you and Christ's Church. Amen.
Many of the fallen away have questions about Church teaching. Help them get answers in a minute with A Minute in the Church at www.GusLloyd.com.
AMEN Gus!! My daughter and son-in-law were married in the Catholic Church, but have drifted away, so St. Monica has been getting a lot of attention for quite some time. Well, she came through as this past Sunday, just a couple of minutes before Mass started, he arrived and squeezed his way into our pew!
As God’s timing is impeccable, it was also the first Mass said by our new pastor, so there was a lot more socializing after Mass than usual – and our son-in-law was included.
We knew that we have a beautiful church, so not surprising that he commented on it, but it seems that his perception of Catholics was challenged as he also commented about how warm and friendly everyone was.
You get but one guess about my reply when he asked if “maybe we can do this again?”!
Praise God!