Holiness and Mission

Just a week ago, we heard the Gospel in which Jesus gives Simon a new name—Peter—and upon him, Jesus would build his Church. Now, only one week later in our Sunday readings (which was probably mere minutes for Peter, since it is only five verses later in the Gospel of Matthew), we see Jesus rebuking Peter. Why the change?

The bottom line is that Peter couldn’t comprehend the idea of Jesus suffering; it wasn’t his idea of how everything was supposed to happen. I, too, have my own ideas about how things are “supposed” to be, both in the world and in the Church—but thankfully, it is not up to me to determine the plan for my life, the life of our parish, or the world. I often think like Peter, as humans do, not understanding the plan the Lord has for us. But there is an opportunity for us to put on the mind of Christ—to listen to the Holy Spirit more in our lives and learn what His plan is for us. 

Personally, choosing to listen to the Holy Spirit more intentionally has brought much more peace than constantly worrying about all the things that I assume I know better (although I still do plenty of that). And in listening to the Holy Spirit more in my life, there are two things that I feel that He has placed on my heart that I need to focus more on as I strive to live up to that which the Lord has in store for me: grow in holiness, and grow in mission.

Growing more in holiness seems obvious. That is what our faith is about, right? But I need to grow not in just saying my prayers every day, not just going to Mass and confession, but to enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus. I don’t need a relationship of superficial prayers; I need a relationship of deep intimacy, recognizing the gift He gave to me (and all of us) through His Passion, death, and Resurrection. That relationship doesn’t come in just recognizing the gift He gave me but in my response of giving myself back to Him.

And that leads to the second thing that has been on my heart: to grow in mission. I have spent the past 14+ years working for the Church, and in the past four years, I have come to a greater realization of the need for change in how we live out the mission of the Church. We live in a world more similar to the time of the apostles than that of the past thousand years. We can no longer sit idle and expect people will just walk through the doors, ready for us to tell them about Jesus. We who are baptized—all of us—are called to go out and share the Gospel message and our own story of encounter with God. This is the first and easiest step, because we all have a story about our relationship with God, and it needs to be shared.

There are three things I would encourage you to do in your own life in order to strive to grow more in holiness and mission. First, pray and have a conversation with God. Tell Him about your joys and sorrows, and then listen and allow Him to respond. Second, join us for our Parish Family Night starting this week (it will also be livestreamed), where we will start talking about the Gospel message that we all need to hear over and over again in our lives. Third, consider where you might be able to help out in the parish to be able to share your own story. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can walk with others and help them encounter Jesus in their own lives.