Last evening, Monday, July 6, as I was getting ready for our 6pm Mass, I noticed three people I did not know. I asked who they were and the two people I asked told me that “they were missionaries”. Scotia is right next to downtown area of Schenectady, NY, so my normal skepticism was peaked. When I started Mass, the skeptic in me started to fade. These three men were not the usual “travelers” all churches encounter from time to time.
So, after Mass was over, they waited around to talk with me. Something in me tossed my normal cautiousness out and I sat with them for almost an hour after Mass. Somehow, I threw my agenda for the evening out and found something I have been asking for. They told me that they were part of the Neocatechumenal Way and all lived in New Jersey. They were on mission for one week and came like Jesus had sent out the Twelve. They had left their “normal” lives to preach the news of Jesus.
He summoned the Twelve* and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts .They were, however, to wear sandals He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.”
So they went off and preached repentance. Mark 6
The little I had heard about the movement was not always complementary, but these guys did not fit my predetermined judgment. There were different groups from their community that was going through my diocese to witness to the priests of the diocese about how God had changed their lives. I will be honest I do not think anyone has sat me down and called me to conversion to Christ by sharing with me like they did. They shared with me “the gospel” of their lives and how Christ had brought them into new life and hope. In the midst of all the stuff that is changing around me, I needed that grounding last night. I remembered why I decided to become a priest and what the original call was for me; to help make this world a better place:. Now, I will add: to allow God to use me in whatever way to make this world a better place.
As I spoke with them, I could not help but think of the three men that visited Abraham and Sarah in the book of Genesis. God’s messengers are very unexpected but real as I experienced last evening. These three strangers embraced Jesus as brother and were able to minister to a person who has usually is the minister. I really think I had the Gospel preached last night to me. Now, I guess it is up to me to allow myself to be set on fire like the three messengers of New Jersey.
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