June 14th – Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
In today’s Gospel, we encounter Jesus as He invites His disciples to live out this call: to receive and give freely.
The Apostles were living rather ordinary lives—Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen, Matthew a tax collector, and Simon a zealot—when Jesus called them to live extraordinarily. He opened their world in such a way that, had they continued on with their lives, they would have been forgotten fishermen and tax collectors.
Jesus reminds them that the harvest is abundant and the laborers are few, and He calls them to go out into the world to preach the Gospel and share the Good News.
Similarly, each of us is called to step into this way of life; to be the laborers of the harvest. There is a direct correlation between the amount of our preaching in the world and our belief that the Lord loves and saves us.
Do we want to just stay in our ordinary lives, do our work diligently, and be forgotten? Or do we want to step into the life the Lord invites us into, to live out the call and draw others closer to Him through our preaching and extraordinary acts of faith and love?
This week, think of three ways you can live into the call of Jesus and take actionable steps to enter this extraordinary way of life daily. Stay with Him, receive His love, be strong in Him, and freely give in Him.
Español
“Sin costo lo han recibido; sin costo deben darlo”.
En el Evangelio de hoy, encontramos a Jesús invitando a sus discípulos a vivir este llamado: recibir y dar libremente.
Los Apóstoles llevaban vidas bastante ordinarias cuando Jesús los llamó a vivir de manera extraordinaria: Pedro, Andrés, Santiago y Juan eran pescadores; Mateo, recaudador de impuestos; y Simón, un zelote. Jesus abrió su mundo de tal forma que, si hubieran continuado con sus vidas como antes, habrían sido pescadores y recaudadores de impuestos olvidados.
Jesús les recuerda que la cosecha es abundante y los trabajadores son pocos, y los llama a salir al mundo para predicar el Evangelio y compartir la Buena Nueva.
De manera similar, cada uno de nosotros está llamado a entrar en este modo de vida; a ser los trabajadores de la cosecha. Existe una correlación directa entre cuánto predicamos en el mundo y nuestra convicción de que el Señor nos ama y nos salva.
¿Queremos simplemente permanecer en nuestras vidas ordinarias, hacer nuestro trabajo con diligencia y ser olvidados? ¿O queremos entrar en la vida a la que el Señor nos invita, vivir este llamado y acercar a otros a Él mediante nuestra predicación y nuestros actos extraordinarios de fe y amor?