Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time (July 14, 2018): Overcoming the reluctance to speak about Jesus

Thứ Sáu, 13-07-2018 | 14:55:39

Today’s Readings:

Isaiah 6:1-8
Ps 93:1-2,5
Matthew 10:24-33
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071418.cfm

USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/18_07_14.mp3

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

Jesus said to his Apostles:
“No disciple is above his teacher,
no slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more those of his household!

“Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

Good News Reflection: Overcoming the reluctance to speak about Jesus

Did you notice in the Gospel verse quoted above how important evangelization is to our own personal salvation?

Let me share with you the story of a long-time friend of Good News Ministries. Aneel Aranha began his Catholic evangelization ministry, Holy Spirit Interactive, in 2004 in Dubai. We collaborated to help each other’s ministries reach more people. This year, Aneel began recording video reflections on the Gospel reading from Mass. In the one he made for today, recorded on his iPhone while setting up a new office in Mumbai, he tells about the time Jesus taught him to overcome his uncertainties and fears about acknowledging Jesus before others.

“I was on a flight one day taking me to Bangalore a mission. It was one of my very first missions out of the country and I remember how nervous and excited I was. I took my seat by the window, and a few minutes later a Muslim woman came and took the seat beside me. I heard Jesus say to me, ‘Aneel, talk to her about me.’ And I was taken aback. ‘What?’ And he repeated, ‘Talk to her about me.’

“There was no way I was going to start a conversation about Jesus with a strange lady and somebody who seemed very, very Orthodox. So I looked out of the window instead, hoping Jesus would keep quiet.”

What happened next I’d like you to hear in his own voice. Please watch it on YouTube.

Praise Report: Connecting with the disconnected

I’d like to thank everyone who chose to be an active member of Good News Ministries as a champion of evangelization by contributing to our fundraiser with their support (financial and prayer support). Praise the Lord, we exceeded the minimum goal neededfor continuing this ministry! This gives us some precious extra support between today and the annual December fundraiser.

Every contributor is a partner in the mission, reaching out with us and through us, sharing the Good News, connecting with the people who are seeking what the Lord wants to provide through GNM.

Last Tuesday, the Gospel reading showed Jesus looking at the many people in the crowds, feeling sorry for them because they were troubled and abandoned, looking like sheep without a shepherd. He looked at each individual person and felt their inner pains, their confusions, their doubts and questions.

Turning to his disciples, he said, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; ask the master of the harvest to send out more laborers.”

It got me thinking about what Good News Ministries does and how much more we could do if we had more laborers.

Increasingly, I have been hearing from Catholics who are very uncatechized. The most recent is a young adult asking basic questions about the Faith. I’ve point her to resources on our websites that will help her, and she uses them eagerly, then returns to me with more questions. Good questions! But oh so foundational.

We are living in a time now when more people are unchurched and uncatechized. In the US, the fastest-growing “religious” group is the “nones” (no religious affiliation). The same thing is happening in many of the countries where Good News Ministries has members.

In the latest Pew Research Center survey of US faith, fully 25 percent of the country — that’s 80 million people! — say that they do not participate in any formal religion. Among young adults, the lack of faith is even more prevalent. Almost 40% of those under age 30 are nones. And 50% of those who were baptized or confirmed Catholic in the last thirty years no longer participate in the life of the Church — that’s half of the new adults now missing from the Church and missing out on what you and I know is eternally valuable about the Faith!

That’s a lot of important people who are like sheep without a shepherd. Sometimes they are influenced by wolves and sometimes they hungrily seeking a greener pasture that will give peace to their troubled souls.

At Good News Ministries, we need to get going with the new outreach methods that the team and I have been researching, using tools that are preferred by young adults such as WhatsApp and texting and podcasts. The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few. Would you like to be a laborer in the GNM harvest?

Here are some of the opportunities we have for volunteers who are comfortable with technology:

We need team members who have good, clear recording voices to turn the daily Good News Reflections into podcasts. This requires a quiet place as a recording studio, even if it’s the kitchen table, and the ability to use simple, free audio editing software.
If the podcast team gets enough members, we’ll also start podcasting 30-second and 60-second messages and prayers. They will be go out into all the world via WhatsApp and perhaps by regular phone text messages, Amazon’s echo devices, and as many outlets as we can get connected to.
We need people with more ideas on where and how to use technology to get the Good News out farther and wider, a think-tank of innovative evangelizers.

If you’re interested in serving our Lord in any of these capacities, please start here.

Otherwise, I will do what I can to get it done myself. This is too important to ignore.

Almost from the beginning, Good News Ministries has been active on the internet to reach the hearts and souls of people who struggle to discover that Jesus is real and that he really does care — including those who are not ordinarily found in church. The internet has become the gathering place where we can “Go out into all the world and share the Good News,” as Jesus said we are to do.

GNM was founded in 1995 as a ministry of speaking engagements: giving seminars, teaching courses, and providing week-long conferences. Always in churches. It wasn’t long, however, before we expanded outward. The internet became a public gathering place at the same time we were beginning to grow. In 1996, we launched our first website, and ever since then we have recognized and followed the voice of Christ calling us to make holy use of every advance in technology for the sake of spreading the Good News.

This is why we are now spending a lot of staff time on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and other social communications technologies.

Pope Francis said, “I believe that the goal is to understand how to enter into dialogue with the men and women of today, in order to appreciate their desires, their doubts, and their hopes. They are men and women who sometimes feel let down by a Christianity that to them appears sterile…. We see, increasingly, a loss of meaning to life, an inability to connect with a “home”, and a struggle to build meaningful relationships. It is therefore important to know how to dialogue … in such a way as to reveal a presence that listens, converses, and encourages. Do not be afraid to be this presence, expressing your Christian identity as you become citizens of this environment.”

Do you agree with Pope Francis? Do you believe that Good News Ministries should make every effort to play an important part in the calling he describes?

{Continue reading this on our website.}

Have you explored the faith in Virtual Reality yet?

We offer several online retreats using Virtual Reality. You do not need to use a headset, just a device that connects to the internet.

Every Good News Reflection we publish includes a link you can click to enter our VR world where you can read it while immersing yourself in a 360-spherical scene.

Here’s another VR world to try: Make a sacred prayer walk, praying a Novena to the Holy Spirit. Just click on this photo to get started.