Lead them to Jesus

Last week, we heard Saint Mark’s account of the moment when Jesus sent the disciples out on their first mission to preach the word.  Today, we pick up the story at the point when they return from this mission.  It is important that we notice the details: they gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught (Mk 6:30).  In these few words, we can glimpse not only how the disciples accepted the task Jesus had entrusted to them, but we can also comprehend what we must do.

Week after week, the Lord sends us out on a mission: to share the good news of the gospel with those we meet.  Week after week, we too return from our mission and gather around Jesus.  In prayer, we tell him what we have done and taught.  If we have encountered anything that has left us with questions, we can ask those questions of him and we can trust that he will give us the answers we need: continually instructing us so that we can learn more and more about him and about how we can follow in his footsteps.

The sure sign that we are doing the work that Jesus has asked us to do is the presence of others who come and go (Mk 6:31), who have heard about Jesus through the words that we have spoken and who come in search of a deeper relationship with him.  This was the case when the disciples returned to Jesus too.  In that case, there were so many that the disciples had no time to rest or even to eat (cf Mk 6:31). 

Having too many people in search of Jesus is a good thing, but we must learn the difference between introducing others to Jesus and believing somehow that we ourselves are the object of their curiosity.  If we make ourselves the centre of attention, we will surely grow tired, and we will become the object of Jeremiah’s warnings (cf Jer 23:1), but if we bring people to Jesus, he himself will welcome them and begin to teach them (Mk 6:34).

In case we might still be wondering about what we should say to others, Saint Paul tells us that we only need to remind them of the fact that we who were once scattered afar from the ways of God’s goodness have now been brought near to God by the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13).  It was Christ Jesus who came and proclaimed peace ... through him, we have access ... to the Father (Eph 2:18).

God has already done all the hard work for us.  He came to earth, he proclaimed peace and he has given us access to the Father.  This is wonderful news, news worth sharing, so let us go out into the world this week to tell others that Christ has come to bring us peace.  Having received this news, we entrust our loved ones to the care of the Lord who will make himself known to them, and once they have experienced this peace for themselves, Jesus will bring them back to the fold (Jer 23:3).