Daily Gospel Reflection for September 26, 2018

Today's Gospel: Luke 9:1-6 Try to imagine what the apostles must have felt when Jesus commissioned them, early in His ministry, to set out with only the clothes on their back and charged them to replicate His astounding works of mercy. Immediately preceding these passages in Luke, we read that the apostles had seen Jesus calm a storm, cast out a legion of demons from a possessed man, raise a 12-year-old girl from the dead, and cure a woman afflicted with a twelve-year hemorrhage. But that was Jesus working the miracles – not them! This sending forth is the first time in Luke’s Gospel where the Apostles are called to put their allegiance and faith in Jesus to the test in such a dramatic way. And what a test it was! Not only were they to replicate the miracles of Jesus, but the apostles were called to trust that their basic human needs would be taken care of in the day-to-day conduct of their new mission. Jesus instructed the apostles to focus only on those towns that were receptive to their ministry and to stay put once they found room and board until they completed their work in that town. At this point, who did the Apostles think that Jesus was? Yes, they thought he was the Messiah and that He would lead the Jews into a new earthly kingdom. But His miracles were well beyond anything of this earth. The kind of faith that Luke shares with us steps out covered only by His grace and nothing else. This is the kind of faith that I want, don’t you?

Ponder:

Recall the last time you were frightened to proceed, yet you were confident that the Lord was leading you on a new mission; were you able to stretch beyond your comfort zone into His realm of the unknown?

Pray:

Dear Lord Jesus, I worry way more than I should. I want to rest in Your grace and know that my obedience and submission is enough. When I do my best, give me faith to trust the rest to You.

Copyright 2018 Meggie K Daly Meggie K. Daly is the author of Bead by Bead: The Scriptural Rosary. She is the mother of six adult children and five grandchildren. She teaches mathematics part-time at a nearby university and is a retired research scientist. Meggie blogs at meggieKdaly.blogspot.com and is beginning to work on her second book. Receive CatholicMom.com newsletters in your inbox, including the Daily Gospel Reflection each morning! * indicates required