Daily Gospel Reflection for July 6, 2022

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

These men were the twelve who were called to go out and spread the Good News of the kingdom to all the ends of the Earth. Peter and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddeus (St. Jude!), Simon, and Judas. St. Jude Thaddeus, I must point out, would become one of the most recognized intercessors of difficult cases, one of my very favorite saints. But, as my Aunt June would say, be very sure you want what you ask Saint Jude for, because he will do whatever it takes to answer your prayer.

Four of these men would write the Gospels. One would deny Jesus. One would betray him. Eleven would hide for 50 days in understandable fear for their lives and in anticipation of the promised Holy Spirit. They would become the first bishops of the Church, and Peter, a man who had himself failed Jesus, would be given the keys to the kingdom.

At Jesus’s direction, they drove out demons and cured every disease and illness, proclaiming, first to the Jews, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. They were witnesses to the truth of the Resurrection. Bishop Barron has said that “all legitimate Christian teaching and proclamation is apostolic, which is to say, grounded in the witness of the first intimate followers of Jesus. Bishops are entitled to preach precisely because they are successors of the apostles.”

It was the Apostles who planted the first mustard seeds of the Church. They were the initial yeast in the dough that would continue to grow and expand, continuing up until today. They went to their deaths proclaiming the kingdom, a kingdom that was at hand then and continues to expand today.

Ponder:

How can we in our everyday lives continue the witness of the Apostles that Jesus is risen and the kingdom of heaven is at hand?

Pray:

O Holy Spirit, give us the courage and inspiration that You gave the twelve apostles that we might continue to proclaim Your kingdom today.

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These men would become the first bishops of the Church, and Peter, a man who had himself failed Jesus, would be given the keys to the kingdom. #dailygospel

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