All throughout the Easter season, the first reading comes from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s “sequel” to his gospel. Acts is a look at how the Church was born and began to spread through what is now modern day Turkey, Greece and Italy.
Today we hear how Paul and Barnabas “made disciples,” “strengthened their spirits,” “exhorted them to persevere,” and built up the Church in Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Perga and Attalia.
When I was in the seminary, I was blessed to take a pilgrimage with my classmates to follow in Peter and Paul’s footsteps and to visit some of these ancient cities (or at least what’s left of them). What amazed me is the amount of distance between these different places. We were traveling by bus and it seemed far; I couldn’t imagine doing this on foot!
What Paul and Barnabas had within them was the fire of the faith to make the journey. Amazing things can happen when we’re focused and believe with all our heart what our mission is. It spurred these two men forward and it spurs us, too. As Luke writes, they “opened the doors” of faith to a whole new group of people eager to know God and have him in their life.
Imagine the excitement of discovering God for the first time. Or, for those of us who know Christ and have God in our life, remembering those moments of insight and wonder when we felt God was with us, accompanying us, and moving us forward.
Since Vatican II, the Church has been calling for a New Evangelization, a new fire of God’s Spirit to enliven the Church—those within and those who are eager to learn about Christ and the Catholic faith for the first time. Pope Francis coined the term “missionary disciples” to describe this way of being.
Here at St. Hubert, we launched our 2020 Vision Capital Campaign to help take care of our campus needs as we head into the 2020s. The buildings are gathering places for doing the work of Christ. What is most important is that all of us together are being empowered to do what we feel called to do to build the Church in our corner of the world in the 2020s and beyond.
Our presence at our liturgies is what fuels us—whether we experience it in our worship space, or when the Church heads to Brookdale, Friendship Village or the hospitals. For those who feel something within saying, “I think God is urging me to take it a step further,” we have all kinds of opportunities to help others, to pray, to learn about the faith, to teach the faith, to participate in the liturgy, and to help build up the parish through your wisdom, expertise, talents and passion for making a difference.
We have pamphlets in the narthex detailing the different opportunities, and they’re also on our website. For those who may not know what would be a good fit, we have a short questionnaire that can help you identify your strengths that could open a door for you.
The good news is that we’re all missionary disciples in one way or the other. We’re meant to open doors for others and even ourselves. We draw our strength to do this from Christ and in being together at a place that enlivens and empowers us. It’s good to be here.