May 4 Sun
Should everyone be an apostle?
As an eyewitness, St. John recounts this amazing encounter of Peter and five other disciples with the risen Christ. Peter decides to go fishing, and the others follow. They fish all night but catch nothing.
Then at dawn, the Lord gives them something to eat: fish and bread He cooked for them on a charcoal fire.
Our Lord’s concern is so homely. He wants to make sure they are fed. Then he turns to something very serious and deep: Peter’s love, his vocation of service to lead Christ’s Church, and his future martyrdom.
One of the reasons we say that the Church is Apostolic—that is, founded on the apostles—is that the Apostles were the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself. Likewise, every Christian must be a witness of Christ, an apostle.
What God has done for us, we must do for others. And out of love, we want to.
However, we should not consider anything we do as done on our own, but rather begun and made possible only by grace; at the same time, God is counting on us for our efforts.
It is both an honor and a great responsibility to have been chosen by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. “A Christian knows that he is grafted onto Christ through Baptism. He is empowered to fight for Christ through Confirmation, called to act in the world, sharing the royal, prophetic, and priestly role of Christ. He has become one and the same thing with Christ through the Eucharist, the sacrament of unity and love. And so, like Christ, he has to live for others, loving each one around him and indeed all humanity."
We have to give testimony to the whole world of everything that God the Father has made us know and love through Jesus Christ. “Ut eatis! (Go forth!), St. Josemaría said, I am very happy that you are spread all over the world. This is how it should be… I would like to have you beside me always, materially very close to me. But at the same time, I love to see how you are spread out, sowing with love, with hunger for the harvest... What a beautiful wheat field, my children! What a blessing from God!"
“Forward! Each of you must be secure in your Christian vocation, without admitting a shadow of doubt!... Ut eatis! So, we will go... everywhere in the world, to all the points of the compass. And there, completely immersed in our part of the world and in all human activities, we will become salt and light; light to enlighten minds and hearts, salt to give flavor and preserve from corruption. If we lacked apostolic zeal, we would become insipid, useless; we would be cheating others, and our life wouldn't make sense."
St John Chrysostom said, “If others become insipid, you can restore their flavor; but if you become insipid, you will drag down the others as well. So, the more responsibility you have, the more fervor and zeal you need."
Every Christian should make Christ present among men. He ought to act in such a way that those who know him sense the bonus odor Christi, the fragrance of Christ. People should be able to recognize the Master in his disciples.
We must do apostolate, whatever our age, and in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. “Father, what about when I turn eighty? Just the same: in your family life, with your colleagues, with your friends..." We must enkindle the light and warmth of genuine Christian life in everybody: we cannot let any soul who comes close to us be lost.