Apr 18 Sat
Am I obliged to do apostolate?
The Lord has risen from the dead, as He foretold. Let there be happiness and rejoicing for He is our King forever. Now that we are filled with Easter joy, the Church wants us to realize that this joy has to be passed on to others.
The Gospel describes how the women left the tomb quickly, filled with fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples. The risen Christ Himself meets them and confirms their mission: 'Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.'
Each Christian also must be an apostle who has found Christ and who feels the urgency to spread the kingdom of his love everywhere. “St Paul gave a motto to the Christians at Ephesus: to fill everything with the spirit of Jesus, placing Christ at the center of everything. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. Through his Incarnation, through his work at Nazareth and his preaching and miracles in the land of Judea and Galilee, through his Death on the Cross, and through his Resurrection, Christ is the center of the universe, the firstborn and Lord of all creation."
“Our task as Christians is to proclaim this kingship of Christ, announcing it through what we say and do. Our Lord wants men and women of his own in all walks of life. Some [the religious] He calls away from society, asking them to give up involvement in the world, so that they remind the rest of us by their example that God exists. To others [the priests], He entrusts the priestly ministry. But He wants the vast majority [the laity] to stay right where they are, in all the earthly occupations in which they work: the factory, the laboratory, the farm, the trades, the streets of the big cities, and the trails of the mountains."
If you are cold and lazy, and are only concerned with yourself and live content with that, and even say in your heart, "What are the others to me? I have enough with my own soul; I only hope to keep it intact for God." Come now! Do you not remember the servant who hid the talent and did not want to trade with it? Was he condemned for losing it, or was it not rather because he did not want to trade with it? Think of this, my brethren, and never rest satisfied.
All our activity must have an apostolic value.
“We must always have a lively desire to give others the joy the Lord puts into our lives. Thus, none of God's children can be at ease if they do not continually feel the hunger for winning new apostles, like their own heartbeat."
Each of us should be like a burning coal, continually setting fire to everything it touches or, at least, raising the spiritual temperature of those around them, leading them to lead a more intense Christian life. We must set all earthly paths aflame with the fire of Christ.