Oct 15 Thu
Is apostolate something I must do?
Christ, who wants all men to be saved, also wants to involve us in his redemptive work. During his public life, He called the twelve Apostles, and also appointed seventy-two others, and sent them forth.
Since then, is it possible that there are still people who don't know our Lord? We are to blame; we who have been called to be co-redeemers and sometimes don't respond to God's will. Opposing God's redemptive plans are Satan –who really exists, along with his unclean spirits– and our evil passions and our freedom, and we also have the terrifying capacity to choose Death instead of Life.
Christ, who ascended the Cross with his arms thus open wide, with the gesture of an Eternal Priest, wants to count on us.
Just as our Lord sent those seventy-two disciples into every town and place, so he sends us. For us there can be no geographical, social, political, or racial boundaries: “All are yours, and you are Christ's." In all truth we can say: "Christian" is my name, and "Catholic" (universal) my surname.
The Church founded by Christ transcends all human divisions; she excludes no one. St Augustine wrote: “She invites citizens from all nations and all tongues, and unites them into a single pilgrim band. She does not take issue with the diversity of customs, laws and traditions as long as human peace is sought and maintained. Instead of cancelling or tearing down, she preserves and appropriates whatever in the diversities of races is aimed at the single objective of human peace." Every honest human reality can be sanctified.
Every Christian has a personal responsibility to spread God's kingdom. Each has a definite part to play.
“Your apostolic spirit must be shown in a definite concern to sanctify the people around you, those you work alongside or come in contact with for whatever reason. May no one who gets to know you be able to say that they didn't feel urged to draw closer to Christ, to love God more."
We cannot remain passive. God has left us the whole world as our inheritance; He wants us to bring Him, one by one, many souls who don't yet know Him. As Tertullian wrote of the early Christians: “We don't stop frequenting the forum, the marketplace, the baths, shops, offices, inns and fairs. We don't stop working with you and living alongside you in the world. We sail with you, we join the army, we farm the land and sell to you its fruits, the product of our work and weariness."
Amid their activity, the early Christians came into close contact with the pagan world around them. What zeal was theirs to draw their fellow citizens to the warmth of the faith! Nor can our zeal be less today. “We deeply love all those who love Jesus Christ. And we also deeply love all those who don't love him. But for these we also feel sorry. So, we try to treat them kindly, to befriend and help them, seeking to drown evil in an abundance of good."