SPREADING THE GOSPEL WITH OUR LIVES

Meditation for Wednesday of the 21^st Week in Ordinary Time
(1 Thes 2:9-13; Mt 23:27-32)

True, the wrong conduct of a preacher can be an obstacle to the spreading of the gospel. Such negative conduct can be when the preacher’s personality or action takes the minds of his followers to himself or to worldly things. St Paul urges the Thessalonians to follow his example not to scandalize one another but “To walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” Obviously, spreading the gospel is not only by talking, but it includes the holy and righteous and blameless lives we live in silence. Our lives should not be obstacles to the gospel but it should create the right environment for the seed of the gospel to germinate.

That is why St Paul continued to thank the Thessalonians for receiving the word of God, “Not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” For the word they heard to manifest in them, it means they put it into practice unlike the Pharisees who loved to gather around Jesus but would neither accept His words nor put them to action. Jesus described them as “Whitewashed tombs.”

As we meditate today and gaze upon the face of Jesus in His outright condemnation of the Pharisees and scribes, we perceive His ardent desire that we be true to the gospel, and make it part of our lives…Within that cloud of silence, we begin to understand more deeply the difference it makes if we are hypocrites! So let us remove every obstacle in our lives and conduct that would not allow the power of the gospel to germinate and grow in us that we may not impede the spread of the gospel.

St Louis of France, pray for us! Amen.

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.
Wednesday August 25^th, 2021.
www.soundofsilence.ng
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com